#anti-militia laws now

[republikkkanorcs]

[probablyasocialecologist]

According to documents obtained by Grist and Type Investigations through a Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI’s Minneapolis office opened a counterterrorism assessment in February 2012, focusing on actions in South Dakota, that continued for at least a year and may have led to the opening of additional investigations. These documents reveal that the FBI was monitoring activists involved in the Keystone XL campaign about a year earlier than previously known.  Their contents suggest that, long before the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines became national flashpoints, the federal government was already developing a sweeping law enforcement strategy to counter any acts of civil disobedience aimed at preventing fossil fuel extraction. And young, Native activists were among its first targets. “The threat emerging … is evolving into one based on opposition to energy exploration related to any extractions from the earth, rather than merely targeting one project and/or one company,” the FBI noted in its description of the Wanblee blockade. The 15-page file, which is heavily redacted, also describes Native American groups as a potentially dangerous threat and likens them to “environmental extremists” whose actions, according to the FBI, could lead to violence. The FBI acknowledged that Native American groups were engaging in constitutionally protected activity, including attending public hearings, but emphasized that this sort of civic participation might spawn criminal activity.  To back up its claims, the FBI cited a 2011 State Department hearing on the pipeline in Pierre, South Dakota, attended by a small group of Native activists. The FBI said the individuals were dressed in camouflage and had covered their faces with red bandanas, “train robber style.” According to the report, they were also carrying walking sticks and shaking sage, claiming to be “Wounded Knee Security of/for Mother Earth.” “The Bureau is uncertain how the NA group(s) will act initially or subsequently if the project is approved,” the agency wrote.  The FBI also singled out the “Native Youth Movement,” which it described as a mix between a “radical militia and a survivalist group.” In doing so, it appeared to conflate a specific activist group originally founded in Canada in the 1990s with the broader array of young Native activists who opposed the pipeline decades later. Young activists would play an important role in the Keystone XL campaign and later on during protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, but the movement had little in common with militias or survivalists, terms typically used to describe far-right groups or those seeking to disengage from society.  The FBI declined to respond to questions for this story. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis field office said the agency does not typically comment on FOIA releases and “lets the information contained in the files speak for itself.”

[...]

Environmental activists and attorneys who reviewed the new documents told Grist and Type Investigations that law enforcement’s approach to the Keystone XL campaign looked like a template for the increasingly militarized response to subsequent environmental and social justice campaigns — from efforts to block the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock to the ongoing protests against the police training center dubbed “Cop City” in Atlanta, Georgia, which would require razing at least 85 acres of urban forest.  The FBI’s working thesis, outlined in the new documents, that “most environmental extremist groups” have historically moved from peaceful protest to violence has served as the basis for subsequent investigations. “It’s astonishing to me how such a broad concept basically paints every activist and protester as a future terrorist,” said Mike German, a former FBI special agent who is now a fellow at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Militia groups from several states were plotting to send snipers to the border to shoot border patrol agents. The shootings would be then blamed on immigrants and Mexico with the hopes of starting a foreign war, civil war, or both.

So far the only reason we haven’t devolved into civil war is because MAGAts are dumb as a bag of rocks. We can’t count on it being that way forever. Sooner or later these deranged Trump supporters will assassinate a political rival, knock out a major power station, or cause a mass causality event.

We need federal anti-militia laws now. We can’t have oligarch warlords running around with right-wing agendas and private armies equipped with military hardware. This is a disaster waiting to happen and one that China, Russia, and bad actors in the Middle East are attempting to organize and fund.

[girlactionfigure]

🔅Tue morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🔻AIR ATTACKS.. 

Suicide Drones - from Hezbollah, Lebanon - at Southern Golan: Hamat gader, Avnei Eitan, Eliad, Afik, Bnei Yehuda and Givat Yoav, Gshur, Haspin, Kfar Haruv, Mevo Hama, Metzar, Neot Golan, Nov, Natur, Ramat Magshimim, Bnei Yehuda Industrial Zone 

Rockets - from Hezbollah, Lebanon - at Beit Hillel, Iftach, Mevuot Hermon Regional Council, Ramot Naftali

❗️Cruise Missile - from Shia Militias, Iraq - target was intercepted over Syrian airspace.

❗️IRAN WARNS THE US?  0:45 a.m. Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abd Allahian urgently summons the Swiss ambassador (communication channel to the US) and delivers an urgent message to the Americans.

This morning an Iranian source claims, the message to the US was do not interfere (in Iran's response).

The USA after a few hours officially announces that we have nothing to do with the attack.

▪️US BASE ATTACKED.. The US base in al-Tanf in southeastern Syria was attacked by suicide drones.

▪️ISRAEL ATTACKING SYRIA.. The Al Mayadeen network reports on an Israeli artillery attack in southern Syria, in the area of ​​the Daraa district.

A short time ago several shells fell on lands in the Quneitra region.

▪️SHIA MILITIAS (IRAQ) SAY ATTACKED TEL NOF AIR FORCE BASE (Rishon L’Ziyon).. The Shiite militias in Iraq claim: early in the morning we attacked the Tel Nof base with an unmanned aerial vehicle.  They may have sent one, it never made it to Israel.

▪️US DEFENDS AL JAZEERA.. Israel is (finally!) completing a law to allow the closure of foreign media in Israel that is damaging national security.  US response: The US State Department on Al Jazeera: We support the independent, free press, everywhere in the world - much of what we know about what happened in Gaza is because of reporters who were there doing their jobs, including Al Jazeera reporters.

▪️PROTESTS AND PROTESTS.. Analysis (not ours): . There is a renewed effort to inflame with protests, with the focus of hostage return and also ultra-orthodox draft - with an odd mixture of a subset of distraught families of hostages, Kaplan anti-coalition protestors, Brothers in Arms movement. 

However a strong public consensus that exists in a solid way regarding the goals of the war and the importance of internal unity in Israel.  Energies are very far from there in the level of reception of the message and especially in the ability to sway the masses.

The fact that official Israel is doing everything in its power to leave no stone unturned in the (for now barren) negotiations with Hamas prevents the widening of the internal fissures and leaves the protests, for the time being, circumscribed and limited. (Yossi Eliezer)

Related: There was a small ultra-orthodox counter-draft protest yesterday, shutting down highway 4 outside Bnei Brak.

[rhodoforwinter]

Many people don't pay much mind to the massacres in "foreign countries."

It's too sad; it's too stressful. Or it's too complicated.

Well. If you listen for just a moment, I'll go and make one case simpler.

Israel is an apartheid state.

If that offends you: people in South Africa whom lived under Apartheid (Desmond Tutu; Winnie Madikizela-Mandela; Farid Esack) have repeatedly compared the situations.

In 2011, Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize) of the African National Congress dubbed the Palestinian situation worse than Apartheid.

In 2023, the African National Congress released a statement:

"The ANC is against the AU granting apartheid Israel any observer status. Africa’s colonial history and apartheid Israel’s present oppressive nature towards Palestine demands that all pressures be applied for the sake of all Palestinian people, including women, children and families."

The Nakba is the term given to the ethnic cleanse of 1947: the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, destruction of settlements and cultural sites, massacres of thousands of people by militias, and dissolution of the Palestinian state.

The State of Israel later passed laws (guided by Zionism) that revoked Palestinian citizenship, "leased" Palestinian land to Israel, and placed the Arab-occupied area of West Jerusalem under martial law.

Please take note now:

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.

Antisemitism is the specific form of racism and xenophobia propagated against Jewish people.

Anti-Zionism is the opposition to Jewish ethnonationalism, under which the State of Israel was founded.

Almost half of all national condemnations passed by the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) involved Israel.

The UNHRC was founded in 2006.

The concept of Israel as an exclusive ethnostate—under which genocide is perpetrated—cannot be allowed to continue.

The State of Israel considers me Jewish under the Law of Return, although traditional halakha law does not.

I do not see this as a question of actions from an ethnicity.

What occurs in Israel is a case of genocide perpetrated and sanctioned by an ethnonationalist government.

This has happened many, many times before. It's still happening:

Artsakh.

Xinjiang.

Darfur.

Ukraine.

Myanmar.

We cannot be "neutral" when this happens every day.

I understand that the world is stressful. Everyone feels like they can't do anything.

And so nothing gets done.

And more blood is spilled.

And we forget.

But please remember: Even solidarity is resistance.

And would you rather be quiet or be right?

✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻

🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Free Palestine.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Footnotes - Part 2

[80] Graham Kemp and Douglas P. Fry (eds.), Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies around the World, New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 163.

[81] All quotes and statistics on the Navajo come from Dennis Sullivan and Larry Tifft, Restorative Justice: Healing the Foundations of Our Everyday Lives, Monsey, NY: Willow Tree Press, 2001, pp. 53–59.

[82] www.harmfreezone.org (viewed November 24, 2006)

[83] Philly’s Pissed, www.phillyspissed.net [Viewed May 20, 2008]

[84] George R. Edison, MD, “The Drug Laws: Are They Effective and Safe?” The Journal of the American Medial Association. Vol. 239 No.24, June 16, 1978. A.W. MacLeod, Recidivism: a Deficiency Disease, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965.

[85] Jamie Bissonette, When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement for Prison Abolition, Cambridge: South End Press, 2008, p. 201. Also consider the stories of John Boone and other bureaucrats presented in this story.

[86] Some mainstream sources still contest that the Makhnovists were behind anti-Semitic pogroms in Ukraine. In Nestor Makhno, Anarchy’s Cossack, Alexandre Skirda traces this claim to its roots in anti-Makhno propaganda, while citing unfriendly contemporary sources who acknowledged that the Makhnovists were the only military units not carrying out pogroms. He also references propaganda put out by the Makhnovists attacking anti-Semitism as a tool of the aristocracy, Jewish militias that fought among the Makhnovists, and actions against pogromists personally carried out by Makhno.

[87] Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists, Oakland: AK Press, 2005, p. 218.

[88] Makhno hoped that Lenin and Trotsky were motivated by a personal vendetta against him rather than an absolute desire to crush the free soviets, and would call off the repression if he left.

[89] Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno, Anarchy’s Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917–1921, London: AK Press, 2005, p. 314.

[90] Amy Goodman, “Lakota Indians Declare Sovereignty from US Government,” Democracy Now!, December 26, 2007.

[91] From an anonymous illustrated pamphlet, “The ‘Oka Crisis’ ”

[92] Oscar Olivera, Cochabamba! Water War in Bolivia, Cambridge: South End Press, 2004.

[93] George Katsiaficas, The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life. Oakland: AK Press, 2006, p. 123

[94] Jaime Semprun, Apología por la Insurrección Argelina, Bilbao: Muturreko Burutazioak, 2002, p.34 (translated from French to Spanish by Javier Rodriguez Hidalgo; the translation to English is my own). The quotes in the next paragraphs are from p.18 and p.20.

[95] Jaime Semprun, Apología por la Insurrección Argelina, Bilbao: Muturreko Burutazioak, 2002, pp.73–74 (translated from French to Spanish by Javier Rodriguez Hidalgo; the translation to English is my own).

[96] Ditto, p.80 . Regarding the fourth point, in contrast to Western society and its various forms of pacifism, the peacefulness of the movement in Algeria does not preclude self-defense or even armed uprising, as evidenced by the preceding point regarding the martyrs. Rather, peacefulness indicates a preference for peaceful and consensual outcomes over coercion and arbitrary authority.

[97] Ditto, p.26.

[98] George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1938, pp.26–28.

[99] There were 40,000 armed anarchist militants in Barcelona and the surrounding region alone. The Catalan government would have been effectively abolished had the CNT simply ignored it, rather than entering into negotiations. Stuart Christie, We, the Anarchists! A study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927–1937, Hastings, UK: The Meltzer Press, 2000, p. 106.

[100] Ditto, p. 101

[101] John Jordan and Jennifer Whitney, Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Rebellion, Montreal: Kersplebedeb, 2003, p. 56.

[102] Natasha Gordon and Paul Chatterton, Taking Back Control: A Journey through Argentina’s Popular Uprising, Leeds (UK): University of Leeds, 2004.

[103] John Jordan and Jennifer Whitney, Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Rebellion, Montreal: Kersplebedeb, 2003, p. 9.

[104] George Katsiaficas, “Comparing the Paris Commune and the Kwangju Uprising,” www.eroseffect.com. That the resistance was “well-organized” comes from a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation, Daryl M. Plunk’s “South Korea’s Kwangju Incident Revisited,” The Heritage Foundation, No. 35, September 16, 1985.

[105] Goods produced in environmentally friendly ways, by workers who receive a living wage in healthier labor conditions.

[106] Sam Dolgoff, The Anarchist Collectives, New York: Free Life Editions, 1974, p. 71.

[107] David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2004, pp. 54–55.

[108] John Jordan and Jennifer Whitney, Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Rebellion, Montreal: Kersplebedeb, 2003, pp. 42–52.

[109] Ditto, pp. 43–44.

[110] Diana Denham and C.A.S.A. Collective (eds.), Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca, Oakland: PM Press, 2008, interview with Yescka.

[111] Ditto, interview with Leyla.

[112] “Longo Maï,” Buiten de Orde, Summer 2008, p.38. My own translation.

[113] Natasha Gordon and Paul Chatterton, Taking Back Control: A Journey through Argentina’s Popular Uprising, Leeds (UK): University of Leeds, 2004.

[114] For those who cannot read French or Spanish, in 2004 Firestarter Press put out a good zine about this insurrection, called “You Cannot Kill Us, We Are Already Dead.” Algeria’s Ongoing Popular Uprising.

[115] Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists, Oakland: AK Press, p. 212–213.

[116] Harold Barclay, People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy, London: Kahn and Averill, 1982, p. 57.

[117] “Pirate Utopias,” Do or Die, No. 8, 1999, pp. 63–78.

[118] To name just one example, “humanitarian” UN missions have been caught repeatedly setting up sex trafficking rings in the countries where they are stationed for peacekeeping. “But the problem goes beyond Kosovo and sex trafficking. Wherever the UN has established operations in recent years, various violations of women seem to follow.” Michael J. Jordan, “Sex Charges haunt UN forces,” Christian Science Monitor, 26 November 2004. What the mainstream press cannot go so far as to admit is that this reality is universal to militaries, whether they wear blue helmets or not.

[119] “About RAWA,” www.rawa.org Viewed June 22, 2007

[120] See the citation of van der Dennen and Rappaport in Chapter 1.

[121] Harold Barclay, People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy, London: Kahn and Averill, 1982, p. 122.

[122] Haudennosaunne oral traditions always maintained this early date, but racist white anthropologists discounted this claim and estimated the league began in the 1500s. Some even hypothesized that the Five Nations constitution was written with European help. But recent archaeological evidence and the record of a coinciding solar eclipse backed up the oral histories, proving that the federation was their own invention. Wikipedia, “The Iroquois League,” http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_League Viewed 22 June 2007

[123] Stephen Arthur, “Where License Reigns With All Impunity:” An Anarchist Study of the Rotinonshón:ni Polity,” Northeastern Anarchist No. 12, Winter 2007 nefac.net

[124] See, for example, Dmitri M. Bondarenko and Andrey V. Korotayev, Civilizational Models of Politogenesis, Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000.

[125] The argument that certain societies were able to take over the world because of geographic conditions rather than any inherent superiority is skillfully presented by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

[mariacallous]

A former Navy submarine technician was arrested after law enforcement says he drove an SUV into the FBI headquarters near Atlanta on Monday afternoon. It is still unclear why the suspect, Ervin Lee Bolling, attempted to force entry into the headquarters, but research conducted by the nonpartisan public-interest nonprofit Advance Democracy and shared exclusively with WIRED has found that accounts believed to be associated with Bolling shared numerous conspiracy theories on social media platforms, including X and Facebook.

Just after noon on Monday, Bolling rammed his burnt-orange SUV with South Carolina license plates into the final barrier at FBI Atlanta’s headquarters, wrote Matthew Upshaw, an FBI agent assigned to the Atlanta office, in a sworn affidavit on Tuesday. Upshaw added that after Bolling crashed the SUV, he left the car and tried to follow an FBI employee into the secure parking lot. When agents instructed Bolling to sit on a curb, he refused and tried again to enter the premises. The affidavit also stated that Bolling resisted arrest when agents subsequently tried to detain him.

Bolling was charged on Tuesday with destruction of government property, according to court records reviewed by WIRED.

Advance Democracy researchers identified an account on X with the handle @alohatiger11, a reference to the Clemson University mascot which Bolling has expressed support for on his public Facebook page. The handle is similar to usernames on other platforms like Telegram and Cash App, and also bears similarities to a Facebook page with Bolling’s name. The profile picture used in the X account also resembles a picture of the same man shown in Bolling’s public Facebook profile. The X account is currently set to private, but dozens of its old posts are still publicly viewable through the Internet Archive.

In December 2020, the X account responded to a post about a federal government stimulus bill that stated, “Wonder what it will take for people to wake up.” The X account believed to be associated with Bolling responded, “I’m awake. Just looking for a good militia to join.”

Around the same time, social media accounts seemingly associated with Bolling repeatedly boosted QAnon content and interacted with QAnon promoters, including by posting a link to a now-deleted QAnon-associated YouTube channel alongside the comment: “Release the Kraken”—in direct reference to Sidney Powell’s failed legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

On what’s believed to be Bolling’s Facebook account, there were various posts related to anti-vaccine memes as well.

The accounts also posted in support of former president Donald Trump. In December 2020, “I love you” was posted in response to a post on X from Trump that falsely claimed the election had been rigged by Democrats.

Courtney Bolling, who is identified as the suspect’s wife on Facebook, did not respond to requests for comment via phone or messages sent to her social media profiles. No legal counsel is listed on record for Bolling.

It is so far unclear how Bolling came to espouse these beliefs, but far-right groups and extremists have for decades used social media platforms as a way of spreading conspiracies and radicalizing new members. In recent years there have been numerous examples of far-right groups making online claims or threats that have been quickly followed by real-world violence.

[gameknigh]

Anyways here is a list of about 200 things I am no longer allowed to do within the UNSC ONI or Spartan Operations, I do not regret any of these

My proper military title is ‘Spartan Sam’ not ‘Princess Anastasia’.

Not allowed to threaten anyone with black magic.

Not allowed to challenge anyone’s disbelief of black magic by asking for hair.

Not allowed to get silicone breast implants.

Not allowed to play ‘Pulp Fiction’ with a suction-cup dart pistol and any officer.

Not allowed to add ‘In accordance with the prophesy’ to the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me.

Not allowed to add pictures of officers I don’t like to War Criminal posters.

Not allowed to title any product ‘Get Over it’.

Not allowed to purchase anyone’s soul on Government time.

Not allowed to join the communist party.

Not allowed to join any militia.

N ot allowed to form any militia.

Not allowed out of my office when the president visited Boston.

Not allowed to train adopted stray dogs to ‘Sic Brass!’

Must get a haircut even if it tampers with my ‘Sampson like powers’.

God may not contradict any of my orders.

May no longer perform my now (in)famous ‘Barbie Girl Dance’ while on duty.

May not call any officers immoral, untrustworthy, lying, slime, even if I’m right.

Must not taunt the Harvestians any more.

Must attempt to not antagonize ODSTs.

Must never call an ODST a ‘Wanker’.

Must never ask anyone who outranks me if they’ve been smoking crack.

Must not tell any officer that I am smarter than they are, especially if it’s true.

Never confuse a Revian soldier for a Martian one.

Never tell a German soldier that ‘We kicked your ass in World War 2!’

Don’t take the batteries out of the other Spartan’s alarm clocks (Even if they do hit snooze about forty times).

The Irish Spartans are not after ‘Me frosted lucky charms’.

Not allowed to wake an Non-Commissioned Officer by repeatedly banging on the head with a bag of trash.

Not allowed to let sock puppets take responsibility for any of my actions.

Not allowed to let sock puppets take command of my post.

Not allowed to chew gum at formation, unless I brought enough for everybody.

(Next day) Not allowed to chew gum at formation even if I *did* bring enough for everybody.

Not allowed to sing ‘High Speed Dirt’ by Megadeth during airborne operations. (‘See the earth below/Soon to make a crater/Blue sky, black death, I’m off to meet my maker’)

Can’t have flashbacks to wars I was not in. (The Interplanetary War isn’t over).

Our medic is called ‘Sgt Larwasa’, not ‘Dr. Feelgood’.

Our supply Sgt is ‘Sgt Watkins’ not ‘Sugar Daddy’.

Not allowed to ask for the day off due to religious purposes, on the basis that the world is going to end, more than once.

I do not have super-powers.

Camouflage body paint is not a uniform.

I am not the atheist chaplain.

I am not authorized to fire officers.

Not allowed to trade military equipment for ‘magic beans’.

Not allowed to sell magic beans during duty hours.

Not allowed to quote ‘Dr Seuss’ on military operations.

Not allowed to yell ‘Take that Cobra’ at the rifle range.

Not allowed to quote ‘Full Metal Jacket ‘ at the rifle range.

‘Napalm sticks to kids’ is *not* a motivational phrase.

An order to ‘Put Kiwi on my boots’ does *not* involve fruit.

An order to ‘Make my Boots black and shiny’ does not involve electrical tape.

The proper response to a lawful order is not ‘Why?’

The following words and phrases may not be used in a cadence- based, necrophilia, I hate everyone in this formation and wish they were dead, all Marines are latent homosexuals, Arcadian yoga, Gotterdammerung, or any references to squid.

May not make posters depicting the leadership failings of my chain of command.

‘The Giant Space Ants’ are not at the top of my chain of command.

It is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, no longer applies to Spartan Sam.

Command decisions do *not* need to be ratified by a 2/3 majority.

There are no evil clowns living under my bed.

There is no ‘Anti-Mime’ campaign on Harvest.

I am not the Spartan Ops Mascot.

I may not line my helmet with tin foil to ‘Block out the space mind control lasers’.

May not pretend to be a fascist stormtrooper on duty

I am not authorized to prescribe any form of medication.

May not conduct psychological experiments on my chain of command.

The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”

I may not call block my chain of command.

I am neither the king nor queen of cheese.

Not allowed to wear MJOLNIR to any army functions.

May not bring a drag queen to the battalion formal dance.

May not form any press gangs.

Must not start any SITREP (Situation Report) with “I recently had an experience I just had to write you about….”

Must not use military vehicles to ‘Squish’ things.

May not challenge anyone in my chain of command to the ‘field of honor’.

If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.

Must not refer to the Commander as ‘Dad’.

I am not authorized to initiate Jihad.

When asked to give a few words at a military ceremony ‘Romper Bomper Stomper Boo’ is probably not appropriate.

Nerve gas is not funny.

Crucifixes do not ward off ONI officers, and I should not test that.

I am not in need of a more suitable host body.

The proper response to a chemical weapon attack is not ‘Tell my chain of command what I really think about them, and then poke holes in their masks.’

A smiley face is not used to mark a minefield.

Claymore mines are not filled with yummy candy, and it is wrong to tell new soldiers that they are.

I am not allowed to mount a bayonet on a crew-served weapon.

Rodents are not entitled to burial with full military honors, even if they are “casualties of war”.

My commander is not old enough to have fought in the Second American Civil War, and I should stop implying that he did.

Vodka, green food coloring, and a ‘Cool Mint’ Listerine® bottle is not a good combination.

I am not allowed to bum cigarettes off of anyone under twelve.

I may not trade my rifle for any of the following: Cigarettes, booze, Unggoy, Kalishnikovs, Covenant Armored vehicles, small children, or bootleg CD’s.

Must not mock command decisions in front of the press.

Should not taunt members of the press, even if they are really fat, exceptionally stupid, and working for the UEG.

I am not authorized to change national policy in the Eastern Orion Arm.

Never, ever, attempt to correct a Spartan II about anything.

I am not qualified to operate any Covenant, UNSC, Banished, or Swords of Sanghelios Armored vehicles.

I cannot trade my CO to the Covies.

Crucifying mice – bad idea.

Burn pits for classified material are not revel fires – therefore it is wrong to dance naked around them.

I cannot arrest children for being rude.

An EO briefing is probably not the best place to unveil my newest off color joke.

Radioactive material should not be stored in the barracks.

I should not teach other soldiers to say offensive and crude things in Sangheli, under the guise of teaching them how to say potentially useful phrases.

Two drink limit does not mean first and last.

Two drink limit does not mean two kinds of drinks.

Two drink limit does not mean the drinks can be as large as I like.

‘No Drinking Of Alcoholic Beverages’ does not imply that a Jack Daniel’s ® IV is acceptable.

“Shpadoinkle” is not a real word.

The Microsoft ® ‘Dancing Paperclip’ is not authorized to countermand any orders.

‘I’m drunk’ is a bad answer to any question posed by my commander.

The loudspeaker system is not a forum to voice my ideas.

The loudspeaker system is not to be used to replace the radio.

The loudspeaker system is not to be used to broadcast the soundtrack to a porno movie.

Shouting ‘Let’s do the village! Let’s do the whole ****ing village!’ while out on a mission is bad.

Should not show up at the front gate wearing part of a Sangheli Combat Harness, messily drunk.

Even if my commander did it.

I am not authorized to sell mineral rights.

Not allowed to use a broadsword to disprove ‘The Pen is Mightier than the sword’.

I should not drink three quarts of blue food coloring before a urine test.

Nor should I drink three quarts of red food coloring, and scream during the same.

J should not threaten suicide with pop rocks and Coke ®.

Putting red ‘Mike and Ike’s’ ® into a prescription medicine bottle, and then eating them all in a formation is not funny.

Must not create new ONI forms, then insist they be filled out.

On Sports Day PT, a wedgie is not considered a legal tackle.

The proper way to report to my Commander is ‘Spartan Sam, reporting as ordered, Sir’ not ‘You can’t prove a thing!’

The following items do not exist: Keys to the Drop Zone, A box of grid squares, blinker fluid, winter air for tires, canopy lights, or MJOLNIR oil.

Shouldn’t treat ‘piss-bottles’ with extra-strength icy hot.

Teaching Sangheli children to taunt other soldiers is not nice.

I will no longer perform ‘lap-dances’ while in MJOLNIR.

The revolution is not now.

When detained by MP’s, I do not have a right to a strip search.

No part of the MJOLNIR armor is edible.

Bodychecking General officers is not a good idea.

Past lives have absolutely no effect on the chain of command.

Take that hat off.

There is no such thing as a were-virgin.

I do not get ‘that time of month’.

No, the pants are not optional.

Not allowed to operate a business out of the barracks.

Not allowed to ‘defect’ to Covenant during training missions.

On training missions, try not to shoot down the General’s helicopter.

‘A full magazine and some privacy’ is not the way to help a potential suicide.

I am not allowed to create new levels of security clearance.

Furby ® is not allowed into classified areas. (I swear to the gods, I did not make that up, it’s actually ONI policy).

We do not ‘charge into battle, naked, like the Celts’.

Any device that can crawl across the table on medium, does not need to be brought into the office.

I am not to refer to a formation as ‘the boxy rectangle thingie’.

I am not ‘A lesbian trapped in a man’s body’.

On Army documents, my race is not ‘Other’.

Nor is it ‘Secretariat, in the third’.

Pokémon® trainer is not an MOS.

There is no FM for ‘wall-to-wall counseling’.

My chain of command has neither the time, nor the inclination to hear about what I did with six boxes of Fruit Roll-Ups. ®

When operating a military vehicle I may *not* attempt something ‘I saw in a cartoon’.

My name is not a killing word.

I am not the Emperor of anything.

Must not taunt officers in the throes of nicotine withdrawal, with cigarettes.

May not challenge officers to ‘Meet me on the field of honor, at dawn’.

Must not make s’mores while on guard duty.

Our Warthogs cannot be assembled into a giant battle-robot.

The proper response to a briefing is not ‘That’s what you think’.

The Masons, and Gray Aliens are not in our chain of command.

Shouldn’t take incriminating photos of my chain of command.

Shouldn’t use Photoshop ® to create incriminating photos of my chain of command.

I am not allowed to give Spartan augmentations

Not allowed to lead a ‘Coup’ during training missions.

I should not confess to crimes that took place before I was born.

My chain of command is not interested in why I ‘just happen’ to have a kilt, an inflatable sheep, and a box of rubber bands in the back of my car.

Must not valiantly push officers onto hand grenades to save the squad.

Despite the confusing similarity in the names, the “Safety Dance” and the “Safety Briefing” are never to be combined.

“To conquer the earth with an army of flying monkeys” is a bad long term goal to give the re-enlistment NCO.

NEVER nail a stuffed bunny to a cross and put it up in front of the Battalion Headquarters sign as an “Easter Desecration.”

Don’t write up false gigs on a Warthog PMCS. (“Broken clutch pedal”, “Number three turbine has frequent flame-outs”, “flux capacitor emits loud whine when engaged”)

Not allowed to get shot.

Not allowed to play into the deluded fantasies of the civlians who are “hearing conversations” from the CMA, ONI, UNSC and SoS due to the microchip the aliens implanted in their brain.

Must not make T-shirts up depciting a Grunt with the writing “Breath Oxygen or Die” in Unggoy to bring as civilian attire when preparing to deploy to their homeworld.

Must not go on nine deployments in six years that require a security clearance that I don’t have, even if the ONI tells me repeatedly that I have one and I have no reason to question them.

Do not convince NCO’s that their razorbumps are the result of microscopic parasites.

Do not lick Spartan IIs

Do not change Smart AI’s avatars to “obscene” things or pictures of my Cat

Do not show up to the UNSC Infinity in a “Anime Bunnysuit and fishnets”

Do not use a 560 year old H&K XM8 because ‘it looks enough like a battle rifle’

Well, that concludes the list. I probably shouldn’t have done some of these, but I definitely don’t regret the second to last (I looked hot AF).

[yr-obedt-cicero]

Can you please tell us more about Troup and Hamilton’s friendship? I heard that they would clash at times, so what did that usually look like?

Of course, I can. Robert Troup (1756-1832) was born in New Jersey, and was Hamilton's undergraduate roommate at King's College (Columbia University), and it was during that time that they formed an everlasting friendship. Like Hamilton, Troup was studying law, but was under John Jay. They shared bunks together, [x] and they both - alongside Nicholas Fish - joined the New York militia group called The Hearts Of Oak (Originally coined as Corsican). The two actually had a lot in common; both of them were orphans, Troup's father having died the same year Hamilton's mother had too in 1768, and then his own mother the following year. And both of them were trying to get ahead, with very little money in their possessions.

Troup was known to be lighthearted and humourous, which likely consoled Hamilton during his depressive episodes. In Hamilton's first months at King's, he and Troup formed a club that gathered weekly for debating, writing, and speaking skills. With familiar members like; Nicholas Fish, Edward Stevens, and Samuel and Henry Nicoll, who were all relatively Hamilton's closest friends during his college days. Troup said Hamilton; “made extraordinary displays of richness of genius and energy of mind” at the debates. [x] As tension of the revolution was brewing, many discussions included the question of royal-colonial relations. And while at first, Hamilton sided with the monarchists, he later began to publish anti-British pieces, as he used the debating society at King's to preview his essays.

Hamilton had also apparently written poetry in honor of his friendship with Troup, but Troup says that he had lost it during the war and never found it;

After giving this hint of the General's poetical vein, I ought to mention, that whilst he was in college, he now and then paid his court to the muses; and as a pledge of his friendship, he presented me with a small manuscript of fugitive poetry; the amusement of his leisure hours. I was not a little pleased with the pledge—I considered the poetry, as strong evidence of the elasticity of the General's genius—and I have often lamented that the manuscript was lost, with my books and papers, during the War.

Source — Library Of Congress, digital collections. Alexander Hamilton Papers: Miscellany, 1711-1820; Memoirs relating to Hamilton.

Troup was also the last visit Hamilton made before his fatal duel with Burr, for weeks Troup had lain bedridden with a grave illness that Hamilton feared might prove mortal. Troup wrote of the event saying;

On the afternoon of the day preceding the fatal duel, and immediately after finishing an elaborate opinion on a case submitted to him, the General called to see me. I had been confined to my house for several weeks, with a complaint, which the General and most of my other friends, were afraid had inflicted a dangerous, and probably mortal, wound on my constitution. The General’s visit lasted more than half and hour; and after making particular enquires respecting the state of my complaint, he favored me with his advice as to the course, which he thought would best conduce to the reestablishment of my health, But the whole tenor of the General’s deportment, during the visit, manifested such composure, and cheerfulness of mind, as to leave me without an suspicion of the rencontre that was desending.

Source — Library Of Congress, digital collections. Alexander Hamilton Papers: Miscellany, 1711-1820; Memoirs relating to Hamilton.

Although they had very different life preferences and the choices that they made. Hamilton could be very dismissive towards his financial situation, and paid little attention to his personal finances in favor of prioritizing glory or legacy—While adolescent hardship had instilled in Troup a lasting sense of financial insecurity, and he was constantly urging Hamilton to get higher paying jobs. To the point at moments, Troup would loan money to Hamilton. [x] Hamilton also considered a moment wasted if it was not spent advancing his status or making an appearance, Troup - on the other hand - never sought glory for himself, and was willing to be a follower. This polarization sometimes clashed between them, but it would ultimately be one of the components that made them. As Wood writes;

Like Burr, Hamilton had a continual need for money, and he knew that many public officials like Burr were using their political connections to get rich. He did not want to be one of them. In 1795, at a time when Hamilton was financially pressed and out of public office, his close friend Robert Troup pleaded with him to get involved in business, especially in speculative land schemes. Everyone else was doing it, said Troup. “Why should you object to making a little money in a way that cannot be reproachful? Is it not time for you to think of putting yourself in a state of independence?” He even joked to Hamilton that such moneymaking schemes might be “instrumental in making a man of fortune – I may say – a gentleman of you. For such is the present insolence of the World that hardly a man is treated like a gentleman unless his fortune enables him to live at his ease.” Hamilton refused. “Saints,” he told Troup, might get away with such profit making, but he knew he would be denounced by his Jeffersonian Republican opponents as just another one of those “speculators” and “peculators.” He had to refuse “because,” he sardonically put it, “there must be some public fools who sacrifice private to public interest at the certainty of ingratitude and obloquy – because my vanity whispers I ought to be one of those fools and ought to keep myself in a situation the best calculated to render service.”

Source — Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, by Gordon S. Wood · 2006

To which Troup made a joke about Hamilton's friends having to pay to bury him;

I sincerely hope that we shall both save our heads and that you may by some fortunate & unexpected event acquire the means of perfect independence in spite of all your efforts to be poor. I have an interest in an event of this nature which perhaps you have forgotten. I have often said that your friends would be obliged to bury you at their own expence.

Source — Robert Troup to Alexander Hamilton, [May 11, 1795]

There was even one point when Troup foretold the future with a joke poking fun at Hamilton, claiming that he and King should start a subscription to pay for Hamilton's funeral expenses. When two years later, both Troup and King would actually become major contributors to the subscription to pay for Hamilton's funeral and to help support Eliza and their seven children;

Hamilton is closely pursuing the law, and I have at length succeeded in making him somewhat mercenary. I have known him latterly to dun his clients for money, and in settling an account with me the other day, he reminded me that I had received a fee for him in settling a question referred to him and me jointly. These indications of regard to property give me hopes that we shall not be obliged to raise a subscription to pay for his funeral expenses.

Source — Robert Troup to Rufus King, [April 8, 1802]

There has also been - really newfound - speculation that the two may have had a more romantic connection in college, especially when considering the suspicious closeness the two had with other men. But if you want to read up on that I talked about it here.

Hope this helps!

[beardedmrbean]

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Tuesday visited the German Navy's "Hessen" frigate, currently docked in Crete and set to deploy in the Red Sea to defend against Houthi attacks from Yemen by the end of the week. 

"Now we're dealing with an emergency case," he told the 240 servicemen and women on board the vessel. 

"You can say without exaggeration, it is the navy's most serious and also most dangerous mission in decades," Pistorius said. 

But he said that "Germany cannot simply stand on the sidelines and do nothing." 

The Social Democrat defense minister was accompanied by the Free Democrats' Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who chairs the parliamentary defense committee in the Bundestag.

Defensive mission, but still unprecedented for modern German Navy

Speaking in a German television interview earlier on Tuesday, however, Pistorius also sought to stress the differences between Germany's involvement against Houthi activity in the Red Sea and that of the US and UK. 

He told public broadcaster ZDF that the German Navy's involvement was a "defensive mission," involving "only the defense against attacks from missiles, drones and other things." 

He said the operation should "not be confused with the collective task that the Americans and Britons have taken on."

The US and UK are also striking selected Houthi targets inland in Yemen in a bid to halt attacks targeting commercial shipping on the crucial Red Sea route at their source, as part of the "Poseidon Archer" operation.

The German warship, meanwhile, is assigned only with intercepting Houthi attacks at sea. The vessels will have orders only to fire on the militants if they attack first and will not be authorized to shoot pre-emptively.

It's not the navy's first defensive deployment in the waters between the east coast of Africa and the Middle East.

German ships also participate in an ongoing EU anti-piracy mission operation focused in large part on criminals operating out of Somalia. But that involves independent actors for the most part equipped only with light arms, not the Iran-backed Houthi militia with access to more advanced equipment. 

The Hessen was fitted out with equipment for its mission before departing from Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany on February 8. Its radar system can monitor the entire Red Sea, its air defense systems have a range of around 160 kilometers (roughly 100 miles). A helicopter is also on board along with a medical crew and a chaplain.

Parliamentary approval still pending, but likely a formality

Pistorius said the mission was seeking to safeguard "the freedom of trade ... and the safety of ships on the most important trade route between Asia and Europe."

Houthis have stepped up attacks on commercial shipping in recent months, claiming that it is a response to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attacks. 

The captain of the "Hessen," Volker Kübsch, said that sailors would be on "tactical movements" until the end of April following Friday's deployment, and that at present there are roughly five Houthi attacks targeting commercial ships each week. 

He described the mood among his crew as "tense, but in a positive sense."

Insecurity in the Red Sea, if it forces shipping companies to seek another route, leads to considerable increases in shipping costs and delivery times, with the only other route between Asia and Europe being to sail all the way around the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa.

The EU's "Aspides" operation in the Red Sea was approved on Monday by the bloc's foreign ministers. 

Approval from the the Bundestag Parliament is still required before the deployment can begin under German law. That vote, however, is seen as a formality, given the support from both the ruling coalition and the largest opposition party.

The vote is scheduled for finalization by Friday, moments before the "Hessen" should deploy.

[neutralgray]

A Synthesized History: An Amateur Comparison of the Perspectives between the "Patriot's," the "People's," & The "True" History of the United States - Part 9

Full Essay Guide link: XX

(Patriot - Chapter 10-11 | People - Chapter 10-11 | True - Chapter 18-19)

Rent, Reconstruction, and Revisionism

In regards to U.S. history, the 19th century was the setting for many failed revolutions, peoples' movements, rising capitalist forces, and the end to the dominant socioeconomic system of racial slavery. The Civil War had exposed an ugliness underlying the supposed liberties offered by this empire of liberty, however it was not the sole struggle of this period. The late 19th century was influenced heavily by anti-rent movements, labor movements both in the industrial and rural sectors, attempts at political reconstruction, and the ongoing conflict with Native Americans in the west.

The anti-rent movement had started earlier in the century, in the year 1839. The purpose of the movement was to oppose the patroonship system, which allowed for a select few families to legally own significant portions of land and property. One such family was the Van Rensselaer family, who had a $41 million dollar fortune and controlled enough property to have over 80,000 dependent tenants. Many farmers either couldn't afford their own property or were gridlocked among so much purchased property that they had no choice but to rent from these affluent families. This "generosity" from the affluent did not just come with the price tag of rent, however. Laws imposed order that clearly favored landlords, such as giving landlords the right to any and all timber on farms run by their tenants.

Anti-renters initially pushed an anti-rent bill with over 25,000 signatures on it to Congress who then killed the bill. General discontent and civil unrest naturally followed. A deputy was later killed when he tried to sell the livestock of a tenant. Now that violence was being seen, it was only natural that the government would step in and pretend it couldn't have done so before. Troops were sent to quell the "rebellion," and one prominent leader, Smith Boughton, a country doctor, was sentenced to life in prison for the absurd charge of "high treason." Others followed suit, being found guilty of whatever crimes a court could stretch to fit. Anti-renters tried pushing proposals to break up huge estates but they were always defeated or ignored. It was, however, made illegal to sell tenant property for non-pay of rent. It was a small victory among many larger defeats. This would be a repeating theme for most similar grassroots movements that followed.

Some protests served to highlight the general absurdity of legality, making it clear that "order" was only order so long as the determined laws could be imposed by force. This was especially highlighted in the Dorr Rebellion (named after its leader: Thomas Wilson Dorr). The rebellion was an attempt to push proper democracy in Rhode Island, a state that was shockingly still using its original 1663 colonial charter as a basis for its state government nearly 200 later. Rhode Island only allowed land owners to vote, a requirement virtually all states had done away with. The members of this rebellion held its own unofficial convention, wrote its own constitution complete with voting reform, and held its own vote for governor-- an unofficial election in which over 14,000 people (5000 of which owned property) voted in. The rebellion was, of course, crushed by the state through use of federal troops and state militia. It was a bold form of rebellion, though, and its unique approach to "going through the motions" of government demonstrated that the only real difference between their stunt and the acting government was that the Rhode Island government had the means to forcefully impose their rule of law over the supposed laws drafted by Dorr's rebels. And should one still challenge the notion that the only difference is a means of force or imposition of order, let's not forget that that Constitution overrode the Articles of Confederation simply because a handful of powerful individuals decided that the agreed Articles were no longer their ideal draft for government.

Dorr's Rebellion did bring about some change, though. It caused enough of a shakeup that Rhode Island did rewrite its charter and expand voting rights. The 1850's would see similar small victories with the anti-rent movement as well. Laws would change some aspects of the manorial system, but would not inherently change the functional relationship between landlords and tenants. It was a predictable pattern: people would be upset over a grievance, protest would happen that may or not escalate to violence (sometimes pushed to violence by the state), the rebellion/riot/protest would be crushed by military might and the law, some meager revisions of law would be passed as a conciliatory measure, and most everyone would stay in the same class of wealth they were in at the start.

The two-party system thrived in situations like this. Resistance would rise up and then get crushed by political might. With violent revolution and/or disruptive demonstration protests, the people would be made to feel like their cause was hopeless. The people would then be encouraged to protest through the ballot box, letting their vote speak for them. The two parties held their platforms, with one generally offering slightly more "democratic" choices on a hot-button issue. The people would vote, and if their party won they would be offered whatever consolation the political party in control would be willing to offer. Revolution could always be choked out and replaced with a much "safer" reform. This political system of control may not have been mapped out and designed with this deliberate intent, but because the political ruling system changed as needs changed, it allowed for "stable" government ruling, if not a humane or compassionate one. The law could be made flexible through executive presidential action or judicial constitutional review. Simultaneously, the law could be made rigid through Congressional slog, lobbying, voting imbalances, and general political trickery. It demonstrates that the law was, and still is, as flexible or as rigid as the system needs it to be to maintain its current stability and power base.

The 1800's had seen a significant shift in urban development. In 1790, less than 1 million people lived in cities. By 1840, that number jumped to 11 million. By 1850, over 6 million of these potential laborers were working in factories. The 1850's saw company mergers becoming more common, with massive companies developing monopolies over whatever sector they represented. The workforce in those factories would also change as the decades continued.

Racial divides developed among the lower-class developed when companies used cheaper labor from select groups, which often led to struggling immigrants competing in that job market to lash out at other disadvantaged ethnic or racial groups. Another minority growing in the workforce at that time were women, many of whom found occupations in textile mills, domestics, education, and varying factories. Groups of women laborers often organized and went on strike. While some of these strikes were met with mixed success, many others failed which led to blacklisting and shunning select leaders in those communities.

Class consciousness never got the chance to develop as a social power base among the lower class in the United States because of the country's rapid and mixed history of restrictions and uneven extensions of labor law protections. Despite this lacking development compared to European powers, riots broke out in both the Union and Confederacy that opposed draft laws enforcing conscription on citizens while allowing the rich to pay their way out of it. This may be interpreted as growing resentment between the rich and poor.

Major strikes among railroad laborers spread to smaller businesses across the country. Railroad laborers had even more incentive to strike than most laborers. In 1889 the Interstate Commerce Commission reported that over 22,000 people were killed or injured working on rail lines. Railroad companies also helped create a system of financial control by linking to one another, linking to banks, and linking to insurance companies. With many heads able to move the money in a perpetual circle, it allowed for continued generation of profit for a few while avoiding an obvious "monopoly."

Laborer protection was undercut by the government, by their employers, and by the turning century's natural progress. Steam and electricity began to replace the need for human muscle-- phones, typewriters, and adding machines sped up the work of business. Manufactured ice allowed for long transports of produce and meat, which would give birth to the food and meatpacking industry. Steam power changed textile mill productivity and coal provided power to many growing machines of industry. These new sources of power fueled much greater production at a fraction of the cost. The world was changing.

The Farmer's Alliance was core of the Populist movement that dominated the 1890's, and partly came about because of the push for mechanization. Steel plows, reapers, and mowing machines were becoming the standard to keep up with demand. These machines and the large chunks of land needed to use them on cost money, of course. Farmers would take loans with the hope of paying it back with the profits generated from their produce. Unfortunately, farmers had little control over market prices and this would cause their debt to grow as they failed to pay it. The land would then be seized by the government and the farmers would become tenants on what was their land. In response, the Farmer's Alliance was established in 1877 and by 1887 it would have 200,000 members with 3000 sub-alliances. The alliance often affected elections and successfully elected sympathetic politicians simply by having the sheer volume of active voters to do so.

The Farmer's Alliance was not perfect, however. They had numbers but republican and democrat votes combined still outweighed them. The Alliance was also often shaken up by racial dividing points that weakened the ideological and cultural cohesion of the Alliance. Populist leaders often folded into the Democrat party due to political deals that further diluted and obscured the unique identity of the Alliance in misaligned messy politics. Perhaps the greatest failing of this rural farm movement, though, was a failure to meaningfully link with urban labor movements seen in manufacturing industries. Despite class struggles on both rural and urban fronts, the two causes remained separate and thus the potential for true class consciousness of lower class laborers was circumvented.

The Civil War paved the road for the Union to strip away certain labor protections and offer greater legal power for companies to generate profit. In 1886 alone, the Supreme Court struck down over 230 state laws that were passed to regulate corporations. Acts like the Sherman Act were supposed to prevent corporate monopolies but the Supreme Court demonstrated their uncanny ability to interpret any law in a way that made it completely useless. According the high court, monopolies in manufacturing "could not" be regulated in the same way as a monopoly of commerce. Companies were growing in power, the South had been branded a cultural shame that all but forced them to accept the new status quo, and the North accepted many of these decisions as necessary to help the recent war effort. The "empire of liberty" had been completely, internally battered.

To heal the drift across the nation, the project of "Reconstruction" began. The objective of Reconstruction was two-fold: justice for the freedmen and and reconciliation with the ex-Confederates. The contradiction lie in these ideas potentially being antithetical to one another. The Union wanted to re-establish political unity and control with the South as soon as possible while attempting to establish a framework for for ex-slaves to work as free men. The union did not however, immediately offer to make these freedmen citizens or compensate them for years of (now) unlawful bondage. The best way to achieve this goal was a natural debate across political lines.

Some radical republicans wanted the south to be severely punished with economic and legal sanctions. Many southerners were bitter and relied on Union charity while resenting the military occupation of their states. There were four major issues at the heart of this fractured political body:

What economic compensation, if any, would be given to freedmen?

What would the political status of freedmen be?

What extent would federal laws governing the South actually be enforced?

Who best determines the pace and priority of progress-- the president or Congress?

President Johnson pardoned multiple ex-Confederate officials and insisted Southern leadership largely remain unchanged. Few confederates were actually punished. There were no war crime trials ever issued, no charges of treason, no military tribunals, or executions. Jefferson Davis, president of the defunct Confederacy, only spent two years in prison. His vice president, Alexander Stephens, would later rejoin Congress and end his political career as governor of Georgia. This demonstrated a complete unwillingness to actually push for genuine ideological change in the Southern political structure. Schweikart and Allen suggest that political pressure from white voters who were more likely to cause trouble caused the Johnson administration to avoid acting, though this may offer Johnson too much of a passable excuse for his lack of federal assertiveness and authority.

One of the first federal acts to pass through Congress and launch Reconstruction efforts was the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was vetoed by president Johnson. Congress overturned this veto, and this was the first bill to override a presidential veto. The 14th amendment of the Constitution was attached, which shifted citizenship from a state determination to a national policy. Agreement with the amendment was a requirement for acceptance back into the Union.

Special Field Order #15 was an order issued by William T Sherman, which granted coastal land previously owned by affluent ex-Confederates to freedmen. This was roughly 400,000 acres being divided to freedmen in 40 acre sections. President Johnson undid this action, of course. Denial of land ownership doomed freedmen to do the same grueling work they had already been doing just to afford to stay alive.

Hostile racist sentiment also permeated the general political culture. This was demonstrated by Southern political cartoons of the era which often lampooned efforts such as the ones made by the Freedman's Bureau. The Bureau was created by Congress to assist freedmen, but Southern political strips depicted the organization as nothing more than a haven for freeloaders and "lazy black men."

After Johnson, General Grant was elected president. Grant was a war hero and a general sympathizer of progressive causes, but his administration would be bogged down by contrived political scandals and negative associations. This did not mean, however, that Grant's administration did not have some success. When the Klu Klux Klan began to generate real political fear and pressure, Grant's administration pushed the Klu Klux Klan Act of 1871. This act greatly limited the Klan's power and severely discouraged its many inspired groups. Still, even with these successes, Northern voters were tired of paying taxes that went towards the federal occupation of the South.

As federal withdraw took place in the 1870's, a shifting cultural narrative began to take place in the South, illustrating the consequence of only half-finishing the project of reconstruction. Many speeches given by former Confederates in this decade called for an emphasis on reunion between the divided nation, focusing on healing the national body over the broken racial caste that had formed. In 1875 the governor of Virginia, an ex-confederate general, James L. Kemper, had a statue put up of General "Stonewall" Jackson, Lee's famous 2nd in command. Kemper dedicated the statue to "all" people as a memory of heroism. Southern Revisionist fantasies of the war had already begun. This revisionist history would become so culturally pervasive that it tinged the complete federal body of the United States. In point of fact, the first film to ever be screened in the White House was The Birth of a Nation, a 1915 film dedicated to portraying the Klu Klux Klan as heroes protecting the purity of white leadership and white people. Just a few short decades after fighting a war meant for unity and abolition, a film dedicated to a rebellion founded on racist exploitation of people for profit was showcased as a work of art in the symbolic "home" of the federal U.S. government. It was clear that the South may have lost the war, but they had won the peace.

During the height of the Reconstruction era, when Southern governments actually had Republican leadership, many key liberties were gained. These included public schools, more asylums, more hospitals, and more orphanages. In South Carolina funds were allocated for medical care of the poor. Alabama began to offer free legal counsel for poor defendants. These were all products of a grand yet unfinished political upheaval. Because the work with Reconstruction was not done by the time the Union lost interest in pushing and maintaining it, discriminatory "Jim Crow" laws began to become a new norm in the Southern states. This followed the Amnesty Act of 1872, which allowed for previous Confederates to run for office. This was an attempt to "heal" the gap between the two territories but what it really did was ensure that highly influential individuals who carried hostile sentiment over the Civil War would carry their ideological baggage into office and pervade the general well-being of the state. These rising ex-Confederate leaders had little stopping them from enacting their laws as well. Despite a moral victory with the Civil Rights Act of 1875, this act required federal troops to enforce it in the South. As the Southern states emptied of occupying Union soldiers, the noose tightened around many freedmen's necks. Laws defined by racial status limited the ability of black Americans to take on certain labor, vote in elections, and freely travel.

In this same era as rent protesting and failed sociopolitical projects, the ongoing conflict between the United States and Natives continued. By 1890 the west could no longer be considered a "frontier" as the population density had become too great. This of course meant that further conflicts with Native Americans was inevitable. Many of them had moved time and time again, but with the federal power of the United States spanning from east to west, there were very few places left for Natives to go. Most Native Americans east of the Mississippi were dead, forced away, or isolated by the time of the Civil War. Native Americans in the west now had to share the buffalo they survived on with white hunters who put a massive strain on buffalo herds, which doomed some tribes to struggle. Four major conflicts took place during this era:

1864-65: The Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne Natives, when American troops killed Natives after their chief, Black Kettle, had surrendered

1860's: On and off skirmishes with the Lakota Sioux in the 1860's, which included the death of one Lt. Colonel William J. Fetterman and his 80 men by Red Cloud and his forces

1875-76: Sioux and Cheyenne forces driven to conflict due to a sudden surge of people on their land due to the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad and a gold rush

1890: Conflicts with spiritualist "Ghost Dancers," which culminated in the slaughter of Sioux Natives at Wounded Knee

In 1887 a "benign" act was passed, the Dawes Severalty Act. Supported by president Grover Cleveland, this act allowed Native Americans to select land for reservations, with up to 160 acres of land being offered to family heads. It also allowed for the legal sale of any unclaimed land, ensuring the U.S. benefited even further. An entire generation of Native American people had little real choice but to accept this act of "generosity." After the American government had beaten them down time and time again, it was telling that this generation was also plagued by high infant mortality, alcoholism, and poverty.

While the Natives were being killed, further pushed, or otherwise morally battered, the United States continued its formal expansion. In 1867 the territory of Alaska was purchased from Russia. In 1890 an omnibus bill admitted Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota as states at the same time. A year later, Idaho and Wyoming were admitted. In 1893, American settlers overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani in Hawaii and formed their own provisional government, which the U.S. would formally recognize. In 1896, Utah finally became a state following years of rejection due to practices of polygamy among its Mormon population.

By the end of the 1890's there was no frontier anymore. America was the west and the west was America.

Final Thoughts:

Despite the fact that no one really reads these and they're largely for my own educational benefit, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this essay comes after a lengthy hiatus following the Civil War entry. This is a lot of information to go through and so I will periodically take breaks when I feel it necessary to space out the learning.

For this section in particular, I regret to say that a lot of information was trimmed down to what I felt were the core necessities. Obviously this essay series is an application of my own learning, and is not meant to replace the original texts to anyone who stumbles upon this. If you feel you need to know further details, I strongly encourage reading the books! That said, a lot of what I've covered here has been touched on in previous topics, minus the growing but fractured labor class movements across the United States.

Reconstruction and the immediate fallout was touched here but also in the final sections of my last essay, which should provide an overall picture of how republican ruling provided benefits but was then pushed out by racist lawmakers who had no interest in following federal laws they disagreed with. This was so prevalent that black congressmen and politicians were sometimes purged out of office by their more numerous white peers.

At this point in history not every inch of American territory on the continent was a formal state, but this would not be far in the future, with Arizona being the last stated admitted in the contiguous United States in 1912. The United States didn't merely touch from coast to coast now, it owned the entire coast line and everything between it. With this in mind, it's no surprise that Native Americans continued to suffer. Generations had been forced to move under threat of death and cultural destruction and now there was nowhere left to move to.

Even with the Patriot's History authors trying to set up plausible excuses for why certain moral actions couldn't be taken sooner, the story of the United States is an exhausting one. As a white person myself, I realize that while I can understand the conceptual basis and fear many minorities have in this country, I lack the empathetic experience because my life has never been codified that way by society around me. This education has been enlightening. I set out with the purpose of learning the context of modern American politics by revisiting the buildup to today-- the context of history which leads us to modern struggles. To see that racism and slaughter were there in the very beginnings of this "great melting pot" of culture while so many immigrants flocked to the "land of opportunity" is a contradiction I may never fully understand. I suppose it illustrates the complex and nuanced reality of actually living in a different time wherein multifaceted aspects of one's culture and personal struggles exist within a larger scope than the mere problems of a hypocritical country.

Jefferson did once say that history can only truly be understood by the ones living in that time. Still-- still, it's an exhausting repetition of the same evils, which are still relevant today.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Meta Accused by States of Using Features to Lure Children to Instagram and Facebook (NYT) Meta was sued by more than three dozen states on Tuesday for knowingly using features on Instagram and Facebook to hook children to its platforms, even as the company said its social media sites were safe for young people. In their complaint, the states said Meta had “designed psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use” of platforms like Instagram. The company’s algorithms were designed to push children and teenagers into rabbit holes of toxic and harmful content, the states said, with features like “infinite scroll” and persistent alerts used to hook young users. The attorneys general also charged Meta with violating a federal children’s online privacy law, accusing it of unlawfully collecting “the personal data of its youngest users” without their parents’ permission. “Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” the states said in their 233-page lawsuit. “Its motive is profit.” It’s unusual for so many states to come together to sue a tech giant for consumer harms. The coordination shows states are prioritizing the issue of children and online safety and combining legal resources to fight Meta, just as states had previously done for cases against Big Tobacco and Big Pharma companies.

Republican search for new US House leader returns to square one (Reuters) Republicans, whose party infighting has paralyzed the U.S. House of Representatives for three weeks, tried on Monday to find consensus on a new speaker to lead the chamber and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government. Eight candidates to be speaker made their pitches to fellow Republicans at a 2-1/2 hour closed-door forum and answered questions about how they would handle the job. With a narrow majority of 221-212 in the House, it is not clear whether any Republican can get the votes needed to claim the speakership. The speaker position has this year been a flashpoint for factional strife between right-wing hardliners and more mainstream Republicans.

Day of bloodshed in southwest Mexico kills at least 19 people (AP) A local security secretary and 12 police officers were shot dead in Guerrero state Monday, authorities said, the worst episode in a day of violence across southwestern Mexico that killed at least 19 people. Officials are finding themselves increasingly endangered in the region, where several powerful drug cartels continue to fight for control. According to figures from Common Cause, 341 police officers have been killed in Mexico so far this year. In 2022, at least 403 were slain.

Rio gangsters torch at least 35 buses after Brazil crime boss killed (Reuters) Criminal groups set at least 35 buses on fire in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro on Monday, according to the industry group that represents bus companies, after police killed a crime boss in an operation. The attacks on buses came after a police operation that killed the nephew of the leader of the state’s largest militia, according to the police. Rio’s so-called militias, often composed of current and former police officers, have become one of the region’s largest security threats. Originally set up as self-defense forces for poor neighborhoods blighted by drug gangs, they have now metastasized into criminal outfits operating in multiple different rackets.

Argentine economy minister and right-wing populist look to runoff (AP) Argentina’s economy minister and the anti-establishment upstart he faces in a presidential runoff next month began competing Monday to shore up the moderate voters they need. Economy Minister Sergio Massa earned almost seven points more than chainsaw-wielding economist and freshman lawmaker Javier Milei in Sunday’s vote. Most polls had shown Massa slightly trailing, as voters had been expected to punish him for triple-digit inflation that has eaten away at purchasing power and boosted poverty. Massa focused his messaging on how Milei’s budget-slashing chainsaw would negatively affect citizens already struggling to make ends meet, showing his Peronist party’s power to mobilize Argentine voters.

A Glimpse Into Spain’s Future, Where Water Comes by Truck, Not Tap (NYT) It was 10 a.m. when the villagers, clutching empty plastic containers, lined up behind the tanker truck of drinking water. A cake shop owner arrived with four big jugs for his pastries. Workers from a retirement home carried two dozen bottles back on wheelchairs for their wards. And a mother of four loaded her trunk with fresh water to wash vegetables and cook pasta. Spain has been blighted by a long-running drought, caused by record-high temperatures in 2022, a string of heat waves in 2023, and almost three years of reduced rainfall. Throughout the country, reservoirs have been depleted; in the worst-affected areas, they are at less than 20 percent of their capacity. But few places on the continent have been as badly hit as tiny Pozoblanco, a village of about 18,000 in southern Spain, where the daily struggle for drinkable water has become a glimpse of what may lie ahead for parts of Europe where drought and extreme heat have become increasingly common.

Commando Raids Unnerving Russia in Crimea (NYT) Late one evening this month, two Ukrainian commandos eased into a side street in Kyiv in a battered SUV. Back from a dangerous nighttime assault on Russian positions in the Crimean Peninsula, they slipped into a sparsely furnished apartment where they sat at desks, weary and a little disheveled, and described their latest operation in matter-of-fact fashion. The two men had joined more than 30 others racing more than 100 miles across the western Black Sea on jet skis to attack critical Russian defense installations before making their getaway, the second Ukrainian amphibious raid in six weeks. The raids were part of a series of punishing attacks on Crimea by Ukrainian forces since midsummer that have succeeded in disabling some Russian air-defense systems and damaging naval repair yards at Sevastopol. Russia later moved 10 warships from Sevastopol on the west coast of Crimea to the port of Novorossiysk on the Russian mainland, though U.S. officials say it remains unclear whether the withdrawals were tied to security concerns or just a regular rotation. But there is no denying that attacks within Crimea are increasing, and may rise even further with the new ATACMS long-range missiles just delivered from the United States. “A dynamic, deep strike battle is underway,” British military intelligence said in a statement.

US renews warning it will defend Philippines after incidents with Chinese vessels in South China Sea (AP) The United States renewed a warning Monday that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a 1951 treaty, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea. Philippine diplomats summoned a Chinese Embassy official in Manila on Monday for a strongly worded protest following Sunday’s collisions off Second Thomas Shoal. No injuries were reported but the encounters damaged a Philippine coast guard ship and a wooden-hulled supply boat operated by navy personnel, officials said. The Philippines and other neighbors of China have resisted Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims over virtually the entire South China Sea, and some, like Manila, have sought U.S. military support as incidents multiply.

Continued Escalation (NYT) Israel launched more than 400 strikes against alleged Hamas targets in Gaza overnight, killing dozens of militants, including three deputy commanders, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Tuesday. The assault followed another wave of Israeli strikes that the IDF claimed hit 320 militant targets in Gaza the day before. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 700 Palestinians were killed during the overnight strikes—the highest 24-hour death toll since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. If confirmed, that would bring the total number of Palestinians killed to almost 5,800 people, including around 2,360 children. Around 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and Hamas is holding more than 200 people hostage, having only released four people thus far. As strikes escalate and Israel prepares for a ground invasion, the United Nations is asking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more aid into Gaza. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that nearly two-thirds of all health facilities in the Gaza Strip, including 12 out of 35 hospitals, are no longer functioning.

Developing World Sees Double Standard in West’s Actions in Gaza and Ukraine (NYT) For 20 months, the Biden administration has attempted to stake out the moral high ground against Russia, condemning its brutal war on Ukraine for indiscriminately killing civilians. The argument resonated in much of the West, but less so in other parts of the world, which viewed the war as more of a great-power conflict and declined to participate in sanctions or otherwise isolate Russia. Now, as Israel bombards the Gaza Strip, killing more than 4,300 people since Oct. 7, the Biden administration’s unwavering support risks creating new headwinds in its efforts to win over global public opinion. Israel’s attack on Gaza, its threats to mount a ground invasion and America’s tight embrace of its most important Mideast ally have prompted cries of hypocrisy. “Anywhere else, attacking civilian infrastructure and deliberately starving an entire population of food, water, basic necessities would be condemned, accountability would be enforced,” said King Abdullah. “International law loses all value if it is implemented selectively.” Palestinians have criticized Western capitals for not expressing outrage over the bombing of Gaza similar to their labeling of Russian missile attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure as “barbaric” and “crimes against humanity.”

Israel prepares for months-long war (BBC) Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “may take a month, two or three”, its defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday, adding the next stage of the war, a widely-expected ground invasion, would “come soon”. But Western leaders who’ve publicly embraced Israel’s right to defend itself are also sending messages, in public and private, about the need to “avoid rushing forward in rage”, explains our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet. A pause could give more time to free more than 200 hostages held in Gaza, help foreign nationals to get out of the enclave, and let in more desperately needed aid. Humanitarian convoys are barely trickling into Gaza from Egypt while the situation on the ground is “catastrophic”, according to a Red Cross spokeswoman.

‘My daughters don’t understand that we cannot return.’ (BBC) Rushdi Abualouf of BBC News is in Gaza reporting on a conflict he cannot escape from. He has shared with us his personal experience, after he had to relocate his family four times in the past two weeks: Two days ago, my wife and children nearly died. They were about to leave for the day to meet me when an Israeli drone attack punched through the top floor of a four-storey building in Khan Younis, Gaza. My nine-year-old twin daughters ran out into the street screaming, separated from their mother, who was struck in the head by a piece of rubble.  My daughters have had to leave behind everything they love in Gaza City and head south—their school, their friends, their horse riding club, their favourite pizza shop. Both of them are constantly asking to go back there, to relative normality. They are begging to go back. They don’t understand that we cannot return.

Want to be sharper? Try golf or walking (Yahoo News) A new study of 25 healthy golfers age 65 and over found that playing 18 holes of golf or walking 3.7 miles significantly improved their immediate cognitive function. The research, which was published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, underscores “the value of age-appropriate aerobic exercise,” said Julia Kettinen, the first author of the article and a doctoral researcher in sports and exercise medicine at the University of Eastern Finland. It seems that the walking element is key here: Research consistently shows that walking has enormous health benefits, from reducing risk of heart disease and dementia to improving the quality and duration of your sleep.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

MAGA anarchists are trying to cause a breakdown in society to prompt their apocalyptic civil/race war. These nuts are for real and these right-wing radical anti-government and anarchists must be shut down.

Anti-militia laws NOW!

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

🔻ROCKETS & SUICIDE DRONES from Hezbollah - Lebanon, x3 - near border towns Gonen, Kfar Blum, Sir, Shomera, and others.

🔻ROCKETS from Hamas - Gaza, x2 - near Gaza towns Nachal Oz, Sderot, Nir Am and others.

▪️HEZBOLLAH ATTACK INJURES SOLDIERS.. one serious and two moderate from Hezbollah anti-tank missile strike from Lebanon.

▪️IDF TARGETED ASSASSINATION OF HEZBOLLAH.. drone strike on a car in Nabatia, Lebanon, killing 2. The Arab Network says a Hezbollah an area commander who helped build the Iranian air defense in Syria was targeted.

▪️GAZA - satellite maps (not included here) show 1/5 of Khan Yunis is now rubble.

▪️GAZA - IDF DESTROYS.. Palestinian channels: The IDF recently blew up a residential complex in the Qizan al-Najjar area in southern Khan Yunis. (( usually blowing up tunnels below, or destroying buildings that are used as military attack points ))

▪️RED SEA SHIPPING - Worlds largest shipping company Maersk: “The US Navy informed us they do not have the ability to guarantee safe passage in the Red Sea at this time.”

▪️RED SEA SHIPPING (2) - According to some reports in the Western media, shipping companies started hanging Putin's picture on their ships so that Ansar Allah (Houthis) will not attack them. 

▪️HOUTHIS - FAKE SITES - The Houthis are showing on videos that they are setting up fake missile sites, with tin missile models and launchers, all painted and appearing eqiuvalent to the real thing - with the goal of fooling US satellites and drones to draw US attacks with no impact.

▪️US/UK ATTACKING YEMEN - Jets over several sites in Yemen, US claims to have destroyed missiles on the ground.  (( Real ones? ))

▪️AID PROTESTS - overnight the aid protestors set up a tent camp to continue to block trucks from entering Kerem Shalom at all hours.  Starting a short time ago the police began to forcefully remove the tents of the protestors.

▪️SAMARIA - SHECHEM COUNTER-TERROR - IDF forces operating in Shechem today.

▪️SAMARIA - QALQILYA COUNTER-TERROR - IDF forces operating in the Azon part of Qalqilya today.

▪️JUDEA - JERICHO COUNTER-TERROR - IDF forces operating in Jericho today.

▪️SHIA MILITIAS TO MOVE AGAINST U.S. BASES.. Iraqi sources: The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) gave the green light to the militias of Al Shaabi and Al Najaba in Iraq to respond with heavy attacks on American bases, at the same time as the message that went out on their behalf to the US that they must immediately leave the territory of Iraq and Syria.

▪️IDF SHIFTING FORCES NORTH.. (N12) Division 36 recently fought against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, and has now been transferred to operational activity on the northern border. "We are after four months of fighting and we are not taking our foot off the gas," said the commander as the division was training prior to their move.

▪️ON CHANGES TO ARMY SERVICE… Minister Benny Gantz (war cabinet) on the conscription law: "On October 7th, masses of Israelis stood up and volunteered without asking questions. Among them were ultra-Orthodox who wanted to enlist in the IDF, helped the emergency organizations and saved lives in sacred service. Like them many from Arab society. The immediate security need requires us to increase the number of soldiers. In a long-term view, we are required to make historical corrections - a significant increase in the service of regular and reserve soldiers. Those who serve more must receive much more. And in the long term - an Israeli service law, which will also include ultra-Orthodox and Arab citizens in the circle of service. We must find a common way, which alone will make it possible to maintain the security of Israel and Israeli society.”

[nue-staregrade]

Fig.1 Mornthodox godsoldier      Fig.2 Mornthodox Fisherman

The mornthodox

Almost half the population of Nue Staregrad are members of the Mornthodox Church. Although most are ordinary citizens, living normal lives and socialising with Jhuroms and Souflims in mixed neighbourhoods, there is a growing feeling of a need to return to a more closely knit community. Especially in the midst of rising culturoligional tensions.

The Morthodox Church began as a small church of the Tristian and Coeptolic faiths. It’s founders wanted a more conservative and “pure” way of practising their religion. They reinterpreted the scriptures as a strict and straightforward set of rules to be adhered to, rather than the more metaphorical and forgiving path taken by the mainstream Tristian and Coeptolic leaders.

The mornthodox followers began to cut themselves off from society to live only among themselves in old, isolated temples, stripped of all comforts. There they spent their time praying and cultivating the land in order to be completely self-sufficient. Surprisingly, for such an unforgiving and unwelcoming way of life, they managed to gain quite a following. Many young men, dissatisfied with their place in society, were seduced by this church, which claimed to be the only ones truly following the rules set by God. Many mornthodox communities sprang up, especially in Macedolia on the ruins of the Greco-Rithian Empire and in central Rassia, hidden from the rest of society by the vast emptiness of the tundra.

So when the remnants of Tristianity and Coeptolism, left in ruins by the years of anti- religious laws of the Kolkomunist Kanath, tried to find a way to save their cultures, the Mornthodox Church finally opened its doors. Unaffected by the religious persecutions due to their self-imposed isolation and the sheer remoteness of their monastery, Mornthoxism had flourished, and though time had changed and twisted some of its original ways, it was stronger than ever when the Red Khanat crumbled and with it all the anti-religious sentiments and policies.

So it was with resentment, but no other alternative, that the Tristians and the Coeptolics converted to the now culturoligion of the Mornhodox Church. What was once a small group of ascetic outcasts has become the largest and most obscurantist faction in the Eastern Hemisphere.

The priests are called Popcheks and the enlightened leaders are called Oracles or War Oracles in times of conflict. There is also a special order of Popchek called the Benevol, they are by far the largest Mornhodox order but also the least educated. The Benevol began as mere Popchek auxiliaries, mostly tasked with maintaining order during congregations and other religious events. But as tensions rose, they quickly became more important and began to accept any willing men into their ranks. Eventually, they stopped helping the Popcheks and became a full-fledged religious militia, doubling as a moral police force. Although the Mornthodox Church has a more conventional regular armed force and publicly distances itself from the Benevol, they still use them to provide security for their religious services and have them patrol the streets of the Mornthodox districts of Nue Staregrade, where they enforce their strict moral code and, rumour has it, forcibly convert any suspected non-believers they come across.

[cosmicanger]

“wish y'all would stop hyping up french protests because they will always continue to fail to result in any fundamental change as long as french's history, including that of today, of brutal colonialism is not addressed.”

“why don’t we protest like france” because you call anybody who does anything cool an outside agitator or secret fed or adrenaline junkie and you do not protect frontliners when they catch serious charges. unserious. you don’t have riots without rioters. you thought fireworks and construction supplies were a psyop. now you want barricades?”

“These fools literally cant handle a Black person calling out antiBlackness before it is socially profitable & they doing NOTHING to support Black folks protesting c*p city have the nerve to ask “omg where the protests in the empirical core?!””

“Most folks are way too into snitch-jacketing, fed-jacketing & badjacketing Black folks who call out anti-Blackness before it is socially profitable while engaging with various other COINTELPRO activities. Not serious at all.”

“I will still never ever forgive Twitter for turning on the girlfriend of Rayshard Brooks when she burnt up the same Wendy’s that got him killed…”

“"Imagine if people in the US protested like this" THEY DID! In 2020! The police beat the shit out of us! You all were there! It's wild to watch cause people are acting as if we're not living through the reaction to the Floyd protests. They're passing more laws to continue targeting protesters right now! They're charging protesters with domestic terrorism right now! This is because of those protests! Literally passed laws that made it okay for people to hit protesters with their cars. That was the response. The issue is here when things get to burning, Black people are blamed and the specter of Black violence doesn't stir the same revolutionary fervor for the public the way the French protests seem to inspire. If you're lamenting the lack of radical action in response to exploitive fiscal policy in the US, maybe we should look at the fact that the police have been given functional impunity for harming protesters with right-wing militias increasingly being deputized as well. But y'all want a radical confrontation with capital while funding the police as if we don't know how that will play out.”