Jump to content

bolverk

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    15703
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    12

Everything posted by bolverk

  1. The cop took direct aim at this Australian news crew.
  2. The 1990s was at the request of the CA governor at the time. The last time it happened without the consent of a governor was the 1960s.
  3. The last time the National Guard was federalized and deployed without the consent of a state’s governor was before you or I were born. So, yeah, this time it’s different.
  4. And also recall that 1-2 months ago, in an interview, when asked directly if he was obligated to uphold the Constitution, he said: "I don't know." Never mind that oath of office stuff.
  5. Close your eyes, can't happen here Big Bro' on white horse is near The hippies won't come back, you say Mellow out or you will pay Mellow out or you will pay California Über Alles California Über Alles Über Alles California Über Alles California Now it is 1984 Knock-knock at your front door It's the suede denim secret police They have come for your uncool niece Come quietly to the camp You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp Don't you worry, it's only a shower For your clothes, here's a pretty flower Released 46 years ago this month
  6. Bio of thread author: Marquette Prof studying U.S. and comparative civil-military relations, political violence & armed forces in democracies and non-democracies. https://bsky.app/profile/risabrooks12.bsky.social/post/3lr4a4woqts25
  7. Timely interview with a researcher on why well-organized nonviolent resistance proves more effective in countering government forces hellbent on breaking the will of the people. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/02/why-nonviolent-resistance-beats-violent-force-in-effecting-social-political-change/ WCFIA: In your co-authored book, β€œWhy Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict,” you explain clearly why civil resistance campaigns attract more absolute numbers of people β€” in part it’s because there’s a much lower barrier to participation compared with picking up a weapon. Based on the cases you have studied, what are the key elements necessary for a successful nonviolent campaign? CHENOWETH: I think it really boils down to four different things. The first is a large and diverse participation that’s sustained. The second thing is that [the movement] needs to elicit loyalty shifts among security forces in particular, but also other elites. Security forces are important because they ultimately are the agents of repression, and their actions largely decide how violent the confrontation with β€” and reaction to β€” the nonviolent campaign is going to be in the end. But there are other security elites, economic and business elites, state media. There are lots of different pillars that support the status quo, and if they can be disrupted or coerced into noncooperation, then that’s a decisive factor. The third thing is that the campaigns need to be able to have more than just protests; there needs to be a lot of variation in the methods they use. The fourth thing is that when campaigns are repressed β€” which is basically inevitable for those calling for major changes β€” they don’t either descend into chaos or opt for using violence themselves. If campaigns allow their repression to throw the movement into total disarray or they use it as a pretext to militarize their campaign, then they’re essentially co-signing what the regime wants β€” for the resisters to play on its own playing field. And they’re probably going to get totally crushed.' WCFIA: Is there any way to resist or protest without making yourself more vulnerable? CHENOWETH: People have done things like bang pots and pans or go on electricity strikes or something otherwise disruptive that imposes costs on the regime even while people aren’t outside. Staying inside for an extended period equates to a general strike. Even limited strikes are very effective. There were limited and general strikes in Tunisia and Egypt during their uprisings and they were critical. WCFIA: A general strike seems like a personally costly way to protest, especially if you just stop working or stop buying things. Why are they effective? CHENOWETH: This is why preparation is so essential. Where campaigns have used strikes or economic noncooperation successfully, they’ve often spent months preparing by stockpiling food, coming up with strike funds, or finding ways to engage in community mutual aid while the strike is underway. One good example of that comes from South Africa. The anti-apartheid movement organized a total boycott of white businesses, which meant that black community members were still going to work and getting a paycheck from white businesses but were not buying their products. Several months of that and the white business elites were in total crisis. They demanded that the apartheid government do something to alleviate the economic strain. With the rise of the reformist Frederik Willem de Klerk within the ruling party, South African leader P.W. Botha resigned. De Klerk was installed as president in 1989, leading to negotiations with the African National Congress [ANC] and then to free elections, where the ANC won overwhelmingly. The reason I bring the case up is because organizers in the black townships had to prepare for the long term by making sure that there were plenty of food and necessities internally to get people by, and that there were provisions for things like Christmas gifts and holidays. WCFIA: How important is the overall number of participants in a nonviolent campaign? CHENOWETH: One of the things that isn’t in our book, but that I analyzed later and presented in a TEDx Boulder talk in 2013, is that a surprisingly small proportion of the population guarantees a successful campaign: just 3.5 percent. That sounds like a really small number, but in absolute terms it’s really an impressive number of people. In the U.S., it would be around 11.5 million people today. Could you imagine if 11.5 million people β€” that’s about three times the size of the 2017 Women’s March β€” were doing something like mass noncooperation in a sustained way for nine to 18 months? Things would be totally different in this country.
  8. Long write-up on the kid in Pennsylvania who tried to assassinate Trump. A New York Times examination of the last years of the young man’s life found that he went through a gradual and largely hidden transformation, from a meek engineering student critical of political polarization to a focused killer who tried to build bombs. For months he operated in secret, using aliases and encrypted networks, all while showing hints of a mental illness that may have caused his mind to unravel to an extent not previously reported. This account offers the fullest picture yet of Mr. Crooks’s life. Although many aspects of his background and mental health are still unknown, The Times’s reporting is based on thousands of pages of his school assignments, emails and logs of his internet activity, as well as text messages, government reports and interviews with dozens of people who knew him or were familiar with the case. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/thomas-crooks-trump-shooter-butler-rally.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU8.VtyA.YP-DFV-ItvbU&smid=url-share
  9. This is some interesting reading. An internal FSB report reveals many of the suspicions and worries the Russians have regarding China, including espionage and revanchist territorial claims that China might have eastern Siberia. It's too long for a standard copy/paste job, so here's a gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/europe/china-russia-spies-documents-putin-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU8.2cOn.6Ht_OrjXCSuO&smid=url-share
  10. Wordle 1,450 2/6 πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #728 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺ🟩πŸŸͺ πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟩🟩🟩🟩 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1231 7️⃣4️⃣ 5️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  11. Wordle 1,448 4/6 β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨ β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬›β¬› β¬›β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #726 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟦🟦🟦🟦 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1229 6️⃣5️⃣ 7️⃣4️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  12. Large tornado just west of Lubbock and heading toward town.
  13. Hesitant to respond because I'm on vacation with my daughter and will be mostly out of pocket for the rest of the week and will be delayed in getting back to anyone who cares to reply, but I'll answer your "Free Palestine" question on my part only. That phrase (again, only speaking for myself) means ending the illegal occupation of all the West Bank and Gazan territories, the return of illegally annexed lands (essentially Israel reverting back to its internationally recognized 1967 borders with a little wiggle room for negotiating equitable land swaps), and an acknowledgement by Israel's government that Palestine has the right to exist, including a formal recognition of the State of Palestine like most of the world currently does. Now, I fully acknowledge that others are more expansive and would like all of the former Palestinian Mandate to be returned, just as the current Israeli government seeks to take all Palestinian land (along with chunks of Syria and Lebanon). I reject both maximalist groups as they seek to genocide/ethnically cleanse one another based on ethnicity/religion. Items on my wish list include: 1) the return of the 1000's of Palestinian men, women, and adolescents held without charges (hostages, if you will) in Israeli prisons who are suffering all sorts of physical and psychological abuse, (e.g., sexual assault and torture), as has been thoroughly documented and 2) bringing Israeli war criminals to justice. The same obviously goes for Hamas's leaders. You didn't ask about expectations for Palestinians, but I'll go ahead and state without hesitation that all Israeli hostages or their remains must be returned and a future Palestinian government must acknowledge Israel's right to exist within its internationally recognized borders, working tirelessly to stop any potential terrorists from attacking Israel. Reparations of some sort would be nice, but that would open a whole 'another can of worms. None of the above is likely to happen, but as someone who is sympathetic to "the cause," I thought I'd speak up. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.
  14. Wordle 1,445 5/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› πŸŸ©β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬› πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #723 🟦🟦🟦🟦 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1226 8️⃣4️⃣ 9️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨 🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  15. Weird spacing because I played on the phone, I guess. Wordle 1,444 4/6 β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨ β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©πŸŸ¨ β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #722 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟩🟩🟩🟩 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1225 6️⃣7️⃣ 4️⃣8️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  16. Measuring distance on Google Maps, that base is 1,164 miles from the closest piece of Ukrainian dirt, far to the south. That is some seriously impressive range. Edit: Of course, the Ukrainians may have also been able to sneak over and launch drones from a closer point, I suppose.
  17. Wordle 1,443 3/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #721 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1224 5️⃣4️⃣ 7️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟨 ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
Γ—
Γ—
  • Create New...