the-ninth-of-november-blog - Tumblr blog

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

As an Indiana Jones / Captain America fan, I grew up periodically saying "I like watching Nazis get punched in the face." Reeeally did not foresee it becoming a partisan political statement.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

I’ve not been terribly impressed with anarchists in 2017, as it wasn’t clear quite how enabling an authoritarian would achieve much of anything.

Practical Anarchism would entail tight-knit community with a lot of altruism. I'm a little startled that someone thought that through and acted on it.

If “Anarchist” movements ever accomplish more than establishment course correction (e.g. Seattle 1999), I suspect it'll be from this kind of thing at scale.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

Problem: How to defend loyalty to the worst leaders? Solution: What if the world were somehow even more dangerous than the leaders' incompetence? Problem: They can make it so.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

True, I'd been warning people that the sky was about to fall. I just didn't think it would fall on me.

John Feffer, Splinterlands

This really sums up my experience of the last two years.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D - Minnesota)

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

Topical.

They may never truly grasp what they’ve done. Their children may excuse it. Their grandchildren though....they will never forgive it.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

I found this perspective very helpful. For a red state, Texas is poised to suffer dramatically from the proposed border tax. If it passes, the GOP may find itself with real trouble in its backyard.

Combined with larger demographic and political trends in the state, vulnerability to a crackdown on the huge undocumented workforce, and the recent court ruling against Texan congressional districts, the Resistance seems to have an opportunity.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

I am, now as before, of the opinion that I did the best that I could do for my nation. I therefore do not regret my conduct and will bear the consequences that result from my conduct.

Response prior to death sentence; Sophie Scholl, student, nonviolent activist, killed by the Nazis

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!

DT (capitalization his; 1989)

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

In case you missed it.

(Funny how easy it is to miss these things....)

Thousands of demonstrators, including members of dozens of indigenous tribes, marched through the streets of the nation’s capital on Friday morning, capping a four-day protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline and President Donald Trump.

Protesters gathered at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters before heading toward the White House, chanting, “You can’t drink oil. Keep it in the soil” as they marched.

Raymond Kingfisher, of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana, told The Huffington Post that he traveled to Standing Rock six times over the last year to join the protests. His message to the Trump administration: “We’re still here.”

“They need to start dealing with us because we are not going anywhere,” Kingfisher said during Friday’s march. “They need to honor our treaties and respect our rights.”

Protesters chanted, “D-A-P-L. Army Corps can go to hell.”

The Native Nations March, organized by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Indigenous Environmental Network, comes a month after the Army greenlighted completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline without an environmental study.

Tribes from around the county have been gathering in Washington, D.C., for days, erecting teepees on the National Mall near the White House.

Teepees were erected on the National Mall near the White House as tribes from around the U.S. gather for four days of protests against the Trump administration and its advancement of the Dakota Access pipeline.

Tribes gathered in D.C. for several days ahead of Friday’s protest.

Among the speakers at Friday’s rally were Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who traveled to North Dakota in December amid growing protests that saw people camped out in freezing temperatures.

Tribal representatives met Thursday with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an opponent of the oil pipeline project, to discuss issues facing native peoples.

The Army’s approval of a final construction permit last month came shortly after Trump signed an executive order aimed at pushing the controversial project forward. Seeming to ignore the concerns of Native American groups and environmentalist, Trump stressed that the project would create “a lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs. Great construction jobs.”

In December, federal authorities halted construction of the pipeline in response to growing protests near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. Along with denying the final easement required for the $3.8 billion project to pass under Lake Oahe, the Obama administration ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to compile an environmental impact statement to examine the possible effects of the pipeline and explore alternative routes.

Following Trump’s executive order, the Army Corps granted the easement Feb. 8, allowing for the project to be finished. The following day, Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, began construction on the project’s final section.  

Protesters marched Friday, carrying a sign reading, “ Recognize Indigenous People’s Rights. We Exist. We Resist. We Rise.”

The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile pipeline is being built to carry oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota to an existing oil terminal in Illinois. Most of it is completed except for a short section near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The tribe and demonstrators have raised concerns about the threat the pipeline poses to the Sioux’s water source and sacred Native American sites.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

Clickbait Rots Your Teeth

The Washington Post recently reported a story headlined Whom to trust when it comes to health-care reform? Trump supporters put their faith in him. It laid out a fairly bleak picture, with a few especially dispiriting anecdotes of self-decieved DT supporters. Raw Story (a liberal-leaning outlet, quite honest despite strong bias) quickly re-reported the story with a lot of paraphrasing, a link to the original, and a new headline:

Trump supporter credits Trumpcare — which hasn’t taken effect — for dramatically lower health costs

This is all fairly standard, of course, but bear with me.

Folks, one foolish DT supporter is not worth our focus. That’s why the Post used the same interview as support, rather than putting it in the headline. Raw Story milks the attention of the Resistance (with a sideline in outraged conservatives) for clicks. And they do it based on someone else's original reporting and, in this case, one anecdote (Raw Story: real news that isn't really news).

Clickbait is designed to distract and provoke; and it works. Heck, it worked on me. However satisfying, it generally serves no one but the site’s owners. And about that….

The meat of the story is all in the original, and that's what deserves our attention. The advertising dollars they get from us will go further at the Post than at Raw Story. Raw Story's superiority is in maximizing our outrage endorphins and shortening our reading time by cutting content.

There will always be another confident moron on the other team with another crazy quote. We won't get far if we're genuinely rocked by such "revelations".

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

What we’ve learned so far at today’s hearing…. - Obama did not wiretap trump Tower. - The FBI is investigating possible collusion between the trump campaign and Russia. - The Republicans are going to any length to protect trump and have no interest in asking Comey relevant questions about this Russia investigation.

Mindy Fischer

(via

quakerjoe

)

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

China has adapted quickly to the sudden display of American weakness. Given incentive, they appreciate the value of joining the US in global leadership. But given opportunity, they’d much prefer to replace the US system, managing the world on their own terms.

The question now is not whether China will become a leader (it will), but if the United States will remain one.

The question is not which country will lead the free world, but whether free countries will lead at all.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

11/9 Readings: Tlaxcallan Democracy

This article describes in fascinating detail the (somewhat) democratic societies of Renaissance-era Mexico.

The center-piece is the Republic of Tlaxcallan, long-time enemies of the Aztecs and essential ally to Cortes and his conquistadors. The state had no equivalent to the monarchies ruling the Aztec and Tarascan empires, or the petty Mayan kings. In their stead, Tlaxcallan was governed by a senate of well-educated veterans of the states many wars.

Interesting in it’s own right, it also speaks to our time. Archaeology and history increasingly suggest that (relatively) egalitarian and (more-or-less) democratic societies are not natural symptoms of modernity. Nor are they unique to Western and near-East cultures.

Democracy, it seems, is a perennial form of human government, present across utterly different cultures and nearly the entire breadth of world history. It also seems to be singularly difficult to sustain down the centuries, despite the clear advantages for those living under it.

Democracy by its nature requires constant maintenance, lest it erode. The warning is timely.

[the-ninth-of-november-blog]

And then, suddenly, what was real and true seemed to matter again.