Now friend requests are coming from US military in Syria. Will they still want to be friends when I call for them to face a war crimes tribunal?

It wasn’t until the civil rights movement of the 1960s that US history began to acknowledge this country was built on the ruthless extermination of Native Americans though till today that history is excluded from school text books & what we are fed is maudlin & racist mythology.

Genocide is not one of those things that passes through history without leaving profound discordancies & social wreckage–not just on those who were the victims but on the perpetrators. Societies of the latter develop psychological mechanisms to distort & deny genocide. One peculiar manifestation of that in the US is “playing Indian”–from the attire at the Boston Tea Party, rituals of the Boy Scouts & fraternal organizations, the names & mascots of sports teams, the names given military operations & fighter planes.

After the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned former Yankee generals to lead the wars of extermination on Indian tribes of the Plains regions. By that time, the wars of extermination had mostly ended east of the Mississippi. By the early 20th century, most of the Plains tribes from the Canadian to the Mexican borders had been massacred, defeated militarily, driven on to reservations as defeated peoples.

Anthropology museums were being developed then to house the artifacts of defeated tribes throughout the Americas. The elites who bankrolled the museums, like J.P. Morgan, commissioned photographers to go west & document Native American tribes for the historic record before they went extinct–which they were expected to do on the reservations.

Those photographers confronted the reality of traumatized survivors of genocide living in squalor on reservations. The photos they took, though magnificent, were staged, glorified images of Indians & integral to the process of denying genocide–so that generations would be deceived by what had really happened, by what our ancestors had participated in, by what this country was built on.

The top photos here of Sioux chieftains were taken in the era of anthropological images. Until the civil rights movement, Indians who lived on reservations near state parks in Minnesota & probably elsewhere would attire in the same way to work in the parks “playing Indian” & selling American flags on a stick.

The bottom photos are Standing Rock Sioux activists in North Dakota opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. All over the Americas, indigenous tribes are leading struggles against neoliberal economics & the destruction of the environment leading to climate change.

Who could have imagined such a historic irony when the US army deployed to exterminate Native Americans from the face of the earth?

(Photos of Sioux chiefs from The Vintage News.)

(Photo from Facebook wall of Women at Standing Rock)

(Photo of protester at Standing Rock by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

“It’s so ironic that people are gearing up for Thanksgiving when Native Americans are being tear gassed & shot with rubber bullets & water hoses as we speak.”

(From undocumedia on Instagram)

Jill Stein’s compromised politics on US militarism, her left Zionism, her support for Assad’s dictatorship & Russian military intervention disqualified her in the minds of those unwilling to accept discounts on fundamental principles. Where she was cogent was on the issue of lesser evil politics which she elaborated with great insight.

But what in the hell is she doing now by raising $2.5 million for a vote recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, & Pennsylvania? She said:

“After a divisive & painful presidential race, in which foreign agents hacked into party databases, private email servers, & voter databases in certain states, many Americans are wondering if our election results are reliable. That’s why the unexpected results of the election & reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust.”

She wants to legitimize all that through a recount in three states & reassure American voters that the process is democratic? What she ought to do is elaborate how undemocratic the entire electoral system is for third party candidates, including the number of signatures & substantial fees required for ballot status.

To show the craziness of Stein’s recount campaign, the Clinton campaign is awash with millions of corporate dollars & could finance a recount challenge out of the petty cash drawer. But Clinton is not challenging the election results even though it appears the election was stolen from her, even though she is devastated by the loss, because Clinton understands that her responsibility in the two-party, lesser evil shell game is to render the election process legitimate & accept the results graciously. She has to eat crow if she wants a future in US politics.

Stein is responding sharply to those undemocratic fools, like Rachel Maddow, who insist third party candidates stole the election from Clinton. Perhaps such critics would prefer a one-party system where Clinton was assured victory–like Syria under Assad. Stein doesn’t pull her punches & calls that perspective delusional scapegoating. Is this foolish recount campaign an attempt to stop the sniping from such critics?

The recount campaign by Stein isn’t just a waste of money; it’s a political fiasco. What Stein should use the money for is rebuilding the social movements paralyzed by the election. She could use it to help build a massive solidarity campaign for the Standing Rock Sioux fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline; she could use it to rebuild the international antiwar movement.

The use of water cannons in sub-zero temperatures at Standing Rock is a political development of great consequence. They have not been used in the US since the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

It’s a matter of time before they will be reintroduced generally against protesters in the US since they are widely used in other countries. If we don’t stop their use in North Dakota in freezing weather, we’ll be fighting them in every major city.

A comparison would be the use of police in riot gear at peaceful demonstrations. Even during the civil rights movement police did not show up at protests in riot gear but were attired like regular police. Riot gear became a norm after the 1999 Seattle WTO protests & is something of a provocation.

There’s no reason for riot gear at protests most of which are peaceful & organized. The use of such aggression signals that long before Trump was elected those who run this country expected major opposition to their policies & attacks on civil liberties.

The 2016 presidential race was a far worse circus sideshow than Trump’s campaign & a worse travesty of democracy than his election. Now prominent computer experts & election lawyers are advising the Clinton campaign to challenge the results in three states because of possible manipulation or hacking.

Civil rights groups & international election monitoring groups have been expressing concern about the democratic character of US elections since before the election.

The establishment that really runs this country is working very hard to normalize & dignify a Trump presidency. Surely there are many wondering when & how he will blow it with his narcissism, grandstanding, & corruption.

But how can they recover trust or respect for the electoral system already boycotted by over half the eligible electorate?

They’ll have to commission a team of investigators to track down Trump’s business entanglements, many of which are probably illegal, to sever them so there’s no conflict of interest with his presidency.

Though isn’t conflict of interest how you get bankrolled to run for US president?

When you read about the extreme aggression by North Dakota law enforcement against Standing Rock protesters opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline it sounds like the military occupations in Kashmir & Palestine: tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, percussion grenades, water cannons in sub-zero temperatures.

Water cannons have not been used in the US against protesters since the civil rights movement in the 1960s although they are widely used in other countries. They are extremely dangerous, causing injuries to the eyes & internal organs as well as broken bones from falling. In North Dakota, it is 20-degrees below freezing with brutal winds howling down from Canada. It is utter depravity to spray freezing water cannons on hundreds of protesters who have no place for shelter & limited medical care. Hypothermia causes death.

The standoff at Standing Rock is just the beginning of this fight since the pipeline has yet to traverse South Dakota, Iowa, & Illinois. But this is a struggle that must be won. This kind of brutal disregard for indigenous rights has been a cornerstone of neoliberal economics for nearly 30 years. Thousands of native peoples on every continent have fought & are still fighting multinational agribusiness enterprises, oil companies, mining companies, hydroelectric operators which have dispossessed them, destroyed the environment leading to climate change, committed genocide & cultural devastation, murdered thousands who opposed them, led to the massive spread of urban slums & immigration.

The remarkable defiance of the Standing Rock Sioux is a part of the struggle waged by indigenous tribes around the world & is exposing neoliberal economics as the modern form of colonialism.

Our fullest solidarity with that struggle which will engage all of us in the fight for indigenous rights & national sovereignty, against environmental destruction, & for a humane & democratic world.

Day 137 of military siege in Kashmir: #KashmirLife documentary on pellet guns, restricted by law in India for hunting wildlife but deployed as non-lethal weapons against Kashmiri protesters.

The film is documentation of human rights crimes in Kashmir, including against small children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J4xjMLoJEo

There’s nothing much to say about Obama’s Presidential Medal of Freedom honorees. Except: Michael Jordan? The guy who made millions off sweatshops & child labor? That bum?