I'm Old Enough to Remember When We All Agreed the Nazis Were the Bad Guys

Not so, apparently, in Omaha, Nebraska.



On Thursday evening, while channel surfing, I came upon the live feed from Netroots Nation down in New Orleans. There was a woman named Colette Pichon-Battle who runs an organization called the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, and she gave one of the best talks about how to organize around issues and candidates that I ever have heard, not least because she had no time at all for petty squabbling and litmus tests and My Issue Is The Only Issue On Earth.

This is because she and her organization represent people at the sharp end of climate change and environmental discrimination, and the sea and the poisons don't give a damn about who you voted for in the 2016 Wisconsin primary.

I know, I know, everybody down here like to act like they don't know Mississippi and Louisiana exist. But if you don't know, you better ask somebody, because Mississippi has been doing some real organizing on the ground...And what does this have to do with Netroots, Colette? Well, I'm going to tell you. We cannot continue to spend all our money on elections and not give some of those resources to the ground. There are people who are taking hits...they're taking hits that don't make good T-shirts. They're taking hits that don't make good hashtags, but they're taking the hits nonetheless.
This is the grassroots organizing. It's not these organizations that you've heard of, and it's probably a church that you don't want to go into, and it might be somebody who believes something that you don't want to believe, but you have to invest in that infrastructure because we might win...And, also, we might lose and there are people who know how to survive even in the most hostile of territories. Just ask any of us from any of these Gulf states and we'll tell you what survival looks like. We'll tell you how you don't give up hope even when you're faced with all this ridiculousness. We will tell you how to join hands with someone who doesn't particularly like you, but we gotta know that we're in it together.

That's the real stuff right there—a coalition politics that is neither soft nor diluted. Dr. King would understand it. So would Huey Long, for that matter.

I'd like to thank the president* and his many fans for what they've contributed to the national debate. From 1011Now in Omaha:

A giant swastika was burned into the lawn at Memorial Park, just a week after Nazi books were displayed in little libraries across the city. "It's the 21st Century. Why are we still dealing with this?" said Dylan Castro. Castro came across the vandalism while visiting the park. "It's s--- like this that makes me look over my shoulder when I'm walking around, even in the daytime," said Castro. The Nazi regime symbol was burned into the Memorial Park lawn, a place that honors American soldiers who fought against Nazi Germany in World War II. "It's hard to feel like we're a community when this keeps happening," said Castro.

I long for the days when we all could at least be on the same side regarding World War Fcking Two.

And speaking of enabling the worst, I've always hated the Newseum in Washington, not least because they charge you admission and then ask you for "donations" as you leave. I've hated the whole thing from the start because it is a monument that Al Neuharth, the deceased chief of Gannett, and one of the worst union-busting vampires of his generation of publishers, built for himself so his heirs could wank themselves into a stupor in perpetuity.

But seriously, what in the unholy, hairy fck is this all about? From Poynter.org:

The seven-level interactive museum is located in the heart of the nation's capital. According to its website, the non-profit museum’s mission is “to increase public understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment. In an email to Poynter, Sonya Gavankar, director of public relations for the Newseum, said the merch is an example of how the museum tries to foster an environment that encourages free speech. “We recognize why you’re asking the question,” she said. “As a nonpartisan organization, people with differing viewpoints feel comfortable visiting the Newseum, and one of our greatest strengths is that we’re champions not only of a free press but also of free speech.

I expect to see "Fuck Trump" T-shirts and hats in the gift shop on my next trip to the Newseum, which will be never.

“The MAGA hat and the FBI hat are two of our best-selling items.”

Yeah, that's something old Al Neuharth would have understood right there.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Water Keeps Rising" (Kristin Diable): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here are some scientists in what was then called Rhodesia, saving animals marooned on islands that were formed when they dammed up the Zambezi River. Those are some pretty damn amazing porcupines there. History—and porcupines—are so cool.

Speaking of water rising, and you may be sensing a theme here, a dam near Lynchburg, Virginia was threatening to collapse on Friday afternoon, threatening to send 17 feet of water cascading into the city. Water over the dam is never a good sign. The College Lake dam was built by the Virginia Highway Department in 1930, and it's been listed as a high-risk structure for seven years now. Three years ago, the city commissioned a study of the future of the dam. I hope they've got all those documents to high ground by now. And another Infrastructure Week comes to an end.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, LiveScience? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

Much like today's hippopotamus, the creature — a member of the now-extinct genus Paleoparadoxia (Greek for "ancient paradox") — was a water-loving beast that gulped down aquatic plants for dinner, the researchers said. The new analysis shows that much can be learned by studying long-forgotten museum fossils, said the study researchers, who detailed the unexpected rabbit hole they went down while investigating the bone's past.

Is there intrigue involved in this story? Of course, there is! Also, another dam.

first dam. An interview with Azuma’s oldest son offered a slightly different story. According to the son, he found the fossil while working on the third dam with his father. Because of these conflicting accounts, it's unclear which year and what dam the fossil is from, the researchers said.
However, the son also knew that the fossil wasn't a dinosaur bone, and that it belonged to a desmostylus, so it's possible that the son had communicated with a scientist about the bone, but that the scientist did not formally report it, the researchers said. Despite this, shortly after the fossil's discovery, people in the village began calling it a dinosaur bone. The femur was so famous that it was put on exhibit at the village hall. Luckily, the fossil was removed shortly before a devastating fire destroyed most of the city, including the village hall, on Feb. 22, 1954, as the researchers learned.

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