I’m writing for tomorrow, day 175, and due to volunteer work, I’ve been going non-stop since 6:00 AM, and it’s now evening, except for three hours of intense religions mediation upon the wonderful Holy Ellipsoid Orb. Pardon my brevity. The Cartoon is resurrected from last year. (Early AM Update: Unplanned vertical sleep has me running way late).
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:23 (average 5:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious Ecstasy:
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (Hat-Tip: JL A from Care2): …These are the sorts of bigotry, harassment and human rights violations faced on a regular basis by American Indians seeking equal access to the ballot box. The discrimination that they endure is remarkably similar to that of African-Americans and Latinos, but odds are that you hadn’t been thinking about the voting rights of American Indians. In fact, outside of the #ChangeTheName controversy surrounding Washington DC’s professional football team, I doubt that American Indians have crossed many of your minds recently. This may be in part because there are only 1.9 million American Indians in this country and you don’t have much direct interaction with them, but I think it is also because the Civil Rights Movement in the United States during the fifties and sixties was almost exclusively an African American movement.
If you doubt me, I urge you to a little free association exercise with yourself and take note of the events from that era that first come to mind. When I think on it, the images I see are of sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina and bloody marches in Selma, Alabama; I envision Dr. King speaking of his dreams in front of a packed National Mall and I think about the bodies of 3 civil rights workers being buried on a hot Mississippi night during Freedom Summer. At no point do I think about “No Indians or Dogs Allowed signs” in Wyoming during the 1960s or the Occupation of Wounded Knee, because these things aren’t part of our mainstream narrative of civil rights in America. They aren’t part of our narrative, but they should be. Civil rights movements are not mutually exclusive and there is no cause too remote or removed from our personal experience to be fought. Many of us may not live near a reservation or interact with American Indians in our daily lives, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hold ourselves as responsible for their voting rights as we do any other race or ethnicity. First and foremost, voter discrimination is not a southern problem; nor is it an African American problem, a Latino problem or an American Indian problem. It is an American problem and it’s about time we treated it as such…
This article is a veritable history lesson of the disenfranchisement of native people, and I’ve shared just a tiny part of it. Click through for a most informative read and an issue that needs more exposure.
From Upworthy: The context (not to mention that footage) at the beginning of this clip is key. Her reaction is just on point. It takes a lot to say something like that on live television.
Kudos to Sony Hostin. The rest? Not so!
From NY Times: It turns out that the Internet does not have infinite capacity. At least not for political ads.
As an increasing number of campaigns and outside groups are finding out, premium space on the web has long been booked. Digital advertising is maturing much in the way television did, as targeting becomes more sophisticated and the definition of a viewer expands drastically.
“Many political strategists don’t think of the Internet as something that can sell out,” said Rob Saliterman, leader of the elections team at Google, which owns YouTube. “But in these smaller states, just as there’s a finite amount of TV inventory, there’s a finite amount of YouTube inventory.”
Like anything else competition for these limited resources drives up their cost. It’s only a matter of time before legitimate human political advertising is crowded out by unknown corporate vultures, including foreign corporations. Thanks SCROTUS!!
Cartoon:
22 Responses to “Open Thread–10/13/2014”
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ND has a DEM senator attributed to GOTV on reservations, a strategy being replicated in SD and why SD is now in play with a candidate Jim Dean and DFA support, and sent an email encouraging us to watch one of his videos to see why–one copy can be accessed from his campaign website (the new ad towards the top):
http://rickweiland.com/
This is what I tried to post on Care2 version a couple of times
Welcome JL! Hurry back!! 🙂
Thanks TC and kudos on 175!
Thanks. It's no easier than day 1.
It is 38 years and a few months for me now, and eventually it does get easier, but it takes a LOT longer than non-smokers think. For me it was somewhere between day 400 and day 450 that it finally STARTED to get easier. But I know people for whom it has been longer. I have also heard that hypnosis can help. But do hang in there. It is worth it.
5:26 average still 5:51. It doesn't look llike a healthy lunch for a human, let alone a kitteh.
Daily Kos – I've been reading various things about Native Americans this year (I have no objection to the term American Indians but "Native American" seems to give me as a white a platform from which to tell other whites, "If you don't like it, go back to your own country.") Much of what I have been reading is about voting rights. But I've also been reading about the state of South Dakota kidnapping and holding Lakota children just for being Lakota. I believe I recently read there has been a wee bit of progress on that issue. I don't have money so all I can give is my signature, but I have been generous with that. I did not know that Heidi Heitkamp was largely elected with American Indian votes. She is not perfect but she is way the hell ahead of a North Dakota Republican – any North Dakota Republican. Other than that, this is a great article with many links which I realize it will be a challenge for any of us, including me, to have time for, but if you do, you should.
Upworthy – Not to sound like a broken record (although I'm sure I do), white privilege is blind. It takes hard, hard work to see past it even for a few minutes. To see past it any longer than that takes constant commitment and dedication. I suppose if one works hard enough long enough, one might get to the point where it becomes, shall we say, less difficult, but I am not there yet, and this – attorney – is certainly not there yet. And probably not trying. Grrrrrrrrrr!
NY Times – I do think the individual internet user has a little more power when it comes to ads than the individual TV viewer. If you don't like an ad on TV, and you want to protest, you have to call, email, write a letter to, or walk into the station to express your opinion, which at a minimum requires some research. If you don't like an internet ad, especially one placed through Google, all you have to do is right click on it and report it as inappropriate (as I did with every blessed ad attacking Mark Udall that I saw on Daily Kos.) After all, lying for political purposes is definitely inappropriate, right?
Cartoon – Appropriate all day and every day. Although we can hope that after January 1 it will be out of date. But we won't know until November. GET OUT THE VOTE!!!
4:20 I can't beieve I beat TC to the candy jar! Who's going to beat me there?
4:20 Patty, it took the two of us together to beat TomCat.
4:16 . . . but it only took little ol' me to to beat all 3 of you! I must be having Hallowe'en candy cravings!
Bigfooted. Like Joanne said Candy isn't the nesat cat fdood.
Daily Kos ~ I well remember the stand-offs here in NY at the Reservation borders. Native americans have been poorly treated by the Whites since this continent was stumbled upon by Christopher Columbus. I sign petitions and give what I can to select charities for them. I seriously doubt change will come in my lifetime although I pray it does.
Upworthy ~ For an educated man, Paul Callan speaks like a fool. This is not a "race issue"? He wouldn't say that if he were any color other than white.
NY Times ~ I don't pay attention to ads, either on the interwebs or TV & radio.
Cartoon ~ What an ugly turtle!
Daily Kos – yes, you are right, the only people in America who can say 'go back to your country if you don't like it here' are Native Americans. Oh how sad the world is that everyone throughout the world is so insecure – it isn't just in America it is everywhere where people are so unkind to each other., it is all over the world.
Upworthy – it is indeed racism and trigger happy cops – terrifying!
"Columbus Day " Surely should be a day of SHAME in America. Stephen W Hawking was right!
It's not a holiday I celebrate.
Puzzle — 4:16 . . . but it only took little ol' me to to beat all 3 of you! I must be having Hallowe'en candy cravings!
Daily Kos — An excellent article! I became aware that I was getting very, very angry as I read. I wanted to jump in my car and head to Pine Ridge and Rose Bud to help the people understand their constitutional rights, and to fight with them for access to voting, for education, for work opportunities etc.
In Canada, First Nations peoples have been discriminated against by European background peoples . . . children removed from their homes and sent to "Indian Residential Schools" mostly operated by churches, lack economic opportunities, and are treated as second class citizens and children by the government (a very paternalistic attitude of 'we know what you need') . . . think Attawapiskat First Nation.
I am one who likes to know and understand many things, including other peoples. I was a bank manager near the Katzie Reserve which has 499 members in an area at the west end of the Fraser Valley. One of the administrators was a client of mine. I went out to the band office just 2-3 kilometres down the road and visited with my client. I was interested and in my style, had many questions about the history of the people. I guess I asked one too many questions . . . probably about pow-wows or sweat lodges . . . and I was shut down. Is it any wonder that mistrust still exists when the people are still held down? The Idle No More movement started here and moved eastward to Ottawa to face this paternalistic government. But some things are changing. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld some land claims putting one nation on a more equal footing. Whether First Nation, Inuit, Métis, East Indian, European, African, South American, Asian or any other group for that matter, all must be equal in the law and in reality.
Upworthy — Amen to Sunny Hostin! I very much think that she is right and this would not have happened to any of the other members of the panel. I think that racism is rarely seen as racism by perpetrators.
NY Times — Of course, I don't see any American political ads, but I do see Canadian ads by Harper's Conservatives attacking Justin Trudeau (Liberal leader) or the NDP . . . and our next election is still a year away unless Harper drops an election writ earlier. I don't have cable so it is the internet than get me. My answer to it invading my time . . . check out something else!
Cartoon — I still think that this picture looks like McTurtle is getting a wedgie! . . . and he's enjoying it. Is that Coryn on the McTurtle's left? A bunch of sick, lying bastards!
Very well said!
Are you suggesing that Cornhole Cornyn is checking Bought Bitch Mitch fir a "wide stance"? 😉
Well you know those Republicanus/Teabaggers . . . one scandal is as good as another!
Daily Kos: This is an issue that needs more attention. Since the article says a majority prefer to be called American Indians, that is how I will refer to them. No other group has been subjugated for so long and treated so poorly as the American Indians. We need to learn more about how we can help these people.
Upworthy: I think Sonny was right. This would probably not have happened to a white family. I am not black, but I think if I were, I would be more than a little tired of white people who have never experienced racism playing the card "its not always racism". When you have been discriminated against most of your life, what else are you to think?
NY Times: From what I have been reading the corporate vultures have all ready taken over a large portion of the political ads. This lets foreign nationals affect our elections. SCOTUS needs to be replaced.
Cartoon: Needed a barf alert!
CARTOON:
McTurtle aka Bitch Mitch, as “leader” of the House of Representatives has it so constipated that the 113th Congress is the worst ever in its history. It cannot even poop for fear of its own “BMs aka crap”. lol.
Jim, Bought Bitch Mitch is Senate Minority Leader. John Boehner, aka Agent Orange, is Speaker of the House.
TC: You are right. My “oops”. Must be brain & eye tired. I usually do not comment so late at night and
I now remember why. lol.
🙂