Nipsters.

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IDENTITY EVROPA Nipsters.

You’ve probably seen it for a while now. Statistically speaking, there’s a good chance you’re even wearing it. The high-and-tight. The side-fade. The haircut that is has been colloquially referred to, as a recent article in The Washington Post pointed out, as the “Hitler Youth.” Sadly, though, the colloquial moniker—once used jokingly—is starting to ring a little too true lately.

Promoters of white nationalism have recently made an effort to reclaim the haircut, in part due to its historical connection to Hitler’s Germany. According to the Post article, it’s now even being referred to as a “fashy,” short for “fascist.” (Supes cute, you racist fucks.) Needless to say, for hipsters who have long sported the ‘do, it’s a troubling turn of events.

As to the genesis of the haircut’s cultural significance, part of it has to do with Nazi propaganda posters of the 1930s and ’40s—where Hitler Youth were shown sporting the cut—and part of it has to do with basic utility. World War II-era German soldiers had an easier time wearing and removing their helmets when they had it.

Since around 2010, the haircut was popularized by non-fascists thanks in large part to the nostalgia-laden aesthetic of hipster Brooklyn, as well as its adoption by pop cultural figures like Macklemore and David Beckham. Since then, the hairstyle has skyrocketed in popularity. As the Post article points out, “The tidy, chic lines that appealed to the Nazis became the choice of fashionable young men, gay and straight, because it’s both business-like and brash.”

[…]

As Long Nguyen, co-founder of Flaunt magazine tells the newspaper, however, it’s likely not a coincidence. “We call them ‘nipsters’—neo-Nazi hipsters,” says Nguyen. “It’s really important for them to make inroads into young people’s culture, in order to expand their base. It’s a lot easier to do that when they’re stealing the look of a familiar hipster style.”

Basically it’s a warning to us all then: The next time a good-looking guy in a high-and-tight offers to sell you a craft beer, make sure he isn’t trying to also sell you a dose of unabridged hate.

Nipsters. It’s a great word, with wonderful, crisp, mocking snark. I suggest this gets used. A lot. Via Esquire.

And A Very Merry to You, Ms. Bigot.

Lexi Magnusson of Seattle's Christmas lights display (Facebook.com)

Lexi Magnusson of Seattle’s Christmas lights display (Facebook.com)

Lexi Magnusson — who lives in a small town outside of Seattle — recently met her new neighbor, a woman who stated outright that she and her family had moved away from Oregon because schools there were “making it okay” for students to be openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

[…]

“She’s Mormon and heard that we were, too. My guess is that she thought we were still believers, even though my husband told her we no longer attend,” she told Huffington Post. “I imagine she thought we still held the same belief about LGBTQ issues as the Church does. We absolutely do not. It’s why I left the Mormon church.”

“I responded only with, ‘Your kids are going to be exposed to this no matter where you take them. Kids these days get it. They know not to be horrible to other kids based on how they were born,’” Magnusson recounted. “Then I walked inside [my house] and rage-ate a bowl of nachos.”

Magnusson then decided to decorate her lawn with a giant, glowing rainbow flag make of 10,000 Christmas lights.

“Our new neighbors are bigots,” she posted on Reddit. “Since regular aggression leads to assault charges, I went with passive aggression. 10,000 lights later.”

“I felt good the entire time I put them up,” she told HuffPost. “I sent a text to my cousin who loves Christmas lights like I do, and who is also gay. His approval was everything.”

You can read Ms. Magnusson’s FB post at the link. All I want to say here is thank you, Lexi Magnusson, you make this world a better, shining place.

Continuation 13.

No catchy title this time around, just a quick round up of all the continuing awful in Trumpistan. I’m tired. I expect everyone else is too. Just one day, I’d like to bask in all good things, people being good, for a change.

Fake hunting license -- (KDKA screen grab).

Fake hunting license — (KDKA screen grab).

An unidentified high school student in Pittsburgh was booted from his school after posting a hunting license allowing the bearer to hunt down and kill “n****rs” on his Snapchat account, reports KDKA.

Via Raw Story.

‘I will cut your throat!’: Muslim ‘hero’ cop harassed and threatened in New York for wearing hijab.

Ohio interracial couple’s home trashed with swastikas and ‘white power’ slogans painted on it.

‘Santa is WHITE. BOYCOTT Mall of America’: Online racists are having a meltdown over mall’s black Santa.

Internet of Shit.

I’m busy laughing, and happy to be a semi-dinosaur on the technological front. The only thing I want wi-fi on is my computer and tablet. That’s it.

The Internet of Shit. Have fun!

NoDAPL: It’s Not Over.

Photo by Tod Seelie for Jezebel.

Photo by Tod Seelie for Jezebel.

Yes, there was a celebration over having some breathing room at last. But if anyone knows not to trust government, it’s Indians. There’s even less reason to trust oil companies who are already bursting with billions of dollars. All that money means power, and they do not like being thwarted. They have engaged in an ongoing smear campaign, spreading lies and propaganda, openly purchasing the Morton County Sheriff’s department, with the approval of long ago purchased Governor Jack Dalrymple. The Army Corps of Engineers has asked ETP to stop digging before, and what happened? They went out on a holiday weekend and kept working, destroying sacred sites. ETP does not care what anyone says, they do not think they are obligated to listen or obey in any sense. Their sense of 1% entitlement is even bigger than their pockets. Their hatred of the Indians attempting to protect the land and water, for all peoples, has infuriated them from the start, and that start was in 2012.

It didn’t take long for them to lash out in absolute fury and defiance, in a lie and propaganda filled piece of bile, and their insistence they will indeed complete DAPL as planned. The people at the Oceti Sakowin camp aren’t going anywhere yet.

The White House’s directive today to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency.

As stated all along, ETP and SXL are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe. Nothing this Administration has done today changes that in any way.

So, keep those donations coming, people, and help in any way you can, because this is far from over. Those of us here in nDakota have already seen what ETP is willing to do, and it’s not pretty. All the veterans pouring into camp helped beyond measure, because even Kirchmeier can figure out that assaulting veterans is likely to result in much media coverage, and negative coverage at that, so they’ve stood down for now, but that won’t last. No one at the camps can afford to leave until ETP leaves, completely.

“We don’t trust anything they say,” Castaneda explained pleasantly. He first arrived at Standing Rock in October, and stayed through most of November before returning home for a spell. He returned this week. Cunningham and a friend, social worker Kyla Ferguson, had been here since mid-November. All three noticed a sudden absence of law enforcement drones hovering over the camp on Sunday. The peace and quiet, they pointed out, coincided with an influx of media and celebrity supporters, not to mention thousands of veterans who arrived to support and defend the water protectors. All three worried that ETP and law enforcement were merely behaving themselves for now.

“Once the media and the vets leave, they’ll start acting out,” Cunningham said. That’s what happened in late October, when seven different police agencies converged on the 1851 Treaty Camp, which stood in the pipeline’s path. The three friends watched as tipis and tents were destroyed. People were sprayed with rubber bullets or dragged from where they were praying in a sweat lodge and arrested. Some 140 people were taken into custody in all. It was a scene he found hard to forget.

“Native Americans have been sold a bill of goods a million times,” he added. “There’s a lot of mistrust.”

Via Jezebel. * #NoDAPL. * The Verge has covered the ETP response. * Then there’s this.

To every single person who has supported us and helped, whether spreading the word, getting the signal boosted, donations of any kind, lila wopila – very many thanks. Thank you all so much. Thank you for standing up for what is right, for standing up for a healthy planet, healthy water, for the wealth that truly matters, family, friends, and a sustainable, healthy ecosystem. The fight for these things is going to get much harder, all over the planet. Let’s keep that love going, and keep standing up.

Tardigrade Porn!

Scanning electron micrograph of Tardigrada, or water bear. Image Credit: Rick Gillis and Roger J. Haro Department of Biology University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.

Scanning electron micrograph of Tardigrada, or water bear. Image Credit: Rick Gillis and Roger J. Haro Department of Biology University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

PZ has an irresistible post up at Pharyngula about Tardigrade sex. There’s a video, and helpful aids to explain what you just saw. Who doesn’t love water bears?  Now, if I could just figure out if I liked water bears or moss piglets better…

Conscripting local police into Trump’s deportation squads.

AP Photo/Kathy Willens.

AP Photo/Kathy Willens.

State’s rights? Oh, forget those. The ugly hypocrisy of republicans rears its collective head. Where they once never shut up about state’s rights, when attempting to foil every move by President Obama, they aren’t so concerned about them now. As a matter of fact, they are quite prepared to run them right over, in quite fascist manner – coercion. How do you force local cops to become your personal deportation goons? By tying federal monies to going along. It’s important to understand this current attempt at legislation.

Remember the Tenth Amendment?

The Constitution’s vague nod to states’ rights was a staple of Republican rhetoric for much of the Obama presidency, with many Republicans claiming that pretty much anything Obama supported violated this amendment. At its peak, “tentherism” seeped so deeply into the GOP’s bones that the party’s House leadership embraced a radical reading of the Constitution that individual GOP candidates used to argue Social Security or Medicare is unconstitutional (although, in fairness, it is far from clear that they understood the implications of their words at the time).

But all of that deep concern for the constitutional balance between federal and state power has fallen by the wayside, now that Republicans are set to control all three branches of the federal government. In a speech on the Senate floor last week, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) urged his colleagues to pass the so called “Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act,” a plan to effectively conscript state and local police into President-elect Trump’s plans to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

[…]

Toomey’s legislation would prohibit cities from receiving certain grants, including Community Development Block Grants, if the city’s police has a policy of not cooperating with certain federal efforts to round up immigrants. These grants fund a diverse range of programs, many of which have little, if anything, to do with immigration. In Philadelphia, for example, which Toomey represents, these grants paid for a litter removal program and they contributed to an effort to renovate 12 storefronts.

Full story at Think Progress.