#Trail of Tears

[mutter-official]

As an example to illustrate just how few actual checks on the powers of the presidency there are, remember the Trail of Tears.

Andrew Jackson asked the fucking Supreme Court if committing a genocide by uprooting thousands of people from their homes and land and forcing them to walk thousands of miles across the country was legal. They told him, loud and clear, "FUCK NO!"

But he did it anyway. Because SCOTUS couldn't stop him, because the constitutional job of the judicial branch is to interpret the laws and constitution, and enforcing them is the job of the executive. The president/executive can completely ignore SCOTUS/the judicial and there's fuck all we can do about it other than voting.

Like, getting political for a moment. A thing a lot of people need to understand is that, ultimately, rules only exist if they are enforceable. The mechanism of enforcement is what determines the realness of a rule.

If you're playing Monopoly and you decide that being in Jail sucks so you move your piece to Go and call it a tunneling loophole, there's nothing built into the game to actually stop you from doing that. Other players yelling at you and banishing you from the table is how the rule is enforced. But if they don't, if they let you do that, then I'm sorry but that's just how the game is played now. If you're allowed to do it then it's not against the rules.

We all instinctively understand that when you're running track, you're not supposed to cross the lines into someone else's lane. But the lines are not a wall. They're not physically preventing you from doing anything. If you decide you want to run into the lane to your right and jump-kick the other racer, you physically can do that.

The line on the ground is a social construct. It's part of the magic circle; A thing that takes on special meaning, even psychological power, so long as we exist within its play space. But it's not real, and it only has power if somebody comes over and drags you off the field for striking that other racer.

At the highest echelons of power, a lot of what "can" and "can't" be done are actually just the boundaries of a magic circle with few real enforcement mechanisms. The President can't do that. But. Like. Who's going to stop him if he does?

The biggest thing we learned during the Trump Presidency was just how many restrictions on government power are illusory. Trump spent his four years in office testing the limits of what he can and can't do. Stepping over the lines of the magic circle to see which ones had enforcement mechanisms and which were merely decorative. And revealing that an alarming number were decorative.

Because the thing about the highest offices, about POTUS and SCOTUS and Congress, is that they're the highest offices. There's nobody above them. The only check on their power is each other and, contrary to what high school social studies might tell you, those checks aren't very strong at all.

Trump wants to redefine the game rules to be dictatorial. The magic circle says he can't do that. But the only factor that truly decides whether he can or can't is whether the other players at the table will let him do it. And if you listen to the way Republican Congressmen talk, it's not reassuring.

There are no executive super-cops who will arrest Trump if he breaks the rules. The Avengers are not going to show up and stop him from continuing to reconfigure the magic circle to his liking. The only thing, the only true restriction on his power, is the vote. It's the fact that we, as a population, get to make a choice as to whether or not he even gets to sit back down at the table to play again at all.

In a democracy, voters are the enforcement mechanism. Let's try and remember that when November comes around.

[noahnecromancy]

donate to families in palestine and gaza. if you can’t protest, donate. if you can’t donate, post about it. reblog posts with donation sites. do the daily clicks for gaza. doing nothing is supporting genocide.

[mapsontheweb]

Trail of tears

The forced relocation during the 1830s of Eastern Woodlands Indians of the Southeast region of the United States to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

[news4dzhozhar]

[tiliman2]

“U.S. people are taught that their military culture does not approve of or encourage targeting and killing civilians and know little or nothing about the nearly three centuries of war-fare-before and after the founding of the U.S.-that reduced the Indigenous peoples of the continent to a few reservations by burning their towns and fields and killing civilians, driving the refugees out--step by step--across the continent....Violence directed systematically against noncombatants through irregular means, from the start, has been a central part of Americans' way of war. “

Military Historian John Grenier

Excerpt from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book:

An Indigenous People’s History of the United States

[my-midlife-crisis]

[porterdavis]

How it's done

This beautiful sculpture was built by the Irish people in their own country to honor the American Choctaw Indian tribe. They were grateful because in 1847 the Choctaw people sent money to Ireland when they learned that Irish people were starving due to the potato famine. The Choctaw themselves were living in hardship and poverty, having recently endured the Trail of Tears. And that is a lesson in how to be a person in this world. Kindred Spirits is a large stainless steel outdoor sculpture in Bailick Park in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. The shape of the feathers is intended to represent a bowl of food.

- Native American DNA

[shannendoherty-fans]

Shannen's Native American Descent

We all know Shannen Doherty was of Irish descent through the paternal side of her family.

The Doherty / O’Doherty family is an Irish clan based in County Donegal. The O’Dohertys are named after Dochartach (c. 10th century), a member of the Cenél Conaill dynasty which in medieval Irish genealogy traced itself to Niall of the Nine Hostages. The O’Doherty clan and family name is one of the most ancient in Europe. The clan traces its pedigree through history, pre-history, and mythology to 2BC. (Source)

Shannen and her dad, John Thomas Doherty, in Ireland ca. 1996/97.

Shannen was also from English and Scottish descent through her mother Rosa Elizabeth née Wright. The red-haired Southern belle also has Native American ancestry, most concretley the Chumash people (Source), and thus has Shannen (Source).

Shannen and her mum spending time in nature, ca.2024.

Shannen explained that she wasn't able to be with her dad when he passed away on the 4th of November of 2010. Her best friend Chris Cortazzo told her to spend some quality time with her mother and him at his ranch in Tennesse, which is surrounded by Native American ground. When she was there suddenly the wind shaked the plants and trees and she felt her father’s arms go around her and say “It’s ok baby, I love you. I’m here" (Source) (Source).

Her mother Rosa said that one of her great-great-grandmothers (she doesn't know the grade) was forced to move in the called "Trail of Tears", the forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" [Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminoles] between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans within that were ethnically cleansed by the United States government (Wiki). Furthermore, she said her ancestor was from the Chumash people and was forced to move from Mississipi to Oklahoma (Source).

Rosa also said about Shannen's Native American's heritage:

"The whole Indian heritage to Shannen was very, very important ... Shannen swore when she bought this property [a ranch in Malibu to live with her mum, her friends, and to do a shelter for horses]… she says, I just feel it. She says, I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. And she just felt that whole Indian."

Also she was proud of having directed "Charmed"'s episode "The Good, The Bad and The Cursed" that features a storyline involving American's First Nations people's and Native actors Kimberly Guerrero (from Colville and Salish-Kootenai native peoples from Alaska) and Michael Greyeyes (Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada).

Shannen Doherty (R) with First Nations' actors Kimberley Guerrero and Michael Greyeyes.

The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California (Wiki), in portions of what is now Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu in the south to Mt Pinos in the east. Their territory includes three of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel; the smaller island of Anacapa was likely inhabited seasonally due to the lack of a consistent water source.

Modern place names with Chumash origins include Malibu, Nipomo, Lompoc, Ojai, Pismo Beach, Point Mugu, Port Hueneme, Piru, Lake Castaic, Saticoy, Simi Valley and Somis. Archaeological research demonstrates that the Chumash people have deep roots in the Santa Barbara Channel area and lived along the southern California coast for millennia.

The Chumash lived in over 150 independent villages, speaking variations of the same language. Much of their culture consisted of basketry, bead manufacturing and trading, cuisine of local abalone and clam, herbalism which consisted of using local herbs to produce teas and medical reliefs, rock art, and the scorpion tree. The scorpion tree was significant to the Chumash as shown in its arborglyph: a carving depicting a six-legged creature with a headdress including a crown and two spheres. The shamans participated in the carving which was used in observations of the stars and in part of the Chumash calendar. The Chumash resided between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the California coasts where a bounty of resources could be found. The tribe lived in an area of three environments: the interior, the coast, and the Northern Channel Islands. Some researchers believe that the Chumash may have been visited by Polynesians between AD 400 and 800, nearly 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus reached the Americas.

Chumash Family by American sculptor George S. Stuart

The maritime explorer Juan Cabrillo was the first European to make contact with the coastal Alta Californian tribes in the year 1542. Spain claimed what is now California from that time forward, but did not return to settle until 1769, when the first Spanish soldiers and missionaries arrived with the double purpose of Christianizing the Native Americans and facilitating Spanish colonization. The Chumash people moved from their villages to the Franciscan missions between 1772 and 1817.

Mexico seized control of the missions in 1834. Tribespeople either fled into the interior, attempted farming for themselves and were driven off the land, or were enslaved by the new administrators. After 1849 most Chumash land was lost due to theft by Americans and a declining population, due to the effects of violence and disease. The remaining Chumash began to lose their cohesive identity. In 1855, a small piece of land (120 acres) was set aside for just over 100 remaining Chumash Indians near Santa Ynez mission. This land ultimately became the only Chumash reservation, although Chumash individuals and families also continued to live throughout their former territory in southern California.

No native Chumash speak their own language since Mary Yee, the last Barbareño speaker, died in 1965. Today, the Chumash are estimated to have a population of 5,000 members.

Map of the Trail of Tears

Chumash worldview is centered on the belief "that considers all things to be, in varying measure, alive, intelligent, dangerous, and sacred." "They assume that the universe with its three, or in some versions five, layers has always been here."

Human beings occupy the Middle Region, which rests upon two giant snakes. Chronological time is unimportant, though the past is divided into two sections: the universal flood that caused the First People to become the natural world and, thereafter the creation of human beings, the arrival of the Europeans, and the devastating consequences that followed."

The middle region (sometimes referred to as 'antap), where humans and spirits of this world live and where shamans could travel in vision quests, is interconnected with the lower world (C'oyinahsup) through the springs and marsh areas and is connected to the upper world through the mountains. In the lower world live snakes, frogs, salamanders. The world trembles or has earthquakes when the snakes which support the world writhe.

Water creatures are also in contact with the powers of the lower world and "were often depicted in rock art perhaps to bring more water to the Chumash or to appease underworld spirits' at times of hunger or disease." Itiashap is the home of the First People. Alapay is the upper world in Chumash cosmology where the "sky people" lived, who play an important role in the health of the people. Principle figures of the sky world include the Sun, the Moon, Lizard, Sky Coyote, and Eagle. The Sun is the source of life and is also "a source of disease and death." The Sky Coyote, also known as the Great Coyote of the Sky or Shnilemun, is considered to be a protector and according to Inseño Chumash lore, “looks out for the welfare of all in the world below him”. During the creation of mankind, the Sky Coyote was present among the other important cosmological figures. The Eagle, also known as Slo’w, is the force that maintains momentum and order among the other stars so that they do not fall down on and destroy earth.

Chumash pictographs.

The Chumash cosmology is also centered around astronomy. Rock art and arborglyphs that have been found within Chumash sites are thought to have depicted Polaris (the North Star) and Ursa Major (the Big Dipper). These two astrological entities were paramount to the Chumash belief system as well as their perception of time. It is believed that the Chumash used these constellations to determine what time of the year it was depending on the position of Ursa Major around Polaris.

***

I love that Shannen showed her respect to her ancestry in some "Charmed" episodes, like in 2x10 "Heartbreak City" (click to see if bigger):

Charmed 3x01 "The Honeymoon is Over" (click to see bigger):

And the already mentioned 3x14 "The Good, The Bad and The Cursed" (click to see bigger). Her love for horses also comes from that connection:

[tomorrowusa]

J.D. Vance is even worse than you think.

[H]is worldview is fundamentally incompatible with the basic principles of American democracy. Vance has said that, had he been vice president in 2020, he would have carried out Trump’s scheme for the vice president to overturn the election results. He has fundraised for January 6 rioters. He once called on the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into a Washington Post columnist who penned a critical piece about Trump. After last week’s assassination attempt on Trump, he attempted to whitewash his radicalism by blaming the shooting on Democrats’ rhetoric about democracy without an iota of evidence.

Being "evidence-free" is fairly normal for Republicans theses days, but let's continue.

This worldview translates into a very aggressive agenda for a second Trump presidency. In a podcast interview, Vance said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat” in the US government and “replace them with our people.” If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law. “You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” he declares. The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears. For most Americans, this history is a deep source of shame: an authoritarian president trampling on the rule of law to commit atrocities. For Vance, it is a well of inspiration.

Implicitly, Vance favors the persecution of Native Americans. He's a fan of ethnic cleansing.

Vance apparently alters his views simply to further his ambitions.

Ultimately, whether Vance truly believes what he’s saying is secondary to the public persona he’s chosen to adopt. Politicians are not defined by their inner lives, but the decisions that they make in public — the ones that actually affect law and policy. Those choices are deeply shaped by the constituencies they depend on and the allies they court. And it is clear that Vance is deeply ensconced in the GOP’s growing “national conservative” faction, which pairs an inconsistent economic populism with an authoritarian commitment to crushing liberals in the culture war.

A favorite abbreviation of mine for "national conservative" is Nat-C.

Yes, Vance actually follows a monarchist blogger. What would the signers of the Declaration of Independence think?

Vance has cited Curtis Yarvin, a Silicon Valley monarchist blogger, as the source of his ideas about firing bureaucrats and defying the Supreme Court. His Senate campaign was funded by Vance’s former employer, Peter Thiel, a billionaire who once wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” He’s a big fan of Patrick Deneen, a Notre Dame professor who recently wrote a book calling for “regime change” in America. Vance spoke at an event for Deneen’s book in Washington, describing himself as a member of the “postliberal right” who sees his job in Congress as taking an “explicitly anti-regime” stance.

Those pushing the odious Project 2025, which we should think of as „Mein Trumpf“, are big fans of J.D..

Top Trump advisor (and current federal inmate) Steve Bannon told Ward that Vance is “at the nerve center of this movement.” Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that “he is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.” He would be a direct conduit from the shadowy world of far-right influencers, where Curtis Yarvin is a respected voice and Viktor Orbán a role model, straight to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Viktor Orbán is not somebody any American leader should emulate. Orbán is essentially a goulash Putin.

In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean described himself as hailing from “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.” If the GOP under Trump has indeed evolved into an authoritarian party, then Vance hails from its authoritarian wing.

So Vance is from the authoritarian wing of the authoritarian party.

Dictatorships are much easier to prevent than to remove. What are you doing in real life to work for the defeat of the Trump-Vance ticket? If you like democracy, you can't take it for granted.

NOTE: Zack Beauchamp who wrote the highlighted article above at Vox has a related book out this month.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1847 – Choctaw Indians collect money to donate to starving Irish Hunger victims.

Moved by news of starvation in Ireland, a group of Choctaws gathered in Scullyville, Ok, to raise a relief fund. Despite their meager resources, they collected $170 and forwarded it to a U.S. famine relief organisation. The Choctaw Indians may have seen echoes of their own fate in that of the Irish. Just 16 years before, in 1831, the Choctaw Indians were forcibly removed from their ancestral…

[hibiscus-tea-party]

Yall know what pisses me off?

When people try to say "B-B-But, Palestine is largely homophobic!!!" Like I fucking care?

As a genderfluid bisexual woman, I would rather be discriminated against for who I am than support the slaughter of countless innocents.

It's a goofy thing to assume would matter when there's people being blown up and losing loved ones...not only that, but Palestine is losing its history that's been there since the earliest civilizations.

And considering an Israeli official is one of the ones that kept saying this (along with a bunch of Reddit keyboard warriors)...I don't think y'all care about the gays...y'all just want more people on your side.

ANYWAYS there's two separate fundraisers for some families that desperately need your help to escape and it means life and death for them!!! Please go check them out on my pinned posts!!! Even a tiny bit of your support helps!!!!

[voidster3]

Hello again, it's me. I really do apologize for the huge spaces between updates, but I really do try to put effort into describing every donation/fundraiser that I post, in the hopes that by humanizing the victims, I am able to reach a wider audience.

@hayanahed has been vetted by operation olive branch and is listed as #26 on their spreadsheet! Haya's family was displaced almost immediately 10+ months ago when they evacuated per the occupation forces instructions (which we know is a cruel game of hide and go seek, with the seekers being the bombs that destabilize and destroy hundreds of thousands' lives and their shelters, their hospitals, and their right to live peacefully. Please donate to them, as they are very close to accomplishing their goal -- they have raised €75,050 / €100,000 at the time of posting.

@abuzuhrisahar1 -- vetted #253 on the list, Sahar is critically low on funds -- only having raised €651 out of a €20,000 goal.  She has four children and is currently pregnant. In addition to her pregnancy, she was also diagnosed with breast cancer, making her life so much more difficult as the occupation forces continue to block aid and food into the region. Please donate to her campaign, or spread with a simple reblog -- your click can do so much good. She aims to evacuate her children out of Gaza and start a new life with them, as we all have the right to.

@hamdishiltawi, verification sourced by @/mohammedalanqer here. Abd Alhadi needs your help with affording medical care, food, water, & additional rebuilding (educational pursuits & rebuilding his business as a lawyer in order to create a source of income. Every donation counts -- so far, he has raised $3,303 /$65,000CAD goal.

@yousefjehad3, vetted by @/90-ghost. Yousef is only 18 years old, living in a displacement camp in Deir al-Balah. His father is very sick and unable to work, so Yousef works in his place, a desperate attempt to provide for his family. His little brother is also sick with Hepatitis of the early stages, due to a lack of food and clean environments. Yousef is often unable to eat himself, and several weeks may pass before he is able to provide food for his little brother. Currently, Yousef has only raised $3,215 (he needs to raise $11,785 to meet his goal of $15,000). You can donate to him here.

@ayoosh-gaza is currently unvetted but appears to be legit. You can find her Instagram at @ayaa_mahmood99. She is a 24 year old children's teacher seeking to evacuate her father, mother,and 4 sisters + 4 brothers (8 siblings total). Then they will need additional funds to afford daily life -- food costs are very high in Gaza right now. What only cost €50 before now costs $600-$700 or even more than that.

@savepalestineinfamily19 vouched for here -- at the time of posting, Mohammed has only raised €5,076 /€50,000 in his goal to evacuate Gaza himself(24y) along with his brother Momun(23y), his sisters Basmala(18y), Sarah(14y), & Yomna(8y). He also seems to evacuate hs mother Subrin(43y) and his father Majed(54y). If you can donate even €5, please do so here.

@dodiahmed123 -- not yet vetted but likely legitimate (no reverse image detected, attached recordings) is attempting to evacuate Gaza with his 4 year old son and remaining family members. He is extremely low on funds, at €534/€20,000.

Repeating myself with following fundraisers:

- @mohammad-atallah, shot by an explosive bullet and in dire need of donations to fund a bone graft for his hand. He is in desperate need of donations, as his campaign has stagnated several times since I answered his ask in July. Though he has raised an additional €5,000 since then, donations have been very weak, and it is very possible they will need to amputate due to risk of infection. So far, he has raised €12,556, which is a little less than half of the needed €31,253 to operate on his arm; the remaining €49,747 will go towards rebuilding his family's house.

Please note that while Palestinians seeking to evacuate Gaza should be given every chance to do so, it is also important to provide support to those who wish to stay, as part of the colonizer efforts are focused on forcing any remaining Palestinians out of their homeland. See the Trail of Tears for reference.

- please donate to @danashehab's campaign so that the Shehab family can evacuate Gaza, as it is very close to reaching its goal of €50,000 (€39,715 atm), but they are living on a time limit, as the border will be monitored and this month is her one shot at getting her family out of 🇵🇸.

- @siraj2024's campaign s it has been stagnant for days.  He gets periods of activity, but after that, the campaign stagnates for days, and the reblogs seem to also halt in activity. Siraj intends to rebuild his home, which was destroyed by the IOF, leaving him & his family to live in a tent, which reaches ungodly temperatures during the day, and because the IOF attack those collecting water, there is a high chance that they do not even have water (as Yousef describes in his campaign). His son Amir has fallen ill with a deadly skin disease (read more about it here) and needs prompt medical attention. His son had to watch his two months old cat waste away due to the horrific conditions forced upon them by the disgusting occupation forces, and learned later that his cousins had been martyred. Please do not ignore him in his time of need. You can donate to his campaign here -- at the time of posting, Siraj has raised $46,426CAD /$80,000 goal.

[usauthoritarianism]

OK So Context

I kind of progressively lost my mind in college. What with the learning about the specifics of what is going on and how it relates to what has happened in the past. -and subsequently took the time to develop a series of presentations about why the US sucks.

Specifically, the interventions in Latin American, just the astoundingly predatory nature of American Capitalism domestically and The Police, like, as a concept.

Fast forward to the Summer of 2022 and I realized that working with an editor and publishing a book is hard and expensive but its measured in thousands not tens of thousands so I committed to doing that at some point in my life with this project, and began working on adapting the presentations with more research and more connections between these different expressions of White Supremacy.

I let the research balloon. There's just so much.

Anyway, the whole social media campaign thing was to distract me from pinning all that down. -and last month one of the members of my subreddit, u/acebush1, self immolated in the time it took to get around to responding to his most recent comment. That made this all very real. The US' support for Israel and it's foundation as a settler colonial state are critically relevant.

Right, so,. Last month someone asked me how to buy the book and that was the thing I had said to myself would mark the transition back to a writing and research focus rather than just research and learning social media.

Site is up. Its an email submission form with a set your own price stripe link.

[geezerwench]

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[solaraurora]

I just really love Simone, Heike, Ailyn Giménez García, Marcela, Elize, Courtney so much ❤️🖤🩷🧡💜💙

[a-typical]

THE YEAR 1847 WAS AN extremely difficult one for the Irish people. Known as “Black 47,” this was the worst year of the famine in Ireland, where close to one million people were starving to death. Humanitarian aid came from around the world, but the unexpected generosity of the Choctaw Nation stands out, and began a bond between the two people that continues to this day.

The Choctaw Native Americans raised $170 of their own money—equivalent to thousands of dollars today— in aid to supply food for the starving Irish. This exemplifies the incredible generosity of the Choctaw people, because just 16 years before, they were forced by U.S. President Andrew Jackson to leave their ancestral lands and march 500 miles on the “Trail of Tears,” in terrible winter conditions. Many did not survive.

Today, the Irish people are still grateful for the generosity of the Choctaw people. A monument stands in Midleton’s Bailick Park as a tribute to the tribe’s charity during the Great Famine. Named “Kindred Spirits,” the magnificent memorial features nine giant stainless steel feathers, shaped into an empty bowl.

The creator, artist Alex Pentak, explained, “I wanted to show the courage, fragility and humanity that they displayed in my work.”

Beyond the monument, there are many other examples of the continued link between the Irish and Choctaw people. In 1990, several Choctaw leaders took part in the first annual Famine walk at Doolough in County Mayo; two years later, Irish commemoration leaders walked the 500 mile length of the Trail of Tears. A former Irish president is now an honorary Choctaw Chief. Most importantly, both Choctaw and Irish people now work together to provide assistance for people suffering from famine worldwide.