Tootfinder

Why did Republicans close ranks around Donald Trump in 2016,
when they could have salvaged their old party and rebuilt after losing?
From the vantage point of today, it’s easy to dismiss the notion. “That’s just what parties do, of course, particularly Republicans in their era of hyperpartisanship.”
But the people who might say that have forgotten how unsettled Republicans were a decade ago.
The idea that they might be forced to withdraw support from Trump and accep…

MAGA Disarray And The Accumulated Debt Of Corruption
They'd bring America down rather than face accountability, but accountability is not optional.

revolution: American Revolutionary groups (1765-1783)
A bipartite network of the memberships of notable people and organizations, from the American Revolution (1765-1783) between users and groups on YouTube, extracted from a larger YouTube network in 2007.
This network has 141 nodes and 160 edges.
Tags: Social, Affiliation, Unweighted
http…

Their father, who they thought was human, revealed himself to be a man of the soil once drunk. Crackling browns darkened by wine dribbling down his chin, writhing with small insects and budding flora. They couldn't bear laying eyes on his breath any longer, the flood was all of God's open might they could handle.

Any sufficiently advanced disaster preparedness is indistinguishable from revolutionary dual power. This essay is a bit of a transition between the theory I've written earlier, and more concrete plans.
Even though I only touched on my life on the commune, it was hard not to write more. These are such weird spaces, with so much invisible opportunity. But they're also just so unique and special. For all the stress and uncertainty of making sure you stayed on Lorean's (the head priestess), there were also those long summer nights with the whole community (except the old lady) gathered around a fire, talking and drinking. There was almost a child-like play to the whole time.
There were so Fridays I'd come home with a couple of gallons of beer from the real world, folks would bring things from the garden, someone would grill a steak, everyone who didn't cook would clean up, and we'd just hang out and have fun. So many evenings I'd go over to Miles place with a guitar, or with his guitar, and we'd pass it around over a few beers, talking about philosophy, Star Wars, or some book or other. It's hard not to write about the strange magic of that space.
My partner and I bonded over similar experiences, mine on a weird little religious commune in California and theirs as a temporary worker at Omega Institute. Both had exploitation, people on weird power trips, frustrating dynamics, but also a strange magic and freedom. Both were sort of fantasy worlds, but places that let us see through this one, let us imagine something that something else is possible behind the veil.
There are many such veils.
Perhaps it's fitting that this is more meandering, as a good wander can help the transition between lots of hard thinking and lots of hard working.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/evaluating-options
Editing feedback (especially typos, spelling, grammar) is always welcome, as are questions and even wider structural advice. I've been adding the handles of folks who provide feedback to the intro in a "thank you" section. If you do help and wouldn't like to be added, please let me know.

Lamarr Wilson has passed away :(
https://people.com/award-winning-tech-influencer-lamarr-wilson-cause-of-death-revealed-11873432

It's not unusual to run into people who live in Berlin but speak no German. Even when they work in bars, restaurants, at reception desks.
Just came across a person running an event including welcoming participants who replied "Not my preferred language though" when asked whether she speaks German.
Maybe not the best place to be then?

Among other things #DonaldTrump is the worst hiring manager in the world. He's constantly prosecuting and persecuting people he himself hired only a few years before.
Here's another prize hire, as Lindsey Halligan contacts a legal journalist to yell improperly revealed grand jury information at her, then gets mad when a journalist ... writes an article.

revolution: American Revolutionary groups (1765-1783)
A bipartite network of the memberships of notable people and organizations, from the American Revolution (1765-1783) between users and groups on YouTube, extracted from a larger YouTube network in 2007.
This network has 141 nodes and 160 edges.
Tags: Social, Affiliation, Unweighted
http…

At least a dozen people have died in Gaza
as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians
forced to shelter in makeshift tents
among the rubble of collapsing buildings
severely damaged by Israeli bombing.
That rubble is being eyed by
U.S.-based contractors,
who are already vying for
lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza
under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal.
“People are lining up and treating this the way they they treated reconstruc…

From “Alligator Alcatraz” to Gaza: U.S. Companies Line Up for Lucrative Gaza Contracts Under Trump
At least a dozen people have died in Gaza as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians forced to shelter in makeshift tents among the rubble of collapsing buildings severely damaged by Israeli bombing. That rubble is being eyed by U.S.-based contractors, who are already vying for lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal. “People are lining up and treating this the way they they treated reconstruction in Iraq,” says Aram Roston, whose latest investigation f…

The #IWW #GDC as an antifascist organization was always kind of a hack. It was a beautiful hack and it worked well for what it did.
In 2016, as Trump was rising, I found info from the Twin Cities GDC. They were super organized, building an amazing community defense organization. When we (Seattle) went to set up our chapter, following their lead, they were extremely supportive. When I got shot, Twin Cities folks were at my house keeping my partner safe. They literally flew people out to support us. They very much remain in my mind when I think about what mutual aid looks like.
Unionism is an important strategy of a larger fight. But it's important to realize that it's not the other way around. The GDC was built to defend the union, because there wasn't something larger to do that work. It filled a gap.
When we organized against Trump, we tried to make the GDC the greater thing. We tried to make the GDC into the vehicle for social revolution against the fascist threat... And it sort of worked. We were able to do a lot.
But that was never what it was built to do. It was always built as an appendage of the IWW. This contains its own problem. If Unionism is the revolutionary movement, then it becomes impossible to build a truly revolutionary society. Unionism centers "workers" which implicitly decenters those who can't work in the traditional sense (the young, the elderly, those physically or mentally able to work). It also decenters care labor that hasn't yet been widely commodified. Sure, there are all types of hacks to patch the holes, but the fundamental construction starts from the wrong assumptions.
It felt, for a while, like things could go another way. Like that our ability to bring members in could shift things a bit, maybe set the GDC on more equal footing with the core focus of the IWW. But that was always an illusion, far less important to think about than the crushing terror of the regime we were fighting.
Now, I will absolutely trash talk the IWW on occasion but in the end I do think they're doing good and important work. Any criticism I have should be taken with a grain of salt... And I know I do have a lot of salt. Again, Unionism is an important strategy. It's useful both in improving immediate material conditions and as part of the most powerful weapon we have against the capitalist system: the general strike. It's important, I can't say that enough. But it's not sufficient.
I've been thinking about this a bit recently, and I wonder if there are any other GDC organizers or former organizers who might be feeling the same. Feel free to DM me. I'd like to get some more perspectives and see if my understanding from several years ago deviates significantly from what other folks are feeling right now.
I'd also like to bounce some ideas around that come from my own organizing experience.