Breaking: Truck Smashes Into Reno Water Protectors.

KOLO TV After a confrontation with some of the 40 demonstrators rallying in downtown Reno to protest against Columbus Day and the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the driver of a white pickup truck plowed into the crowd, injuring five and sending one to the hospital.

KOLO TV
After a confrontation with some of the 40 demonstrators rallying in downtown Reno to protest against Columbus Day and the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the driver of a white pickup truck plowed into the crowd, injuring five and sending one to the hospital.

A pickup truck plowed into a crowd of mostly Native demonstrators in Reno, Nevada on Monday October 10, injuring five and sending one to the hospital. Participants in the demonstration, organized by the American Indian Movement of Northern Nevada (AIMNN), were gathered under the city’s Reno Arch downtown to draw attention to the real meaning of Columbus Day. They were also there to educate passersby about the conflict surrounding the Dakota Access oil pipeline being routed near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Suddenly, witnesses said, a white Nissan pickup truck drove by, its occupants hurling slurs. Then it circled back, and stopped. Some of the demonstrators walked up to the vehicle and had words with the occupants. Suddenly the engines revved, and the truck plowed into the group, sending people flying.

Cameras were already rolling to document the demonstration, and they streamed the entire horrifying incident on Facebook. Police said in a statement that the incident occurred at 6:41 p.m., according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

One witness recounted how two men “drove into marchers after first being seen at the rally start point, driving by once shouting slurs, and then doubling back around to get in front of the protesters before driving into them,” wrote Diana Heideman, owner of Wallflower Botanicals, in a Facebook post. “One elder, a grandmother there with her grandchildren, was hospitalized with injuries to her legs, a broken tailbone, and further tests pending. She is stable and in good spirits. She was planning to depart for #StandingRock tomorrow.”

Several protesters were posing for a photo under the arch when the pickup pulled up for the second time, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. Police told KOLO TV that the driver called in from a few blocks away to give his own side of the story, and that police had interviewed him and are cooperating with authorities. That was not enough for one of the rally’s organizers, though.

“This is a hate crime,” Quanah Brightman, executive director of United Native Americans Inc. told the Reno Gazette-Journal, adding that the driver had been “stalking” the group of demonstrators. “It’s still brutal to see this kind of racism in America. That man deserves life [in prison] for what he did.”

Via ICTMN.

Slide into Fall.

Scored to a lilting piano soundtrack, the beauty of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park is the perfect soothing balm to a sweaty summer. In a breathtaking 4K video, Evan Schneider captures expansive views of the Rocky Mountains sprinkled with shots of stunning vistas, luminous golden treetops, and falling leaves. Viewers are transported to the peaceful enclave of flawless nature, accompanied by a handful of friends and a handheld camera.

Schneider places you behind the driver’s seat as a car curves around enormous mountains, and situates his lens to fall in line with a hiker’s steps. That feeling of autumnal chill, along with the head-high of reaching a mountain’s summit, is all here. It’s a terrific way to soak up the feels of fall without making the commitment to travel—or even lacing up those old hiking boots.

Via The Creators Project.

The Artful Science of Mending.

Mending tears with Japanese paper. Photos courtesy of Alvarez Fine Arts Services unless otherwise noted.

Mending tears with Japanese paper. Photos courtesy of Alvarez Fine Arts Services unless otherwise noted.

While conservators in a museum setting work towards exhibitions that are scheduled years in advance, private practitioners often have to work at a much faster clip, while still upholding the required methodological and ethical standards. “More and more, our schedule is governed by auction dates and major art fairs around the world,” notes Jason Marquis, the studio manager at Alvarez Fine Arts Services, a New York-based private paper conservation studio founded by Antonio Alvarez and Scott Krawitz in 1984. With Art Basel less than two months away, the Alvarez team, which includes four full-time conservators, is gearing up for a busy season.

On the plus side, those intensive turnaround times—along with a diverse client base—make for a rich variety of projects. In addition to taking on work for smaller museums that do not have an in-house paper conservation staff, the Alvarez studio primarily does business with auction houses, art dealers, and collectors, who are looking to treat artworks before they are exhibited or sold. Meanwhile, some projects are brought to them because of their personal, rather than cultural, importance—like letters and diplomas. “But we don’t think about value when things come through here,” explains Marquis. “We treat everything as though it’s priceless, whether it’s a sentimental drawing from someone’s grandmother, or a million-dollar work.”

Antique fishing lure boxes. Photo by the author.

Antique fishing lure boxes. Photo by the author.

“According to the collector,” says Skura, “the boxes are worth even more than the objects.” And while the client was hoping to have the labels removed, cleaned, then put back on, Skura is instead recommending a less aggressive approach that will leave the labels as is, and extract the dirt with dry sponges. “What is technically possible isn’t always ethically sound,” says Marquis—a magic phrase he often has to use with clients. “It’s like going to the doctor and asking for a treatment, and the doctor has to explain why it’s not such a good idea,” adds Skura.

I collect old medicines, and have many amazingly beautiful boxes full of various herbs, and yes, the boxes are so very important. The artwork, the information, there’s so much richness and history there. I had never even thought about having these restored. The full article is excellent, and there’s more to see at The Creators Project.

Turkeys, Studio Side.

Our current wild turkey guests were on the studio side yesterday, on the neighbouring house’s roof, and running, playing, chasing each other for a while. These are more back to my usual bad turkey photos, but I was awkwardly hanging out my studio window, with them dodging behind trees, before they decided to calm down, groom a bit, then head back over to the front deck of our place. Click for full size.

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© C. Ford.

BREAKING: Tar Sands Pipeline Shut Down.

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To avert climate catastrophe, activists shut down 5 pipelines bringing Tar Sands Oil into the U.S, in Solidarity with Standing Rock.

This morning, by 7:30AM Pacific time, 5 activists have successfully shut down 5 pipelines across the United States delivering tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada in support of the call for International Days of Prayer and Action for Standing Rock. Activists employed manual safety valves, calling on President Obama to use emergency powers to keep the pipelines closed and mobilize for the extraordinary shift away from fossil fuels now required to avert catastrophe.

[…]

WHERE. Enbridge line 4 and 67, Leonard, MN; TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline, Walhalla, ND; Spectra Energy’s Express pipeline, Coal Banks Landing, MT; Kinder-Morgan’s Trans-Mountain pipeline, Anacortes, WA.

WHO. Climate Direct Action is Emily Johnson, 50 and Michael Foster, 52, of Seattle, WA, Annette Klapstein, 64, of Bainbridge Island, WA, Ken Ward, 59, of Corbett, OR, and Leonard Higgins, 64, of Eugene, Oregon, with the support of Climate Disobedience Action Fund.

Livestream, videos and photos available on our Facebook Page.
https://www.facebook.com/climatedirectaction/

Website
http://www.shutitdown.today

Via Last Real Indians.

Moron Bingo!

Photo courtesy starpulse.com

Photo courtesy starpulse.com

Everyone read Simon Moya-Smith’s 6 Banal Defenses of Columbus Day, And How You Should Respond to the Moron, right? Reading ICTMN today, specifically, an article about the fight for Indigenous Peoples Day at ground zero, Colorado. In that article is one Rita DeFrange, moron, and if this was an actual bingo game, I would have cleaned up. She managed to hit every single moron point. I think Ms. DeFrange needs about 100 copies of Simon Moya-Smith’s article, and must sit down and read it 100 times. Perhaps the points would sink in.

Rita DeFrange, president of the Columbus Day Parade Committee and a member of the Denver chapter of the Order Sons of Italy, said it’s “not fair” that city officials are taking away from one group to give to another.

“It’s a struggle for folks. The community itself is very disappointed. They don’t understand why they are being picked on,” DeFrange told ICTMN.

DeFrange said herself and her community just want to celebrate their history and heritage.

Although Indigenous Peoples’ Day supporters like McLean and Salazar say Columbus shouldn’t be celebrated because of the atrocities he brought to the Native American people, DeFrange however, believes Columbus shouldn’t be judged by today’s standards.

“Unfortunately, we’re evaluating a man by 2016 standards, when the events happened 500 years ago,” DeFrange said. “The community really needs to take a hard look at how we look at our history books.”

Members of the Columbus Day Parade Committee and Order Sons of Italy met with Salazar earlier this year to discuss resolutions that could make both parties happy.

No resolutions were met, DeFrange said.

She said she’s more than happy to celebrate the heritage of the Native American people, but just on a different day.

“It’s one day. It’s a group of individuals who value their Italian heritage,” DeFrange said. “We all value the cultures … that’s what’s so great about America. You know, let’s not take one over the other and that’s the perception that people have.”

Full story at ICTMN.

No DAPL: Shailene Woodley Arrested.

Actress Shailene Woodley being led away in handcuffs after standing with the water protectors at a Dakota Access oil pipeline construction site on Monday October 10. Via Facebook.

Actress Shailene Woodley being led away in handcuffs after standing with the water protectors at a Dakota Access oil pipeline construction site on Monday October 10. Via Facebook.

Actress Shailene Woodley has been arrested for trespassing at one of the construction sites for the Dakota Access oil pipeline, multiple reports confirm.

She was one of 28 people taken in for criminal trespassing, according to the Bismarck Tribune, which reported that more than 200 people were demonstrating at one of the construction sites outside a 20-mile buffer that the federal government had requested the company respect.

In video streamed live on Facebook, Woodley, known for her starring turn in the Divergent movie series, speaks directly into the camera during a two-hour feed chronicling her morning at the construction site near St. Anthony, North Dakota.

“Riot police are arriving. Riot police. Are arriving. At this peaceful protest, where people are praying,” she says at the beginning of a two-hour video, which ends in her arrest.

[…]

After the protectors were asked to leave by police, Woodley was stopped as she walked back to her vehicle to do so.

“To the right of that is our motor home, and to the left of that is…. What IS that?” she can be heard saying, as the camera focuses on vehicles flanking her RV. Then she is stopped by police officers blocking the way.

They just grabbed me by my jacket,” she says into the camera. “They grabbed me by my jacket, and they have giant guns and batons and zip ties, and they’re not letting me go.”

A little while later, after she unsuccessfully tries to find out why she is being detained specifically, an officer tells her, “You were identified.”

She then speaks to the camera.

“So everybody knows, we were going to my vehicle, which they had surrounded,” she said. “And waiting for me.”

Full Story at ICTMN.

41.

George Herbert Walker Bush. Whitehouse.gov

George Herbert Walker Bush. Whitehouse.gov

Although he served only one term, George Herbert Walker Bush took some big steps to help promote Native American interests while in the White House.

The 41st president of the United States, Bush took office in 1989 after serving two terms as vice president under Ronald Reagan. Ten months later, on November 28, he signed a bill establishing the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.

The act, which called for the museum to be located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., created a home for more than 1 million Native artifacts already in the government’s possession.

The new museum was charged with the “collection, preservation and exhibition of American Indian languages, literature, history, art, anthropology and culture,” Bush said. “From this point, our Nation will go forward with a new and richer understanding of the heritage, culture and values of the people of the Americans of Indian ancestry.”

The act also codified the policy of returning human remains and associated funerary objects to tribes. It called on the Smithsonian to conduct a “detailed inventory” of such objects in its collections, to identify the origins of the objects and to notify appropriate tribes.

The act was the first of more than half a dozen passed during Bush’s presidency that directly benefited Native Americans. But Bush also contended with widespread corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

[Read more…]

We’re the New GOP!

A whiter future: pro- and anti-Trump supporters clash outside Trump Towers in New York. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

A whiter future: pro- and anti-Trump supporters clash outside Trump Towers in New York. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Every few weeks, William Johnson, the chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party (AFP), holds a lunch for members, the goal being to make America a white ethnostate, a project that begins with electing Donald Trump. This week, it’s at a grand old French restaurant called Taix, in Echo Park, Los Angeles – an odd choice on the face of it. Echo Park is a trendy hood. It’s hipster and heavily Hispanic. In fact, given the predominance of Latino kitchen staff in this city, it may be wise to hold off on the Trump talk until the food arrives.

“About three months ago,” Johnson begins, “I was talking to Richard Spencer about how we need to plan for a Trump victory.” Spencer is another prominent white nationalist – he heads the generic-sounding National Policy Institute. “I said: ‘I want Jared Taylor [of American Renaissance] as UN Ambassador, and Kevin MacDonald [an evolutionary psychologist] as secretary of health and Ann Coulter as homeland security!’ And Spencer said: ‘Oh Johnson, that’s a pipe dream!’ But today, he’d no longer say that, because if Trump wins, all the establishment Republicans, they’re gone… They hate him! So who’s left? If we can lobby, we can put our people in there.”

Around the table five young men, roughly half Johnson’s age (he’s 61), nod and lean in. They all wear suits and ties, address the waiter as “sir” and identify as the “alt right”, the much-discussed nouvelle vague of racism. “Are you guys familiar with the Plum Book?” Johnson asks. “It’s plum because of the colour, but also because of the plum positions – there are 20,000 jobs in that book that are open to a new administration.”

“So we need to identify our top people!” says Eric, one of the men at the table.

“Just anyone with a college degree!” Johnson says.

“Right.” Eric is practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. “We need to get the word out. We are the new GOP!”

[…]

It’s not every day that a brown journalist gets to sit in on a white-nationalist strategy meeting. But these are strange times. Racism is trending. Like Brexit, Trump has normalised views that were once beyond the pale, and groups like the AFP have grown bold. Their man’s stubby orange fingers are within reach of actual power, so maybe it’s time to emerge from the shadows at last.

I first met Johnson in May after he signed up as a Trump delegate before being swiftly struck off by the campaign when the press found out. He’s a surprising figure. An avid environmentalist, fluent in Japanese and, in person, not the bitter old racist I’d expected but rather a jolly Mormon grandfather, bright eyed and chuckling, a Wind in the Willows character. Eric is even more unexpected. Tall and impassioned, he came to racism via hypnotherapy, of all things. He sells solar panels for a living and practises yoga. Together with his friends Matt and Nathan, who are also here at lunch, he runs an alt-right fraternity in Manhattan Beach – “a beer and barbecues thing”. They’re called the Beach Goys. “We’re starting a parody band,” he beams. “We’ve found a drummer!”

Between them they represent two poles of a racist spectrum, young and old. And judging from this lunch, it’s the millennials who are the more extreme. Johnson wants white nationalists to appear less mean and he finds the “JQ”, the Jewish Question, archaic. But Eric loves the meanness of the alt right. “We’re the troll army!” he says. “We’re here to win. We’re savage!” And antisemitism is non-negotiable. In fact, he’d like to clear up a misnomer about the alt right, propagated by the Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos, who is often described, mistakenly, as the movement’s leader. Milo casts the alt right as principally a trolling enterprise, dedicated to attacking liberal shibboleths for the “lulz”– there’s precious little actual bigotry. But Eric insists otherwise. Yes, they like to joke, they have memes, they’re just as funny as liberals – have I heard of their satirical news podcasts, the Daily Shoah and Fash the Nation? But make no mistake, the racism is real. Eric especially enjoys The Daily Stormer, a leading alt-right news site, which is unashamedly pro-Hitler.

What unites Johnson and Eric is what they describe as “the systematic browbeating of the white male” – namely all this talk of privilege, the Confederate flag, Black Lives Matter and mansplaining. But beyond that, it’s the “looming extinction of the white race”. This is the language they use. Also: “Diversity equals white genocide.” The alt right loves to evoke genocide while harbouring Holocaust deniers. Their point is that white people are melting away like the icecaps, and they have a primal drive to stop it. In 2044, non-Hispanic whites will drop below 50% of the US population. “The generation of the white minority has already been born,” Eric says. “Look at South Africa and Rhodesia. That’s where we’re headed. Total disenfranchisement.”

It’s definitely worth clicking over and reading the in-depth article at The Guardian. It’s unpleasant, it’s upsetting, and it’s scary. There’s no point ignoring this though, we do that at our peril.

Equal Pay: Denies Women Ability to Negotiate.

Rep. Tom McClintock appears at a debate (YouTube/screen grab)

Rep. Tom McClintock appears at a debate (YouTube/screen grab)

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock recently cited $1/hour jobs and the “opportunity to negotiate” as reasons that women are better off without the protection of equal pay laws.

At a debate last week between McClintock and Dr. Bob Derlet, a Sonora Democrat, one voter brought up the topic of equal pay for women, and asked the Republican incumbent his daughter should make less than his son.

McClintock recalled that his “biggest break” had been when a local newspaper editor paid him a wage that worked out to about $1 per hour.

Yes, yes, and how many decades ago was that, Rep. Dinosaur? I can think back decades ago to what I was paid when I waited tables, and boy, you just don’t want to know how hard I had to work for next to nothing.  I made a whole $50.00 dollars a week, and was paid every two weeks. That wasn’t right then, and it sure as hell isn’t right now. Back then, the excuse for serving work wages was because tips. I think that one is still being used. And y’know, back then, there were a lot of old white men who thought a dime was a really generous tip. Fuck the good ol’ days. I was there, they weren’t all that. (I was there for one set of them, anyway.)

[…]

McClintock added that he did not want to “deny that opportunity to anyone, regardless of their gender, their age, their experience.”

“I believe that every person ought to have the freedom to negotiate terms that satisfactory to them and to their employer without some third party butting his nose into the transaction,” he opined. “That’s called freedom. It works and it’s time we put it back to work.”

No, that’s not freedom. It’s slavery, and it doesn’t work at all, except for people who already have enough wealth to ease their way through fifty lifetimes rather than one. Jesus Christ, everywhere you turn, there are these old, white men who just cannot cope unless everyone is forced to move backwards, backwards, backwards, undoing the generations of hard work people lived and died for, to make social progress. Please, put your pasty arse out to pasture, Sir, we do not need you.

https://youtu.be/50WktZWVvgo

Full story here.