Please Remember

Brain Dump Jan '25

Hey Neighbors! Thanks for your patience in waiting for this note/Brain Dump. I missed the normal “last Monday of the month” schedule. You may have noticed all the things happening, which is the main reason this note is late. May we all do our best to grant each other space and grace while navigating things.

If you don’t feel like reading this note, scroll to the bottom at least. Funny cigarette memes await. Okay, here we go . . .

Deported For Protesting Genocide

The one whose name shall not be used signed an Executive Order on Monday, January 20th, that allows for the deportation of foreign students and faculty and other foreign nationals who express support for “terrorist organizations” that are officially designated as such by the US government.

On Wednesday, January 22nd, the U.S. branch of a pro-Israeli group submitted documentation they collected through video surveillance, facial recognition, and AI to DHS, ICE, DOJ, and the White House regarding students and faculty they allege are supporters of terrorist organizations. They did this with the express intention to get these people deported.

It's important to note that the source I linked in the paragraph above is a leading Israeli newspaper highlighting concerns about citizens in the U.S. gathering information on individuals and reporting it to the government. Why isn’t our own media reporting on this?

Yesterday, Wednesday, January 29^th, he signed another Executive Order, which is an expansion of one he signed in 2019 (EO 13899), that further doubles down on the EO from January 21^st, which further emboldens those who are looking to smear and have deported anti-genocide students and faculty at campuses across our country.

Who is a terrorist?

Please remember that Nelson Mandela was on a U.S. terrorist list until 2008. I was 29 when we recognized him instead as an anti-apartheid freedom fighter. As a kid in the 1980s, I remember watching the news about anti-apartheid student protesters on our college campuses and how they encouraged boycotts of South Africa.

Please remember that many Native American and Black leaders, whom we now openly admire, were labeled as terrorists even before the term was widely used.

Also, keep in mind that we placed Japanese individuals in internment camps due to fears they might be “alien enemies.” I attended college in 1997, and my rural Wyoming campus was located near one of those former camps . . . He is relying on outdated laws that contributed to the establishment of those camps once again.

The Holocaust started as a mass deportation campaign, and snitching was encouraged. We have whole organizations, as in the pro-Israeli example above, already doing this, not to mention ICE has a tip line. I know I should cite my sources, but there won’t be a link to that tip line here because Dr. King taught us it’s a moral obligation to practice non-cooperation with evil.

Bernice King shared this photo on her father’s birthday this year to remind us that he was not loved and admired at the time, but he was right.

Please Understand

Please understand that all of this violates free speech, which we were taught is a bedrock American right since the ratification of the First Amendment in 1791. Please understand that if they seek to exert this control over foreign students and others, they will eventually seek to extend that control over citizens. Solidarity only works if we begin when they come for the others.

Please understand that when we as a nation were largely silent for 15.5 months about a genocide perpetuated by our government, abandoning the groups of citizens and young students who were protesting to speak alone, we were absolutely going to get Nazi shit at home. This is called Imperial Boomerang.

For example, while I appreciate Bishop Budde and her recent appeals to him for mercy, even shouting her out on social media myself for breaking “decorum,” it was actually her silence and the failure to apply the same standard to Biden during a genocide that paved the way for what is happening now. What might have been different if Bishop Budde had shown solidarity with some of her fellow Christian leaders who have been protesting genocide sooner?

From the Who We Are Project

What if?

Hi*ler was jailed in 1923 for treason but only served a year; it took him 10 years to get into power in 1933. From then until WWII ended in 1945, it was 12 years. But timelines move much, much faster now.

From Thought Co.

An example of fast-moving timelines is that in the fall of 2020, leading up to the election, I focused all my social media content on an organized movement to help US citizens understand coups, how they unfold, and how citizens can prevent them. During that time and following the protests of the summer of 2020 (which I was also involved in), someone I knew blocked me on social media, telling me they felt my “behavior was extreme.” (Dr. King on extremism.)

Later, in early 2021, as you will all remember, No-Name tried out some treason of his own. That person I knew wrote a public statement about how they had been in denial about the seriousness of things. But it was kind of late.

The individual whose name we won’t use faced no consequences and is back in power in just four years. What if that person I knew had at least supported voices of warning instead of blocking them?

What if the Biden administration had then recognized that we citizens were united and would accept nothing less than holding No-Name accountable? Instead, Biden showed No-Name just how far he could go by openly supporting a genocide while undermining his own agencies, having their spokespeople lie to us in press conference after press conference, and collapsing international law both at the UN and by threatening the International Criminal Court.

btnewsroom

A post shared by @btnewsroom

Here is a video of Sam Husseini, a very brave and committed journalist, being dragged out of Antony Blinken’s final press conference.

First They Came

My point here is to reread Pastor Martin Niemöller’s poem, "First They Came," and reflect on the pastor's regret.

Then, be quiet inside yourself and think about how you want to feel in a year or two. Or maybe (just maybe) four years from now. Timelines move faster now, so we probably don’t have the same 12-year period as Pastor Niemöller had to consider whether we want to be filled with regret for not speaking out sooner . . . for not practicing solidarity until they came for us.

Please remember, community care IS self-care. Whatever is in your control to do for others, do it now.

Cigarette Memes!

Now, here are some memes about needing a fucking cigarette right now. My birthday was on Tuesday. Last year, for my birthday, I mentioned a controversial thing about me: after I turn 80, I’m probably going to take up smoking again. Don’t worry, I’m not in any danger of starting sooner, but maaaaan, these last couple of weeks are testing me, Neighbors. ;-) I hope they make you laugh. (Notice a few are from my friends at Influenced To Death.)

This last one is from the Instagram account, Nitch, and the quote they posted from Frida Kahlo was, "At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can." Seems like something for us to think about.

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How are you? How are you coping?

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