Tag Archives: activism

Anthropology, Politics, Uncategorized

MAGA Terrorists Invade US Capitol with Help of Police

On January 6, the US Capitol was the target of a terrorist attack by radicalized supporters of disgraced President Donald Trump. This was the most significant event in US history since September 11, 2001.

The terrorist mob was comprised of an amalgamation of fascists, Qanon conspiracy enthusiasts, white-supremacists, evangelical religious extremists and assorted loonies engaging in a violent, anti-democratic insurrection with the ultimate goal of installing Donald Trump as a dictator. To whatever degree some of the participants may not consider themselves of that ilk; they certainly are content to march beside and behind them providing material aid and support.

The photographic and video evidence from January 6 should be enough to demonstrate the fascist orientation of the terrorists even for those who didn’t monitor the various right-wing groups and organizations that openly planned this attack.

See here this terrorist with the Camp Auschwitz shirt. See the other totally “not racist or fascist” MAGA terrorists standing gleefully beside him.

The violent white supremacist gang, the Proud Boys, instrumental in organizing pro-fascist demonstrations were also present in force. Here you can see one wearing the 6MWE shirt which means “6 Million (Jews) Wasn’t Enough” referring to the murder of 6 million Jews during the holocaust during World War II.

Notice the Proud Boys emblem which was modeled after the Fascist Party eagle emblem complete with fasces the primary symbol of the Fascist Party.

They aren’t even trying to hide it. Why would they need to when their MAGA brethren will simply pretend they don’t see it?

Other known members of American Nazi organizations were front and center in the terrorist act.

 

To be fair, maybe ALL the terrorists aren’t Nazis, they just ALL like to hang out with and do a little terrorism with Nazis for … you know … democracy.

This crowd of terrorists also happens to be the very same people who spent the summer of 2020 denouncing Black Lives Matter and an uprising against police violence and brutality, a genuine cause to protect American civil rights and lives from state violence. They called peaceful protestors being assaulted by cops “rioters” and “thugs.” They said repeatedly that any violence in response to state violence against the people was illegitimate. Now, after losing one democratic election they turn full terrorist and engage in a violent insurrection and assault on our nation’s capitol, eager to murder duly elected legislators and blow up the place.

TRUMP’S ARMY
This terrorist mob was motivated, endorsed and “loved” by Donald Trump who promoted the mass unrest and spoke at it that morning, repeating the conspiracy delusion that Joe Biden who won the recent US presidential election did so only through massive voter fraud despite the absence of a shred of legitimate supporting evidence for the claim. Trump directed the crowd to march on the capitol. This came after months of Trump, Ted Cruz, Lyndsey Graham and other prominent republicans continually beating the drum of voter fraud, whipping their supporters up into a violent frenzy that resulted in the terrorist attack on January 6.

Conspiracy theories are a regular part of the MAGA crowd’s diet, as a large and significant portion of them are also believers in the Qanon conspiracy grift which claims democrats and liberals are all part of a sinister Jewish-led satanic pedophile and child murder ring. It is the revival of the blood-libel, updated for the 21st century.

The Trump lawyer Lin Wood spread these claims openly on twitter and Parler, calling for the execution of government officials including Vice President Mike Pence for betraying Donald Trump.

These are people who refuse to say black lives matter because ALL lives matter, but have no problem saying “blue lives matter.” They are “thin blue line” terrorists, the kind who believe the cops have a right to kill you for whatever reason they give and it is always the fault of the victim, especially when they are black. They say cops have a scary job so they should be quick to pull the trigger, then they go and rush the cops fully expecting they would stand down for them. And stand down the cops did.

It is no surprise the cops stood down because the terrorist mob were their own people; mostly white, cops, ex-cops, wannabe cops and active duty military made up a significant portion of the terrorists who attacked the US Capitol on January 6.

Natasha Bertrand, National security correspondent with the Politico reported that there were off duty cops trying to use their privilege as police to enter the building.

“Meanwhile, a current Metro D.C. police officer on the scene yesterday said in a public Facebook post that off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and I.D. cards as they attempted to overrun the Capitol. The officer continued “If these people can storm the Capitol building with no regard to punishment, you have to wonder how much they abuse their powers when they put on their uniforms … The fact that police officers from other agencies have aligned themselves with such terorristic groups shows how scary it is to be BLACK in America…They weren’t trying to hide who they are because they know nothing will happen to them.”

Here is one of the terrorists, a former Oakland cop justifying the attack by reciting the same unsubstantiated conspiracy claims promoted by Trump and his Qanon conspiracy cult.

 

A VIOLENT TERRORIST MOB
They attacked media, calling them “antifa.

 

After assaulting the media, the terrorists can be heard proudly proclaiming “We are at war,” and “we’re coming for bodies.” They came to KILL.

They came in paramilitary gear, with full packs, breached the Capitol windows and entered like a rehearsed guerrilla cell.

They came equipped with flex cuffs, the kind used by police intending to take hostages. A “thin blue line” patch can be seen on this terrorist’s chest and a gun on his hip.

They came to take hostages, and lynch them in classic KKK fashion.

 

They’ve been talking about the “Day of the Rope” for years.

Their main targets were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Vice President Mike Pence as they expressed clearly on Gab, a social media site favored by white-supremacists. Apparently this was to prevent anyone from being able to replace Trump.

They brought pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails.

But we also know they came to kill legislators, not cops unless they get in the way, you know the proverbial “good cop.”

Some people have tried to make the excuse that the Capitol Police were overwhelmed because they didn’t have enough people manning the area, but this is how they prepared for the BLM protests just a few months earlier.

And they had plenty of time and access to intelligence that this was coming. This was planned openly and promoted all over social media for the past two months. This wasn’t a spontaneous event that got out of hand. It was “The Storm,” a Qanon inspired attack they’ve been threatening for a couple years now. I watched it unfold on twitter myself as Ali Alexander, the Proud Boys and numerous assorted fascists tweeted their plans openly. They even made t-shirts and other merch just for the event. These shirts say “MAGA CIVIL WAR Jan 6, 2021.” It was planned.

They thought it was their day and they planned to seize it following the direction of their leader Donald Trump.

Police Welcome Terrorists into the Capitol with Open Arms
The Capitol Police only put up token resistance at times. Mostly, they welcomed the terrorists, literally opening the gates for the mob, all but escorting them in.

Here’s a cop doing nothing as terrorists vandalize the US Capitol. No “I feared for my life” or “he could have had a weapon” as an excuse to shoot.

 

Here a cop happily takes a selfie with the terrorists.

 

Cops standing down, allowing the terrorists into the Capitol.

 

Cops opening the Capitol doors and standing down, you can hear one cop telling the terrorists they “disagree” with but “respect” them. No “I’m just doing my job” or “I don’t make the laws, I just enforce them.”

 

No mass arrests. They just escorted the terrorists out of the building.

Here, a cop gently escorts a terrorist from the Capitol as if she’s holding her mother’s hand like it was all just a tourist day in DC.

Only one person was shot by police during this siege and it seemed to be by Secret Service and only because the terrorist was climbing through a window into the area where the legislators were being held for their protection. As it turns out she was a radicalized Qanon believer and a former cop.

 

The terrorists did murder one Capitol Police officer during their rampage. They bludgeoned him to death with a fire extinguisher. He must have gotten in the way, the proverbial “good cop.”

The cops’ gentle response to this mob of largely white terrorists shows clearly that the violence police inflict on citizens is unnecessary and sadistic in nature. It’s clear cops can deescalate when they want to. It’s clear they don’t fear for their lives when facing violent terrorists, so there is no excuse for them to fear for their lives so often when dealing with traffic stops, misdemeanors and domestic conflicts. The problem is cops kill who they like to kill when they like to kill because they like to kill. They don’t kill who they’d prefer to not kill, and they prefer to not kill or harm their own kind, the white, middle and upper class “thin blue line” sycophants no matter how violent and armed they may be.

Looking at this event critically leads me to think this was not a “failure” of the Capitol Police to properly prepare or an unexpected terrorist siege. This all seems fishy, and it starts to look like the terrorists had inside support.

A REACTION AGAINST POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
In the atmosphere of police accountability that has grown since the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, police departments and unions are terrified that their crimes may be exposed and they may be held accountable. It is in their best interests to undermine a democratic election that may result in many of them going to jail or losing their jobs.

Democrats have largely championed various degrees of police reform. Republicans have largely fought against police accountability. Cops and Trump have proven themselves to have a symbiotic relationship. Cops need Trump to maintain their privileges, lack of accountability and excessive funding. Trump needs the cops to maintain power and assault his enemies while attempting to lead an anti-democratic coup against the United States.

The Police unions are strong supporters of Trump. The largest police union in the world has endorsed him.

It is no secret that most of these associations masquerading as unions are the biggest obstacle to enacting any meaningful police reforms.

NOT A LIBERTY MOVEMENT

These terrorists are not part of a liberty movement, despite some of the language used by some of them. They are not a movement to secure democracy, quite the opposite. They are not a movement to secure human rights and equality, or else they would have been marching alongside BLM and “antifa” over the past summer instead of threatening to run them over with their pickup trucks.

This is a frightened, violent and bigoted reaction to the changes taking place in society. These changes to society’s fundamental racial inequality and economic injustice are being addressed and corrected through the ballot box. As a growing number of people vote to see real justice and equality in the US, the changing demographics have white and upper middle class people afraid that they will lose the privileges they have enjoyed in this country for centuries; the privileges of white supremacy and along with it all the social tools that have been used to prop it up; protestant evangelical religious intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism, and all the irrational conspiracy slander that comes with it recycled generation after generation.

The repository of power, violence and brutality of this system is concentrated in the police force, for which the primary use in its earliest days were slave patrols, Indian hunters and union busters to keep the privileged their privilege and the undesirables down and out. It is the institution through which the rich dispose of the undesirable classes of society. This is the Thin Blue Line in its non-idealized and true form. As society progresses to systems of greater equality the old system of inequality and those who benefit from it are threatened and they react violently.

WHITE SUPREMACISM PLAGUES THE POLICE FORCE
We have been warned by the FBI that white-supremacists have been joining law enforcement in large numbers in the past twenty years and developing ties with far-right vigilante groups.

This was not a failure of the Capitol Police to be prepared because they didn’t know what was coming. This terrorist attack was coordinated with the police. This was intended to send a message to police reformers that if we do not back down in our fight for justice, not only will they not be there to do the job they are paid by us to do, but they will actively conspire against us and participate in a coup to destroy our democratic republic and help usher in the fascist state that they truly desire.

It only serves as more evidence that our system of law enforcement is corrupt to the core and in desperate need of complete reform, reorganizing and restructuring.

The attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was terrorism, sedition, and an attempted violent coup. The participants and supporters are not patriots and they are not heroes. They are fascists, traitors, and terrorists. This was the fascism within the system and its supporters on the outside working together to protect itself from reform and accountability. The participants and enablers must be pursued relentlessly and brought to justice just as any Nazi operative was after World War II. To do otherwise would leave our democracy and our republic exposed and vulnerable to a future fascist coup, one that next time might succeed.


Anthropology, Media, Native America, Politics, Uncategorized

Opposition to the Redskins Name is About More than Being Offended

The Washington DC football team announced on Monday that it would be retiring it’s racist mascot causing nation-wide discussion. Yours truly has certainly been well into the fray.

A young lad has sought to question me on my stance and impugn the validity of Native American concerns on this subject. As is a standard practice of mine, if it takes more than a couple paragraphs to make my point online, it goes on the blog. So, here we go.

“Yeah that’s some who are offended, I know some indigenous people who aren’t. Aunt Jemaimahs family begged for the company to not issue a rebranding, apparently syrup is now racist too. I’ve never understood why anyone other than a white guy with a sunburn would be offend of the term “redskin”. OUR skin isn’t red. Who cares.”

 

It helps to have taken the time to learn the history of that term and Native Affairs in this country. One who has would be less likely to conflate different unrelated issues while repeating sound bites and talking points from conservative media.

It’s not simply “some who are offended.” It’s the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest, largest and most representative Native organization in the country which has advocated for the interests of Indians for nearly a century. It’s the American Indian Movement, Idle No More, countless tribes, and nations and virtually every native activist movement in this country for 50 years who have recognized the ill social affects of caricatures being the dominant representation of native people in media while rich white people make millions of dollars from it, despite what your buddy on the street might think.

It’s not that the r-word is offensive as in it hurts little snowflake feelings. It is literally the Native American equivalent of the N-word. It is a word used historically as a means to dehumanize Indians.

Throughout the 19th century that term was used to designate Natives as wild savages who were only suited to be killed, hunted down like rabid animals. Bounties were paid for “redskins.” Often times scalps were taken as evidence for the number of “redskins” killed to fetch a higher payment. Be assured when someone called us redskins they were not “honoring” us. They were saying we were less than human and just in the fucking way.

Indians are not honored by a dehumanizing term historically used to encourage and promote our genocide. This is a genocide that continues today by definition as per the UN Council on Genocide, and Raphael Lempkin who coined the term. Natives are still fighting for basic rights and amenities as human beings while mostly white millionaires continue to get rich off the legacy of genocide and colonialism, portraying Indians as the things of their fantasies.

This all gets into media representation and how it impacts the quality of Native life. Indians are only about 1% of the US population. Most of those are concentrated in a few states and mostly in remote communities. So, the average American does not have any meaningful interaction with a Native American on a daily basis, much less a native community. These people get the majority of their perceptions of Indians from media and sports. This includes some natives as well who have been acculturated, are often urban and do not interact with a native community.

How Natives are represented in media affects how we are viewed by the majority of the population. How we are viewed by the majority of the population matters when we need our issues to be taken seriously and acted upon in an appropriate manner.

If we are viewed as impish caricatures, savage beasts, or even romanticized relics of a bygone era, we are not seen as real human beings. That affects the socio-political environment which we as 1% of the population are powerless to overcome on our own.

If we’re not viewed accurately as real, modern humans then our tribal sovereignty is not viewed as something to take seriously. Our land rights are at risk, our religious rights are at risk (did you know Indian religions were outlawed until 1978?), our very existence as Indian people is at risk. And when these harmful stereotypes infect our own youth it has been shown to negatively impact their self perception and limit their imagination as to what they’re capable of achieving in life. This has long-term negative implications for individuals as well as for tribes and nations.

There is far more at stake here than simple hurt feelings about the color of our skin.

Anthropology, Media, Native America, Uncategorized

The Washington Team Retired it’s Racist Legacy Today

Today was a good day for Natives.

That racist mascot is finally gone. Of course there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth about losing another flagrant display of their beloved white supremacism. They can’t profit from Native dehumanization anymore and they’re sad. Let’s bask in those tears right now.

More importantly, let’s celebrate our success and reflect on how far we have come since the Era of Termination as fuel for the battles ahead. And let’s remember our allies in this.

Today is a result of half a century of grassroots activism, education, demonstrations and building our own media outlets that created enough non-Indian allies in the country to hurt a market for racism.

We’re not fooled that this was some benevolent act by a newly enlightened class of “elites.” We know it is only because enough avenues of income were obstructed that Dan Snyder was losing the only thing he really cares about, money.

And THIS is the real symbol within this multifaceted victory. The word they used to create a literal market for dead Native bodies no longer makes them money. They can no longer capitalize on our dehumanization like that.

While they whine and say goodbye to the “legacy” of their little racist sportsball club, I wish we could truly say goodbye to the legacy of colonialism and genocide in this country. This is a step in that direction. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Today was a good day.

 


Anthropology, Holidays, Music, Religion & Spirituality, Uncategorized

Bob Marley’s Rebel Music, My Guiding Light

Today would have been Bob Marley’s 75th birthday if he had lived. Tragically, he died of cancer on May 11, 1981 at the age of 36. Most people know that Bob Marley and the Wailers put reggae on the map, taking it from obscure local Jamaican music and turning it into the international phenomenon it became. But for me, Bob Marley isn’t just another name among the many other ground-breaking musicians of the 1960s and 70s. When we talk about Bob Marley we’re not just talking about music anymore; we’ve crossed into the subject of mysticism and religion. Bob Marley is less like a rock star and more like a biblical messenger.

I grew up in coastal and beach towns, so I always knew who Bob Marley was, but through a lot of my early teens I was more into punk rock and heavy metal. Then in 1993, I was the president of my church youth group at St. Anne’s and we took part in an annual Diocesan Youth Camp Out. This was two nights at an outdoor coastal retreat which brought high school kids together from Catholic churches over the whole Florida Panhandle. The theme that year was “One Love, One Life” and Bob Marley’s hit song was played at all the activities throughout the weekend. The t-shirts had red, green and gold on them. It was a genuine religious experience on a Florida beach with Bob Marley’s message front and center.

I was captivated by how much of Marley’s music was religious in its nature. It may as well be gospel music. Listening to Marley’s lyrics is like listening to a hymn, and that one-drop beat and the rootsy melodies are infectious. It wasn’t a stretch for Marley’s music to become an influential part of my ever-growing spiritual life.

As I grew into my late teens, I became more disillusioned with modern life. I’d had a miserable experience in public school. I came to realized that the Church is full of vipers, but only after I had been bitten. I became aware of the corruption of government. The ongoing and almost unconscious genocide of Native peoples weighed on my mind and my soul. I felt like I had been lied to my whole life, and that everything I thought I knew up to that point was propaganda. I didn’t know who I was.  What does any of it even mean? I became angry and a little bit radical. I learned that thinking for myself is an act of rebellion.

I could have gone bad at this point, but I didn’t. Instead this is when Bob Marley’s music became most important to me. It captured my frustration and soothed what it could, and redirected what it couldn’t into a positive fire. This was real rebel music. It was rooted in positivity and righteousness, rather than the negativity found in so much of other rebellious music. Rather than being angry, self-destructive and nihilistic, I learned to be impassioned about injustice, and constructive while invigorating my faith and maintaining a sense of wonder about the world. This is what held me together. The message I learned from Bob Marley and through him from other reggae artists and the Rastafarian movement is something that has continually been a guiding light for me over the years.


It encouraged me to embrace my roots.
It helped me bridge the gap between my indigenous traditions and my orthodoxy.
It helped me understand the significance of my place in the greater movement of history.
It helped me to see that each native struggle as another front of the same global struggle for freedom, and sovereignty.
It helped me to understand that I have a role to play in this struggle and how I can fulfill that mission through education, prayer, and service to my people and revitalization of our traditional cultures.

I can’t stress enough how important it was for me that this message of reggae didn’t just want to teach me rules and ethics and tell me to be a good boy, and it didn’t just encourage me to rebel without a cause. The Rastafarian philosophy freely recognized and validated my grievances with the modern world and gave me positive means to deal with negative realities.

So today isn’t just another birthday of another popular musician to me. It is the anniversary of the day a great man came into the world who would have a positive spiritual impact on many disillusioned youth throughout the world for over five decades now. He may have saved my life. While Bob Marley should be remembered for his groundbreaking music, he is also remembered for his role as an emissary of the divine, a messenger for the revolutionary word of God – Jah Rastafari.


Native America, Politics, Uncategorized

The Media Lied about the Covington Kids Confrontation with Native American Protester

Unless you’ve been hiding in the woods the past few days you are probably aware of the hit job perpetrated by the mainstream media on the Covington Catholic High School teenagers.

“White Teens in Make America Great Again Hats Harass Elderly Native American Vietnam Veteran” was the headline run with by multiple media source from CNN to MSNBC. The problem with this narrative is that it’s 100% complete victim blaming bullshit. A simple viewing of the video footage available all over the internet reveals the exact opposite is true.

A lot happens at the nation’s capital on the weekend which is arguably the most productive time for activism, advocacy, and political demonstrations. On Saturday, January 19, 2019 in Washington DC there were multiple rallies taking place. Specifically there was an Indigenous People’s March, and a March for Life rally. Participants in these two events, a well-known Native American agitator named Nathan Phillips, and a teenage boy from Covington Catholic High School met face to face in an image that has been misconstrued to justify the vilest of threats, doxxing and campaign of harassment against innocent kids that I have ever seen.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

What can be observed by honestly watching the actual full video footage from different sources and angles reveals the truth. The primary video begins with a group of “Black Israelites” harassing everybody. They can be seen denigrating and insulting the Natives present, insulting their religions and being extremely confrontational and provocative.

When the “Black Israelites” spotted some teenagers from Covington Catholic wearing Make America Great Again hats waiting for their bus at the Lincoln Memorial, they begin hurling the vilest insults at them. They call the kids “crackers,” “racists,” and “faggots.” They accuse them of having lice and of being “dirty.” They insult the kids’ Catholic religion, and call their priests child molesters.

 

The video shows the Black Israelites going back and forth between antagonizing different people and then refocusing on the Convington kids, continually escalating their insults. Then they began a dehumanizing verbal attack on homosexual rights, and get this; the Catholic kids actually speak up in defense of gay rights.

After an hour of the non-stop verbal assault and vulgarity by the Black Israelites, the Covington kids begin singing and performing their school chants. One of the kids gets in front of his schoolmates and leads them in something that resembles a Maori Haka chant. Reports from the Covington students say they were trying to drown out the hateful insults from the Black Israelites.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere come Nathan Phillips and his crew strutting, marching and pounding drums as they walked between the two groups. They had left the Indigenous Peoples March and make their way up to the group of kids. You can see the students get pleasantly excited because as was stated later, they thought the Indians had come to sing and dance with them and so they joined in the song.

Then Phillips, a grown man starts getting in the faces of the kids, pounding his drum in what looks like an attempt to intimidate them. You can see a couple of the kids looking really uncomfortable with this invasion of their personal space. One child who we now know is Nick Sandmann can be seen standing near the center of the group wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat just before Phillips spots him, approaches him, gets uncomfortably close to his face while pounding his drum.

Let’s get this straight; Phillips, an adult man and reportedly a Vietnam Veteran approached the teenage boy and got in his face, banging on his drum.

Sandmann can be seen smiling uncomfortably, but not backing away or cowering, just standing silently. The rest of the kids continued to laugh and have fun with the situation. They’re kids and barely even know what’s happening. One of the students can be heard saying “I don’t even understand what’s going on right now,” because Phillips and his crew’s behavior was so odd and seemingly out of nowhere.

Another video from another angle close to the face-off shows a man from Phillips’ crew arguing with one of the students, telling the kids to “go back to Europe,” “this is not your land,” in an F-bomb laden diatribe. At this point Sandmann can be seen turning to his schoolmate, making a motion for him to stop debating with the vulgar racist and to pay attention to Phillips’ drumming.

 

Then the mainstream media publishes a deceptively edited version of the video and starts the false narrative: “White Teens in Make America Great Again Hats Harass Elderly Native American Vietnam Veteran.”

And they wonder why they are called Fake News.

Meanwhile, these students have had death threats and all form of vile and disgusting attacks, and calls from leftwing celebrities and verified bullies for their school to be shot up, for the kids to be “fired upon,” for the kids to be burned to death in a fire and on and on causing the school to remain closed on Tuesday due to safety concerns.

Of course once it became obvious that the story was a complete lie and some of the students began to look like they were lawyering up for the libel suit of the century, some of these celebrities retracted their statements, and published disingenuous, too little too late apologies. Many others have decided to double down because they need this story to be true so they can continue their fantasy that Trump supporters are all violent racists chomping at the bit to lynch a person of color.   

This, students is why we cannot and should not trust the media. We must always be skeptical of any outrage story that seems to fit a political narrative too perfectly until all the facts come out. Personally, I like to take 24 to 48 hours after the initial reports before speaking publicly on the matter.

 

Music, Native America, Politics, Uncategorized

Dee Snider’s Powerful New Video in Honor of Standing Rock

dee

Dee Snyder rose to fame in the early 1980s as the front man of the Heavy Metal shock rock group Twisted Sister.  He has never been shy about championing justice whether in his lyrics or in Washington, D.C.

In 1985, Snider along with acid rocker Frank Zappa and folk legend John Denver took on the censorship efforts of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) and testified before Congress in opposition to their attempts to legislate morality and creativity in music.  Throughout the 80’s, 90’s and on to today, Dee Snider has been the sort of unofficial spokesman for rock and roll.

Recently he has been disturbed by the events taking place around the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.  The Morton County Sheriff’s Department and Energy Transfer Partners (owners of the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL) have actively engaged in numerous human rights abuses against peaceful demonstrators representing the Standing Rock community’s struggle to protect their sacred places and their fresh water supply.  When DAPL workers were confronted while actively destroying Sioux grave sites and spiritual centers their hired mercenaries attacked peaceful demonstrators with dogs and teargas.  The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has done as much and more by shooting unarmed and nonthreatening protectors with rubber bullets and water cannons in below freezing temperatures.  There have been clear attacks on the First Amendment as officers from North Dakota and Morton County have tried to create an atmosphere of intimidation in order to suppress the people’s right to assembly, and by specifically targeting members of the press for arrest in order to prevent news of the human rights abuses from coming to light.

Now in the face of the Standing Rock efforts to protect their cultural resources and their clean drinking water from an inevitable oil leak by the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), Snider along with other celebrities have begun to put their media resources to work in support of the #NoDAPL water protectors.

Snider has released his new video “So What” entirely produced with footage from the Standing Rock #NoDAPL protection effort as a testament to the people putting their bodies on the line to protect the few remaining cultural and ecological resources of the Sioux Nation which once dominated the Northern Plains.

Aggressively solemn (if that’s not too much of a contradiction), “So What” is indicative of a much more mature and introspective Snider, but still carries the thunder of I would expect to hear from the mind that gave us such classic rebellious anthems as “We’re Not Gonna Take It” over thirty years ago. “So What,” is less about youthful rebellion however, and more directly about defiance in the face of tyranny.

 


Anthropology, Native America, Politics, Uncategorized

US Veterans at Standing Rock Apologize for History of Genocide

standingrockvets

The demonstrations ongoing at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline have brought a wide assortment of passionate supporters committed to stand with them against the destruction of sacred and historical sites, and to protect the fresh water supply of the Missouri River.

It began with a small group of Lakota from the Standing Rock Reservation and eventually attracted supporters from many of the over five hundred federally recognized tribes in the US as well as countless members of the numerous state recognized tribes across the country. Grand entrances of delegations from the Oglala on horseback, processions of Hopi, and a fleet of canoes from various northwestern tribes just to name three were broadcast across the internet almost every day for weeks. They have been joined by a delegation of over 500 religious denominations, and the Redrum Motorcycle Club and Black Lives Matter. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein (for whom Morton County Sheriff’s Dept issued an arrest warrant), and actress Shailene Woodley (who was arrested and strip-searched by Morton County officers along with 26 others) also took part in direct action during the #NoDAPL opposition.

After months of abuses at the hands of DAPL private security who have assaulted the protectors with pepper spray and attack dogs, and by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department who has committed numerous human rights and treaty rights violations, shooting people with rubber bullets, mace, tear gas and using water cannons against them in freezing temperatures, targeting journalists and the press for arrest, it has become obvious that there is just a complete lack of humanity in the ranks of the MCSD and DAPL.

Then on the weekend of December 3 over 2,000 US military veterans arrived in an organized show of support, pledging to act as human shields for the protectors against the aggressiveness of the MCSD, to give a break to the people who have been there struggling for the past months, and to help draw mainstream media attention to the cause. On the first night of the arrival a small group of veterans engaged in an operation that returned the canoes that had been stolen from the people by Morton County deputies and DAPL personnel.

Then on Monday, December 5 in what has been dubbed a forgiveness ceremony at the Four Prairie Knights Casino & Resort on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, a large group of veterans led by Wesley Clark Jr. addressed Leonard Crow Dog, a Chief among the Oglala Sioux. Clark asked for forgiveness on behalf of the United States for the past centuries of genocide and abuse by US military. Clark led about a dozen others in the front of the congregation as they knelt in a penitent fashion, one man bowing all the way to the ground. Crow Dog accepted the apology, expressed forgiveness and then offered an apology for of all things the Sioux victory against the Americans at the Battle of Little Big Horn, popularly known as “Custer’s Last Stand. History is being made at Standing Rock right now.

To be certain, these veterans are doing a good thing, performing noble deeds, and maybe I’m just too much of a skeptic, but something doesn’t sit well with me about this forgiveness ceremony. For starters no one in the video seems old enough to be guilty of historical military crimes against Indians. I don’t believe that a son is guilty for the deeds of his father so I don’t hold today’s veterans accountable for events they had nothing to do with. Secondly, an apology on behalf of the United States only has any real merit if made by an elected and currently presiding Commander in Chief of the United States. Wesley Clark Jr. isn’t exactly of much consequence as a representative of the United States, and even if he was, an apology doesn’t guarantee the real needed reform in Indian affairs. Someone else might say “it’s a good start,” and I’d hope they are correct.

I get it. A lot of Americans feel guilty for the genocide against Native Americans that occurred in the past and continues through less direct methods into the present, and the United States as a corporate body is guilty of these crimes, but not every white American alive today is responsible. Certainly there are people, organizations, state and federal governments and departments who are guilty for various crimes and assaults against Indians today, but I can’t see any validity in holding today’s veterans responsible unless they themselves were engaged in these assaults. I don’t like this white-guilt approach to allying with Indian struggles. I don’t want to see white Americans prostrate themselves in a supplicating ritual for atrocities in which they did not take part. There is nothing that can be fixed about the past. The present is where we must make change for the future.

I think these veterans were already engaged in admirable acts of great compassion by showing up and putting their bodies on the front lines beside the Natives defending their land and their culture. For that, they should all be commended along with everyone else who put their body in the line of duty fighting against the Black Snake. From here we need to continue to make noise and make allies until Washington DC can’t ignore the movement any longer. The treaties must be restored and respected like the Supreme Laws of the Land they are. The Bureau of Indian Affairs needs to be reformed. Sovereignty must be respected on Indian land by state and federal authorities, and self-determination must be at all times the forefront of the cause. When this is accomplished, then the United States as a body will have atoned for her past misdeeds against the Indigenous of America. Then real healing can begin between our Nations.


Politics, Uncategorized

“The Trouble with the Electoral College” Video is Unconvincing

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The Electoral College is making its rounds as the whipping-boy of the Left again since Donald Trump won the presidency by the only legal and constitutional means we’ve had at our disposal since 1789. Now that their candidate, Hillary Clinton lost the legal path to the presidency but irrelevantly had more of the total number of votes cast nationally in her favor, the Left has decided to champion the popular vote because they think it will assure them more future victories. I think that belief is incorrect, but that is a different article altogether.

I’ve found myself engaged in this Electoral College vs Popular Vote debate multiple times over the past two weeks and even more often years before, and my stance has been consistent. I agree that the Electoral College could use some tuning, but that any changes will be Constitutional Amendments and therefore must be carefully crafted to ensure that we are truly and fully getting a superior arrangement to what we had before. That means that advocates for change need to start making some convincing arguments. So far, I remain unconvinced.

In these debates this video called “The Trouble with the Electoral College” keeps popping up and I have had to address it a couple times. In my life, once is a social media comment, twice may be a frustrated social media comment, and third is a blog entry with a link I can refer to people.

It’s a deceptively crafted little video that has been around for a while, even before the Trump victory designed to sell the idea of the popular vote without having to justify itself. It naturally uses all the same fallacies, distortions, wordplay, and sentence-crafting you would expect from a political propagandist or a door to door vacuum salesman. While it has some basic facts correct, it is full of biases, unsupported assertions, weasel phrases, and it conflates federal roles and powers with states’ roles and powers as if those are not significant factors. In the end the video is just a list a grievances without any supporting evidence that the proposed solution is better.

Here are a few of the most notable problems.

THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A DEMOCRACY

The first four words of the video are “in a fair democracy …” and the entire video argues from the bias that we are or are supposed to be a democracy and that the viewer has already just accepted this. I do not just accept this. We are not a democracy. We’re a representative republic where our president is elected by the states, and I’m just fine with that. I can stop watching the video here because I’m interested in talking about how things work or should work in our Republic, not some fictional democracy, or constitutional monarchy or whatever. Being based on a false premise makes the video irrelevant to the discussion.

LOADED TERMS

Moving forward, the narrator uses the loaded word “fair” multiple times to describe his position, assuming that true democracy is fair and that there are no other significant factors worth considering other than a simple tally of popular votes that might make things equitable for members of disparate populations. He fails to explain how his concept of “fairness” will result in a better standard of living for Americans than what we have now. He does not provide any supporting evidence that true democracy is a better alternative to what we have now. Many people think it is a worse alternative. The framers of the United States Constitution thought it was a worse alternative and our political system is set up with that in mind. So the whole video fails to convince on that point alone.

OUT OF TOUCH WITH DEMOGRAPHIC REALITY

The video proposes that a candidate could win the office of the president with only 22% of the popular vote. This example is theoretical at best, and that is being generous because it is one of those theories that only works in theory but just isn’t a practical reality. It ignores the significant cultural, economic, and legislative differences between communities that account for their different voting populations. Mississippians aren’t going to vote in line with Hawaiians, and people from Wyoming aren’t going to vote in line with Washington DC. These are very different communities with different cultures, perspectives and needs. One of the biggest reasons I’m opposed to popular vote is because I am opposed to giving so much power to dense population centers because I’m convinced they won’t be able to comprehend and will therefore neglect the needs of such communities and see them simply as resources for their own use. The economic and social ramifications of this could be dire and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it result in secession by multiple communities over time.

Frankly this example alone validated my concerns that proponents of the popular vote don’t understand and therefore can’t care about the unique needs of regional communities, which our founding political arrangement is intended to address, although it is admittedly not perfect.

NO SUPPORTING ARGUMENT

This video really provides nothing at all to support the popular vote as a better solution other than a personal value judgment. Don’t just tell me that something is wrong with what we are doing and expect me to go along with the way someone else wants things to be done. I expect the proponent of the new way to put some effort into convincing me that their solution is better if they want my support. Convince me with facts, data, charts, graphs and historical and sociological examples. It has to be a solid plan, not just a list of grievances against the status quo. Understand that any argument based on an idea in the realm of “because it’s the current year” will be soundly rejected.

 

I think the popular vote is not a better alternative. I think it is wracked with problems, and it does not fit with my understanding of the roles and powers of states under the Constitution which I happen to like, so I remain wholly unconvinced by this argument.


Anthropology, Art, Holidays, Irish/Celtic, Uncategorized

Easter Rising, Easter Lily

As Easter week draws to a close I thought I’d write a little bit about my most recent painting “Easter Rising.”

www.Lojah.com

The Easter Lily is a calla lily, adopted by Irish republicans symbolically to commemorate the revolutionary combatants who died as a part of the 1916 Easter Rising.  It is traditionally worn at Easter time.  It is also used by various factions of Irish republicanism to commemorate the deaths of their soldiers and activists.

 

Easter Rising

On Easter Monday, April1 24, 1916 Irish revolutionaries took up arms against British rule in Ireland, seeking to establish an independent Irish republic.  The majority of the conflict took place in Dublin, planned and led by seven members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council.

Patrick Pearse, a schoolmaster and Irish language activist led the Irish Volunteers.  He was supported by the Irish Citizen Army led by James Connolly, and 200 women from Cumann na mBan – the Irish Women’s Council.  They seized key points in Dublin, making the General Post Office the headquarters of the uprising where they delivered the Proclamation of the Irish Republic claiming independence from Britain and the establishment of an Irish Republic.

The following day the British authorities declared martial law, and deployed thousands of reinforcements to suppress the uprising.  The streets of Dublin were in open warfare that lasted for six days.  The Irish revolutionaries put up a tough resistance and the fighting was fierce.  Frustrated British troops began engaging in war crimes against Irish civilians.

The Portobello Killings

On Tuesday, April 25 British soldiers took the pacifist activist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington hostage and used him as a human shield.  They blew up a tobacco store and captured Labour Party councilor Richard O’Carroll, two journalists Thomas Dickison and Patrick MacIntyre , and the young boy James Coade.  They executed all the captives and secretly buried them in Portobello Barracks.

The North King Street Massacre

North King Street was the scene of some of the heaviest combat between Irish and British soldiers.  On Saturday, April 29th after British soldiers succeeded in overrunning a well barricaded rebel post, they broke into the homes of noncombatant civilians and shot and bayoneted them, killing 15 men.  The soldiers then pilfered the bodies and secretly buried them in backyards and cellars.

           

There were numerous other civilian casualties suffered as a result of the British assault amounting to more than half the loss of life during the uprising.  British forces eventually surrounded the Irish factions and bombarded them into submission, laying waste to vast areas of the city.  Between the superior military strength of the British Army and the fear that more innocent civilians would be killed, Patrick Pearse ordered an unconditional surrender on Saturday, April 29.

In the aftermath the British arrested 3,500 Irish, sending almost 2,000 of them to prison camps.  The leadership of the rebellion was executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol between May 3 and 12.

Even though it was technically a failure the Easter Rising succeeded in inspiring hope in an independent Ireland.  The British response to it caused a strong negative reaction in the Irish population and a wave of support for Irish independence swept across the island.  By 1919 the Irish War of Independence broke out and lead to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment of the Irish Free State.  The technical defeat resulted in the Independent Ireland it had sought to achieve.

In 1926 during the tenth year anniversary of the Easter Rising the Irish Women’s Council introduced the calla lily as a badge sold outside of Catholic churches to be worn on Easter Sunday in commemoration of the uprising and to raise relief money for the families of Irish political prisoners.  To this day it is still a symbol of Irish identity and remembrance.

Many songs have been written in commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising.  One of the most well known and perhaps the unarguable official song of remembrance of the rising is “Foggy Dew,” written by Father Canon O’Neill.


Music, Native America, Profiles, Uncategorized

Shadowyze Bio

Shadowyze (pronounced shadow-wise) is a Native American hip hop artist who comes from a background of Muskogee Creek and Scots-Irish heritage.  He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of West Florida and his lyrics are woven within a fabric of insight and social awareness.



Shadowyze was born in San Antonio, Texas as Alvin Shawn Enfinger and relocated with his family to Pensacola, Fla. at the age of eight.  In 1989, Shadowyze launched his hip-hop career when his group, Posse In Effect, released the official theme song “Knock ‘em out the Ring Roy” recorded for then Olympic boxing Silver Medalist Roy Jones Jr. which received strong support on regional radio as well as NBC Sportsworld.

The big turning point in his career came after Shadowyze spent ten weeks in Central and South America and Mexico in 1998 where he witnessed the cruelty of the “low intensity war,” military oppression and poverty imposed upon the Mayan Indian population in Chiapas, Mexico which inspired his 1999 multi-single Murder in Our Backyard which was endorsed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams of Ireland.

Shadowyze has appeared on over 20 compilations and released three full length albums; Spirit Warrior (2001), World of Illusions (2003), and his current 2005 release; the self-titled Shadowyze featuring platinum recording Latino artist Baby Bash, and the production wizardry of Nashville’s DJ Dev of Devastating Music; production engineer of the triple platinum selling album 400 degrees by Juvenile and Happy Perez (producer of Baby Bash’s platinum hit Suga Suga, as well as Frankie J., Mystikal).  In 2006 Shadowyze, DJ Dev and Lojah teamed up to produce the multi-single “Powda & Flow” on Backbone Records.


Shadowyze has supported the Mayan Indian Relief Fund and in 2005 attracted national attention by helping to organize and coordinate a Hurricane Katrina relief effort delivering several thousands of dollars worth of supplies to the Choctaw Indian Reservation in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

In 2005 Shadowyze won both the Native American Music Awards and the Pensacola, Florida Music Awards for best hip-hop and has been the focus of several stories appearing in Rolling Stone, Vibe, XXL, Billboard, New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Shadowyze was featured on the covers of Downlow Magazine, Native Network and Get’em Magazine.

Through Backbone, Records; Shadowyze released Guerillas in the Mixx, a compilation in cooperation with Big Lo featuring Public Enemy, The Coup, Michael Franti, Spearhead, Afrika and Litefoot.

Shadowyze has spoken on Native American issues and performed his music on many Indian reservations, the Montrose Jazz Fest in Switzerland and the National Autry Center in Los Angeles.  His most recent release in 2009 on Backbone Records is titled after the Mayan prophecy “2012.”

Lojah featuring Sadowyze: Flow