Evening Turkeys.

The last few times I’ve encountered our visiting turkeys, I’ve talked to them, and they now recognize my voice and don’t worry about me over much. Today, they let me sit fairly close and take photos of them having a groom and rest session. Afterward, they entertained me by flying to the top of the cat kennel, making one amazingly loud noise as each one landed. They had an interesting time dealing with chain link, but navigated it successfully until they were on the roof. I talked to them the whole time they were up there, and they often burbled something back.  I know they will leave eventually, but I am so loving having them here. This is such a great experience, and I am so thankful to the Matriarch for granting me approved status. And I have enough photos to do a “The Daily Wild Turkey” for a while! Click for full size.

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© C. Ford.

Amy Goodman Charged with Engaging in a Riot.

Amy Goodman.

Amy Goodman.

Just a few posts ago, I mentioned how embarrassing Ndakota has been lately. Apparently, the state I live in isn’t finished in the quest to scrape the bottom of the barrel, when it comes to stupid, ignorant, embarrassing, cringe-worthy, asshole antics. I do not take any pride in being surrounded by ignorant assholes who proudly wallow in bigotry and willful ignorance.

Bismarck, North Dakota–October 15, 2016 — A North Dakota state prosecutor has sought to charge award-winning journalist Amy Goodman with participating in a “riot” for filming an attack on Native American-led anti-pipeline protesters. The new charge comes after the prosecutor dropped criminal trespassing charges.

State’s Attorney Ladd R Erickson filed the new charges on Friday before District Judge John Grinsteiner who will decide on Monday (October 17) whether probable cause exists for the riot charge.

Goodman has travelled to North Dakota to face the charges and will appear at Morton County court on Monday at 1:30 pm local time (CDT) if the charges are approved.

“I came back to North Dakota to fight a trespass charge. They saw that they could never make that charge stick, so now they want to charge me with rioting, ” said Goodman. “I wasn’t trespassing, I wasn’t engaging in a riot, I was doing my job as a journalist by covering a violent attack on Native American protesters.”

In an e-mail to Goodman’s attorney Tom Dickson on October 12, State’s Attorney Erickson admitted that there were “legal issues with proving the notice of trespassing requirements in the statute.” In an earlier email on October 12, Erickson wrote that Goodman “was not acting as a journalist,” despite that fact that the state’s criminal complaint recognized that, “Amy Goodman can be seen on the video …interviewing protesters.” In that email Erikson justified his quote in the Bismarck Tribune in which he had said that “She’s [Amy Goodman] a protester, basically. Everything she reported on was from the position of justifying the protest actions.” The First Amendment, of course, applies irrespective of the content of a reporter’s story.

The charge in State of North Dakota v. Amy Goodman, stems from Democracy Now!’s coverage of the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline. On Saturday, September 3, Democracy Now! filmed security guards working for the pipeline company attacking protesters. The report showed guards unleashing dogs and using pepper spray and featured people with bite injuries and a dog with blood dripping from its mouth and nose.

Well, Mr. Erickson, thanks ever for helping to paint a picture of my state as one full of shit-for-brains bigots. Christ, I feel like I should just find a cave to hide in.

Via Democracy Now.

There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed…I would do whatever I can for my country.

Vendors sold shirts backing Trump outside the Portsmouth rally.

Vendors sold shirts backing Trump outside the Portsmouth rally. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff.

As most people will be aware, Trump has been whipping his fans into a furor over voter fraud and a rigged election. He has been openly encouraging his fans to hang out at voting stations to look for “illegals” attempting to vote. Certainly a bunch of fanatical white bigots won’t cause any trouble at all, right? That small bit of sarcasm aside, too many of Trump’s fanatics are most eager to dive into duty on this score, believing every word he says, and these people are fucking scary. Seriously scary.

[…] At a time when trust in government is at a low point, Trump is actively stoking fears that a core tenet of American democracy is also in peril: that you can trust what happens at the ballot box.

His supporters here said they plan to go to their local precincts to look for illegal immigrants who may attempt to vote. They are worried that Democrats will load up buses of minorities and take them to vote several times in different areas of the city. They’ve heard rumors that boxes of Clinton votes are already waiting somewhere.

And if Trump doesn’t win, some are even openly talking about violent rebellion and assassination, as fantastical and unhinged as that may seem.

“If she’s in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That’s how I feel about it,” Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor, said of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. “We’re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that’s what it takes. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that’s what it’s going to take. . . . I would do whatever I can for my country.”

He then placed a Trump mask on his face and posed for pictures.

This isn’t the first time people have spoken about assassination. Does this no longer matter? Or is it that people simply don’t take any of the Trump fans seriously? From what I’ve seen, too many of these people are dedicated fanatics, and I am worried about what they will do.

Cullen expects Trump’s warnings about a rigged election to get even uglier in coming weeks, and he fears they will incite violence if Trump loses.

“That’s really scary,” Cullen said, recounting the violence at Trump rallies around the country leading up to the Republican National Convention. “In this country, we’ve always had recriminations after one side loses. But we haven’t had riots. We haven’t had mobs that act out with violence against supporters of the other side.’’

“There’s no telling what his supporters would be willing to do at the slightest encouragement from their candidate,” he said.

It will be interesting to see how the cops react if this happens. Will they be as zealous in “handling” and arresting fanatical white bigots as they are when it’s peaceful protesters who happen to be Black or Indigenous? Perhaps such an event would help all those cops to understand just how dangerous white people are.

Trump has recently started encouraging his mostly white supporters to sign up online to be “election observers” to stop “Crooked Hillary from rigging this election.” He’s urging them to act as posses of poll watchers in “other” communities to ensure that things are “on the up and up.”

“Watch your polling booths,” he warned.

His supporters are heeding the call. “Trump said to watch your precincts. I’m going to go, for sure,” said Steve Webb, a 61-year-old carpenter from Fairfield, Ohio.

“I’ll look for . . . well, it’s called racial profiling. Mexicans. Syrians. People who can’t speak American,” he said. “I’m going to go right up behind them. I’ll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable. I’m not going to do anything illegal. I’m going to make them a little bit nervous.”

Right. Nothing creepy, unethical or legally dodgy about that, no sir! White people are already making me nervous as hell, and I’m camouflaged.

Some Trump supporters say that if he doesn’t win, they figure the United States government will be no better than dictatorships where elections cannot be trusted.

“We’re heading toward North Korea, without a doubt,” said Grant Reed, a Trump supporter wearing a shirt that said, “If you’re offended, I’ll help you pack.”

Joe Cecil, a 39-year-old restaurant manager, said he has never voted before but is newly inspired by Trump.

“If people are offended by the sexual stuff, what do they think is going to happen when Muslims come here, implement Sharia law, and start raping our women?” he asks.

And there we have a splendid example of white willful ignorance, hanging onto idiocy as if it were a treasure. Hey, Joe! Have you noticed Sharia law implemented lately? You haven’t? Wow, weird that, because of all the Muslims living in uStates, and somehow, your life has not been impacted in the least. Golly. What a dumbfuck, and proud of it, too. Also, Joe, “our” women? No. It must have escaped your notice that women are actual people who do not belong to you or anyone else. It must have also escaped your notice that recent cases of rape in headlines have been young white men, who were barely smacked on the wrist to spare them an awful time in the future. The victims? People such as yourself didn’t have much to say about them, you were too busy defending those young white rapists.

It’s a common strand among the Trump crowd. They say they have seen videos of Clinton supporters ripping up Republican registrations. They believe Obama is rushing to allow illegal immigrants to become citizens in order to vote.

“We’re going to have a lot of election fraud,” said Jeannine Bell Smith, 65-year-old longtime teacher in a red Trump shirt with a bucket of popcorn under her arm. “They are having illegals vote. In some states, you don’t need voter registration to vote.”

:Raises hand: I’m in a no registration state. I’m not in any way illegal.

After a prayer is said and the national anthem sung, she leans in.

“We can’t have that lying bitch in the White House,” she said.

Yeah, a delusional maniac who lies every 5 seconds is so much better. What. The. Fuck.

“If Hillary wins, it’s rigged,” said Judy Wright, who is from Illinois but took off work recently to come volunteer for Trump in Ohio.

Wright sighs at what seems to her an unfathomable outcome.

“All I know is our country is not going to be a country anymore,” she added. “I’ve heard people talk about a revolution. I’ve heard people talk about separation of states. I don’t even like to think about it. But I don’t think this movement is going away. We don’t have a voice anymore, and Donald Trump is giving us a voice.”

That old Chinese curse is working overtime here in uStates. Interesting times indeed.

The full story is at the Boston Globe.

Okay, Captain Sniffles.

Image via @Felicia_Darnell on Twitter.

Image via @Felicia_Darnell on Twitter.

Crispy fried Christ, Trump is such a hot mess, you never know where to look anymore. He seems to be utterly incapable of shutting his mouth for five seconds. That said, the Twitterati do love having fun with his constant stream of isht.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump threw a new wrinkle into his rambling campaign speech Saturday morning, suggesting rival Hillary Clinton may be using performance enhancing drugs to get through the rigors of electoral season.

Speaking in New Hampshire, the blustery Republican nominee took time out from trashing the seemingly endless parade of women who have accused him of sexual assault, to note that he believes Clinton is busy getting “pumped up” for the debate — a not-so-sly reference to doping.

Trump’s comments should come as no surprise, since the candidate has a habit of accusing his opponent of his own sins — including racism and financial shenanigans — and there has been an extraordinary amount of speculation about Trump’s manic debate performances coupled with his uncontrollable sniffling.

As you might expect, Twitter noticed.

There are more tweets at Raw Story.

Sunday Facepalm: Geofeedia.

geo

There is no denying how amazing internet access and social media has been for so many people who are marginalized and oppressed. Sites such as FB and Twitter have been empowering, and allowed for people to be able to stand together for social change. There’s also no denying the problems with social media, either. Both Facebook and Twitter are home to festering sewers of hate and abuse, and both have been reluctant, to say the least, to do anything about it. There’s plenty of talk from FB, all the time, but in reality, it seems the only thing FB is really serious about is not having any photo of a nipple anywhere, if that nipple is attached to a female body. The fairly new rollout of live streaming has already headed into problems, when a young man live streamed his suicide, and even though notified, FB took days before they finally managed to remove the video. That lack of action, and seeming lack of care earned a number of WTF, facebook! from users. Facebook is currently losing people to Snapchat, and even that hasn’t seemed to stir them to make seriously needed changes.

Now, social media is facing the problem of applications like Geofeedia, programs written for, and used by cops and homeland security. The Verge has a good story on this problem.

Yesterday, social media surveillance became a very real problem for Facebook and Twitter. An ACLU report revealed a CIA-funded tool called Geofeedia was being used by police to track data from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to aid in investigations. Documents show Baltimore police used the tool, called Geofeedia, during protests after the death of Freddie Gray, even feeding Instagram posts through a facial recognition system to find protestors with outstanding warrants.

Facebook and Twitter were quick to revoke Geofeedia’s access to social feeds — effectively shutting down the current version of the tool — but its broader implications are harder to dismiss. Facebook and Twitter can control direct access to their data, but they have much less control where the information goes. Now that police departments are looking to tweets and Instagrams for clues, stopping them may be harder than shutting down a single app.

The center of the issue is how Geofeedia was getting the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts it supplied to police. In each case, the company was drawing information directly from feeds supplied by the platforms: Facebook’s Topic Feed API, Instagram’s full API, and a feed supplied through Twitter’s social-data subsidiary GNIP. The feeds are meant to give developers direct, machine-friendly access to posts, making it easier to build software on top of the social networks. Typically, networks want developers building that software — it’s the same system that allows for third-party add-ons like VSCOCam and Tweetbot — but they control access with a Terms of Service and an API key that’s required to access the feeds.

After the ACLU report, Facebook and Twitter revoked those keys — but it’s worth considering how much that will set back similar tools in the future. Facebook and Twitter have complete control over their API keys, but both platforms have made it fairly easy to get one. Developers need to give a general description of the software they’re building and promise to abide by the Terms of Service, but there’s little enforcement and low-level terms of service violations are commonplace. Typically, that’s a good thing. The web was built on permissionless innovation, and heavy-handed enforcement efforts are often seen as bullying or arbitrary. But it also makes it hard for companies to ensure their data isn’t being used for anything controversial.

[…]

Geofeedia’s infractions are more subtle. Nominally, the company was violating Facebook’s provisions against reselling data and Twitter’s provisions against investigating and surveilling users. But the rise of big data has created countlessstartupsdevoted to mining insights from social media streams. People use that data for all sorts of things — trading stocks, spotting trends, or identifying influencers. When people start to get arrested because of that data, there’s an obvious chilling effect, but the distinction between selling data to police rather than a hedge fund is hard to pin down. The problem is with the clients rather than the behavior itself — and clients are easy to keep secret.

That ambiguity is a big part of why Geofeedia was able to stay on the platforms for so long. The company serves a wide range of clients — including “educational companies, cities, schools, sports teams, and the aviation sector,” in the CEO’s words. Absent a public shaming, there was no reason to think law enforcement clients would be any different. A similar case played out on Twitter earlier this year, when a company called Dataminr got in trouble for a contract selling Twitter analytics to the Department of Homeland Security. The company ultimately had to cancel the contract, faced with the prospect of losing access to Twitter’s data stream.

The full story is at The Verge.

The Battle of Cable Street.

Antisemitic literature, 1923. Click for full size.

Antisemitic literature, 1923. Click for full size.

The Battle of Cable Street happened eighty years ago. If all you know about Cable Street is what Terry Pratchett wrote in Nightwatch, it would be good to click over to HOPE not hate’s website about this particular bit of history. Knowing this history is more important than ever, when you look at where Britain, the U.S., and other countries are going, speeding down a spiral of hatred, fear, bigotry, and misogyny. Too many countries are eagerly wanting to go backwards, and it is terrifying to note that not all that much has changed over the last 80 years, especially with so many people advocating open hatred and bigotry once again. Look at the propaganda sheet above, from 1923. It doesn’t read all that different from what people are saying right here and now in 2016, does it?  We do not need another Cable Street, and more to the point, no one should want another Cable Street. Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves surrounded by people who are more than ready to embrace the ugliest of human behaviours. Have a look at this post of Mano’s, if you need to refresh yourself on just how dire things happen to be right now. I can’t even begin to express just how good it would be if people would not only read history, but learn from it. So, please, read. And learn. We need to be well armed in the fight against willful ignorance and blind hatred, we need knowledge to fuel the flame, so we can all be blazing candles in the dark.

It is 80 years since the Jewish community of East London and its allies blocked the streets in order to prevent Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists marching through.

The Fascists were subjected to a humiliating defeat as the police found themselves unable to clear a path.

The Battle of Cable Street, as it has become known, is the most popular anti-fascist victory to have taken place on British soil.

This multimedia website looks at the history of 4 October 1936 and its subsequent commemoration. In order to do this we have used a variety of primary and secondary sources, including interviews with those involved.

HOPE not hate brings you this small resource not just to inform of an interesting historical episode but to allow visitors to draw some of the timeless lessons that can be learnt from it, and how the HOPE not hate campaign links to our shared heritage of Cable Street.

Via HOPE not hate. Hat tip to Daz for this one. Some good additional reading: 10 Points of Facism, and How Facism Takes Over.

Beautiful Cave Art.

Garate looka at cave paintings representing horses in the Atxurra cave, above. Researchers will continue to explore Atxurra over the next few years, and the cave will remain closed to the public in hopes to preserve the findings.

Garate looks at cave paintings representing horses in the Atxurra cave, above. Researchers will continue to explore Atxurra over the next few years, and the cave will remain closed to the public in hopes to preserve the findings.

Rock paintings dating back 14,000 years have been found in a cave in a Spanish seaside resort town.

Around 50 paintings depicting horses, bisons and lions were found in a cave located under a building in the centre of Lekeitio, a village in the Basque country.

The Armintxe cave is ‘extremely difficult to access’ and located under a residential building in the centre of Lekeitio in the Basque country, senior local official Andoni Iturbe said.

Cave specialists and archaeologists have examined the paintings found in May and declared them to be the most ‘spectacular and striking’ of their kind ever found in the Iberian peninsula.

The paintings measure up to 150 centimetres (60 inches), say the research team.

They also confirmed that the cave would not be opened to the public both to preserve the paintings and because it is difficult to access.

I am always in awe of artists who took the time to draw, paint, and engrave scenes from their every day life. I’m also beyond thankful, for all the artists going back into the mists of time, for making sure there would always be windows into their world.

Daily Mail has the full story, with many more images. Hat tip to rq for this one!

Facebook, Oh Facebook XII.

The alt-right movement – known for white supremacist views and its overtly racist ideology – has gained traction during the divisive US presidential race. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

The alt-right movement – known for white supremacist views and its overtly racist ideology – has gained traction during the divisive US presidential race. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA.

A Nazi-themed Facebook group that called for the “execution” of Jews and African Americans has led to the expulsion of five Boulder, Colorado, high school students in an unusual case of “alt-right” hate speech spreading to teens in a liberal city.

About 15 students participated in a “4th Reich’s Official Group Chat” on Facebook, according to a Boulder police report, which said members discussed “killing all Jews and [N-words]” and encouraged each other to “recruit more members so they can complete their ‘mission’.”

Members wrote messages championing “WHITE POWER!”, posted pictures of guns, called a firearm a “[N-word] BLASTER”, used derogatory terms for gay people, joked about “rape memes”, declared that they “must lynch the [N-words]”, and mocked Mexicans, copies of the group’s chats showed.

[…]

The Facebook group, first reported by the local Daily Camera newspaper, was discovered after one of its leaders allegedly committed suicide, reportedly to “show his allegiance to the [Nazi] party and the killing of Jewish people”, a police report said. Officers were also investigating reports that a Boulder Prep high school student was being “threatened and harassed” by classmates.

Participants gave themselves Nazi-themed nicknames, including the Fuhrer, Gruppenfuhrer and Sturmbannführer. They wrote of “the final solution” and the goal to “eradicate all lessers [sic]”, with some writing, “Let’s have fun killing jews” and “You can hang Jews on trees, shoot them right in the knees. Gas as many as you please.”

The students come from a number of local schools. Officials from Boulder Prep, a charter school, told police they had expelled five participants. Most of the students’ names were redacted in the report, except for three who are 18 years old.

Police ultimately decided not to press charges after determining that “there is no evidence or documentation to support there being any credible threat to any students”, officers wrote.

[…]

At least one student attempted to play down the seriousness of the group, with an officer saying “he informed me that the whole thing was ‘funny’ and he would not actually ever do any of those things”, the report said.

One mother was “visibly shaken by the conduct of her own son”, the report added.

It is unclear how long the Facebook group was running, whether other users ever reported the nature of group or whether the group was known to the social media company. Under Facebook’s community standards, “hate speech” is banned, including content that “attacks people” based on race, ethnicity, gender or other factors.

Facebook representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Everyone who is surprised by FB’s response, raise your hand! It’s no surprise that Germany is looking into making FB financially responsible for all the hate speech they allow to fester. All countries should do the same, as FB never stops talking about how they don’t condone this, don’t condone that, and never do one fucking thing. One of the 18 year olds involved said:

“They’re sorry that it got to this point,” Reynolds said. “They didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings, it was just a joke that turned sour.”

No, they are not sorry it got to any point. Pretty sure they are sorry they got caught. This sort of open, hateful bigotry is not a game, and it is most certainly not a joke. It’s not fun. It’s young assholes like you who end up not having the spine to stand up and do right, so you just follow along in the wake of evil, being willingly led by the nose. FFS.

Via The Guardian and Atlanta Black Star.

Standing His Ground for Closeted Trump Fans.

Pro-Trump protester Daniel Parks and a friend (NEWSPLEX).

Pro-Trump protester Daniel Parks and a friend (NEWSPLEX).

A Trump supporter, worried that there were other “closet” Trump supporters who felt unheard in Virginia, stood outside a Congressional candidate’s campaign office for twelve hours while displaying a loaded firearm. Daniel Parks said that his protest was peaceful, but that he intended to “stand his ground” on behalf of other Trump supporters.

“I’m just trying to  provide a voice for someone who might be a closet supporter of Trump. Other people who are a little worried to speak out because of possible persecution,” Daniel Parks told reporter Taylor Cairns. Cairns reported that the Parks, who was later joined by a friend, wanted people to know that they were not giving up the campaign “quietly.”

Y’know, I don’t think that’s what you’re trying to do at all, Daniel. You claim to be making a peaceful protest (with a loaded gun), which is fine, but generally, a protest is against something. That’s built into the definition of the word. Since you’re busy being intimidating in front of a democrat’s office, one would assume you’re against democrats. As for closet Trump fans being persecuted, oh please. It’s those who are supporting Trump who are more than willing to be screaming bullies, and all too happy to be violent in their “support” for Trump. If someone just can’t cope with hearing different opinions, perhaps they need to stay in their closet.

Parks insisted that he wasn’t a threat, despite the fact that he was carrying a gun to a peaceful protest. Those who think so are ignorant: “We’re not a threat to anybody, the only threat is ignorance, and ignorance breeds fear,” he said.

Ohan, there went yet another irony meter. Yes, that gun is just the accessory to set off your outfit, right? I’m far from ignorant, Daniel, and I don’t like people walking about with guns. You can’t trust someone so attached to a gun to not use it at some point.

Parks also told Cairns that Trump may leave the race, but he will continue to “speak out.” “He [Trump] may be pulling out, but we’re not pulling out, and I’m going to stand my ground. And I’m going to speak out for what I believe in, and I guess I would encourage everyone else to do the same.”

Cairns noted that Parks intends to take his armed, peaceful protest to more campaign headquarters later this month.

You encourage others to speak out. I’d guess you aren’t all that willing for people who are against Trump to speak out though. Just all those terribly timid Trumpians in the closet. Oddly enough, I have not noticed the slightest reticence on the part of Trump supporters. So far, they have all been loudmouths who blithely assume everyone thinks the way they do. I’ve had Trump supporters say the most obnoxious isht to me at the bloody market, ffs! Complete strangers to me, and I live in a state noted for polite niceness on the part of the inhabitants.

Via Raw Story. There’s video at the link.