収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

Okay, so remember when I told everybody to hold April 19th? Here’s where you can search for a 50501 event near you, and there are definitely going to be other events on the same day by other groups.

It will NOT be as big as April 5th. But a good turnout is important – and basically will continue to be important for months and months.

The next really massive turnout day looks like it’s going to be May 1st, though. Reserve the day. Indivisible is cooking something up, 50501 will be in on it, so will a lot of other people, or so I hear. Put it on your calendar now, so you’re ready.

Here are some other April 19 events in the Seattle area, compiled by Indivisible. I’m sure you can find something to do.

See you out there, and as always – good hunting.

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I’ve got an alpha of the Greater Northshore Bike Connector Map posted in a temporary location. [EDIT: There’s now a Beta. Use that instead!] It extends the map northward to Lynnwood City Centre, tho’ not all the way up to Alderwood Mall.

If you have any knowledge of southwestern Snohomish County biking, give it a look? I’ll get up to Mountlake Terrace to catch a train and I’ve biked the Interurban and North Creek trails pretty far up, but that’s it, and is nothing like on-the-ground knowledge.

The uploaded version had to be trimmed at the bottom a little to stay on 11×17 paper with one-quarter-inch margins. Here’s what the full thing looks like; I’m honestly a bit up in the air about what to do about this. Staying on a single row of tiled 11×17 strikes me as kind of important.

(Just because I happen to have some 11×17.625″ paper for reasons doesn’t mean most people do, because ALMOST NOBODY DOES lol)

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April 5th went really well. Here’s Shoreline News coverage, here’s the Seattle Times front page, here’s Seattle’s KING-5 coverage. I posted a bunch of photos here, here, here, here, here, and here. Also, it was loud, in a good way.

Now we need to build on the momentum. The next national protest – the next April 5th – is weekend after next, April 19th. ETA: 50501 were calling for a national, but watch for local efforts and join up with them – this one may end up being regionally variant.

Local groups are starting to fill out their data, particularly in New England. (It’s the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolution.) But be as ready as possible, and go ahead and reserve the day now.

And if you can make a Tesla Takedown protest before then, do it.

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Here’s a page with a bunch of Hands Off!-specific protest signs for this weekend. If you don’t have one you can print those and paste them onto foamcore or similar to have some signs to carry around.

Signs are good, I recommend them.

Here are a couple I made – I was thinking I might just use one of the two I already had, but the ones that weren’t super-specific to Musk are kinda small, so. Honestly they’re not really my best work, but if you don’t like the Hands Off! ones you might give them a look. I do like the Trump-as-Disney’s-Prince-John cartoon, I must say.

If you haven’t found a protest near you yet, here’s where you can find them. Go to the web site, find a protest – and for the gods’ sakes, show up.

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I feel like I should talk about why declaring yourself a Nazi is very specifically different to declaring yourself almost anything else seen as political. Because there is a difference, and it’s really important, and I don’t think people get that, and it has real-world ramifications.

Walk with me.

There are a lot of terrible things you can declare yourself, politically and otherwise. But we’ll stick to politics for the moment.

You can declare yourself as Stalinist, for example. That’s real fuckin’ bad, bad to the point that a lot of people would say that there’s no difference between declaring yourself a Stalinist and declaring yourself a Nazi.

And I can see why they say that. The death counts are pretty similar, historically. The oppression and evil are both truly remarkable. The misery, as well.

But even between these, there is a real difference that sets Nazism apart.

Stalin murdered millions, just like Hitler, but that was never the theory. The idea. The goal. The goal was a material paradise for everyone, at least on paper. The real goal was an economically powerful industrial society, but even that was in service to the idea of a society of abundance. It may’ve been “if people would just” writ monstrous, but it was there.

Nazism kinda promises that… but only for some. And not many. Just members of the Master Race. For everyone else, Nazism promises either slavery or genocide. Explicitly. It says so, right on that label, right on the tin.

And that’s what makes Nazism distinct. It’s not the only political movement which makes that promise – White Nationalism, I see you drooling in the corner, pissing yourself – but it’s the most famous, the best known of them.

(There are reasons so many White Nationalists are fond of Hitler. It’s because the core idea – enslave and murder millions of people – overlaps.)

Are there other ideas besides genocide in Nazism, and in the other fascism variants? Sure. They have names, too – names which aren’t “fascist” or “Nazi.”

For example, there are people who have interest in the economic theories of the Italian fascists. If you’re into that, you can call yourself a Syndicalist in clear conscience. Mussolini followed a branch of syndicalism, which actually predates fascism entirely. The Italian version was intended to solve class struggle. It doesn’t, but as goals go, there are worse.

And modern followers of these ideas don’t call themselves Nazis, because they aren’t interested in the thing which sets Nazis specifically apart, which isn’t even just a threat of violence against entire peoples, it’s a promise of murder against entire peoples. It’s an explicit and specific statement:

If we take power, we will kill you and everyone like you solely for the crime of your existence. Your original sin was being born, your criminality is existing at all. And there is nothing you can do to change that other than die.

We will kill you when and if we can.

We have laws against that, you know. You threaten someone with violence – particularly murder – and you mean it? That’s called terroristic threatening, and it’s a crime. You don’t have to be specific about when, or where, or how, or anything like that – it just has to be credible. It’s not real easy to get convictions, but it is an undisputed crime.

If someone calls themselves a Nazi, if they specifically invoke Nazi symbolism, if they specifically parrot the Nazi salute, Elon, if they’re out there saying Hitler had some good ideas, they are making not just a threat but a promise of mass murder.

Their targets are both specific and clear, and they’re doing it on purpose.

They don’t have to label themselves a “Nazi” to support syndicalism. They don’t have to label themselves a “fascist” even to be a nationalist or even an outright imperialist. They don’t have to praise Hitler to hate people. None of that’s necessary. At all.

So when someone does do that that, they are making a choice. They are choosing to make a promise of mass violence and mass death.

And what’s the point of all this, you might ask?

Because that promise is what makes it okay to punch Nazis.

I still see people having qualms about punching Nazis. I don’t. Not at all. Not even just because of all of the above, but also because we – as a society – have decided that people have a right to self-defence. In some states, that applies even a right to use potentially lethal force against perceived credible threat to property or life.

If you are any of their targets, they have promised to murder you. They have said if they can, they will. They have – by donning that uniform, by taking on that label, by throwing that salute – threatened your life with a violent and brutal end at their hands.

History shows that their threats are entirely credible. They will do it, if they can. They promised to kill you; they meant it; it’s only a matter of time and opportunity.

And what’s that do?

It makes punching Nazis into reasonable and proportional self-defence.

Yeah. It does. Maybe not from a legal standpoint, no. I’m not arguing that. You won’t have the law on your side.

But from an ethical and moral standpoint?

A punch to the face in response to an explicit, repeated, and credible threat of murder?

Yeah. That seems fine.

Hell, as far as I’m concerned… that’s getting off light.

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Hello and welcome to another Monday planning day. At time of writing, I don’t actually know how this past weekend’s Tesla protests went – I’m writing this well in advance, and scheduling it to go up no matter what happens. But hopefully you were there and hopefully it went well.

This weekend is bigger. It’s called Hands Off! and it’s not specifically Tesla focused, it’s against the entire Musk/Trump administration agenda.

Like with the Tesla protests, there are hundreds scheduled. Like the Tesla protests, not all are at the same time of day – I have two in reasonable range of me that don’t even overlap so I may be able to show up at both.

You have options is what I am saying.

Go find a good one for you, make the time, and get out there.

And good hunting.

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Okay! So! Tesla Takedown Day, March 29th, as it happened in Lynnwood.

It went pretty well. I’m not good at estimating crowd sizes; I thought it was around 300, but it turns out they did a more formal count and it was more like 425. That’s funny, given the location and area code, but also pretty dang good for south Snohomish county.

Drivers going by honked a LOT of support. The counter-crowd was functionally nonexistent – we had a couple of drive-by finger-throwers and swearers, but I only saw one (1) MAGAt hat. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I do think I expected a little more than that.

There was also one fash hanger-on littleman doing a livestream while walking down the sidewalk through the crowd. I think he only did one run-through – I can’t be sure, but I didn’t spot him a second time, and I was looking. He had a couple of his buds trailing behind him, maybe as bodyguards? They weren’t talking, though.

Littleman himself was going off to his audience of maybe tens about how “pathetic” all these people were with “nothing better to do” on a Saturday afternoon. I really wish I’d turned around and gone into my “aren’t you so pathetic! what a good li’l booklicker! <3” doggie voice before delivering commentary about how if protesting is pathetic showing up to cover a protest must be a whole ‘nother world of pathetic but alas, I didn’t.

There’s always next time.

But yeah, even in Snohomish County, the people going by were overwhelmingly on our side. Overwhelmingly, and enthusiastically. Which isn’t that surprising but is good to have confirmed.

Cascadia Strong, team.

Hm, what else? I’ve got a few other notes:

The GMC dealership next door to the Fashhaus had to set up traffic monitors, because the crowd on sidewalks meant they couldn’t see the road on the way out. We weren’t blocking the driveway at all, we just blocked the view by being there. They weren’t mad – after all, we weren’t protesting them.

Lots of people wanted photos of my sign – both sides, specifically. I think I want to change “DO NOT” on the “DO NOT BUY CARS FROM NAZI ASSHOLES” to “DON’T” though, because:

DON’T buy
CARS from
NA-zi
ASS-holes

…is a good chant rhythm. Repeat the set three times, then “Don’t! Buy! their CARS!” over the same beat count, and you’ve got a nice little bit going, I think.

One of the few pro-Tesla cretins who did show up drove by the crowd a couple of times in their Incel Camino with a big I <3 ELON sign, but I couldn’t help but notice that they’d debadged the skip truck. No Tesla logo to be seen.

Hilarious.

We had a couple of T-Rex brigade people show up, that’s always fun. I also managed to completely miss that other people I know where there. From talking with them on Monsterdon afterwards, I literally walked by them multiple times and didn’t notice. But, well, I suppose that wasn’t the point.

Anyway, all in all, two hours, overwhelming enough support to help a bit with the ol’ morale, plus the weather held and we biked there so got in some good exercise. Not a bad day.

Next major event up are the Hands Off!/All Out protests on the 5th. I’ll have a post up about it on Monday; find your local and show up. It won’t be specifically Elon Musk this time, it’ll be about the whole Trump administration, and these have to keep happening and keep getting bigger.

See you on Saturday, I hope.

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This is a good place to keep up with the lawsuits against Musk and Trump:

Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Actions: “We put them all in one place.”

Also, if you’re a Federal employee (or were) or are related to one:

Here’s one of the places where Fed employees have been organising. NO, it’s not a secret, I wouldn’t post it if it was.

Anyway, those are a couple of resources, hope you find them useful.

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This Saturday, March 29th, is Tesla Takedown Day, a day of peaceful protest at every US Tesla dealership and as many other dealerships and facilities outside the US as possible.

Here’s a map of planned protests you can join – places, times of day, and so on. They aren’t all at the same time, which might be useful for you. Find one close to you that’s at a time you can make and be there, preferably with a sign. If you don’t want to design your own sign, feel free to print and use one of these, or adapt them to your own ideas. They’re high resolution at 11×17 and plenty good enough at two times that.

Tesla Takedown is also helping people find protests on other days as well. Here’s the home website for the movement, with all the details you need.

Get out there. And good hunting.

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Sometimes all you can do is clear out a bunch of links. I’ll be doing this a few times this week.

Honestly I just deleted a bunch – things which have had more coverage more recently, for the most part. These are hate campaigns which are already being forgot, and/or which haven’t received the coverage that they’d’ve received in previous times since… I don’t know. World War II? Hard to say.

Should I stay or should I go now? The process of placing your triplines on whether you need to flee your country.

Federal Court Rules In Favor of Forcibly Detransitioning Transgender Inmates In Florida: In the final days of 2024, a federal judge in Florida’s Northern District issued a ruling rejecting a preliminary injunction against a new Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) policy targeting transgender inmates. This policy, introduced on September 30, 2024, frames gender dysphoria as a “short-term delusion,” restricting access to gender-affirming care, permitting hormones only in “rare instances” deemed constitutionally necessary. The FDC bulletin also suggests psychotropic medications and psychotherapy as sufficient alternatives to medical transition, ignoring widely accepted medical guidelines.

Supreme Court takes up case claiming Obamacare promotes “homosexual behavior”: Don’t laugh it off, this is still in process and it’s by the guy who got Roe v. Wade overturned. His claim is that treating AIDS is a violation of Christian religious rights because it saves the lives of LGBT people, and by making same-sex relationships between men not be a death sentence, “promotes homosexual behaviour.” Yes, it’s another example of how the American fundamentalist movement considers LGBT existence to be the unforgivable crime.

My Child Is Trans. Here’s How We Can Protect Their Rights in the Trump Era. This is about states protecting LGBT children in general, and trans kids in particular. Understand that this wasn’t just an initial burst of hate that has been set aside; as I am writing this, Trump is threatening Maine over their continued refusal to hurt trans children.

On Day One, Trump Pits His Administration Against Trans People. Well, yeah. As promised. That’s what’s going to happen when the goal is, in their words, eradication.

A triptych of passport articles:

• Rubio Orders State Department to Stop Issuing Accurate Passports to Trans People
• Rubio instructs staff to freeze passport applications with ‘X’ sex markers
• Trump’s Gender Order Won’t Affect Existing Passports — Unless They’re Renewed
  “They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” the White House press secretary told NOTUS.

Note in that last one, “God-given sex, which was decided at birth.” This is purely an order of religious hatred – or as the courts have been putting it, “animus.”

Trump maligns trans service members, diversity, learning in discriminatory EOs:

On Monday evening, President Donald Trump took direct aim at nondiscrimination and diversity in the military in a pair of executive orders that include a discriminatory provision declaring transgender people unfit for military service.

Both orders have names that have nothing to do with what they seek to do, so I will note their formal names just once.

In the first order, named “Prioritizing Military Readiness and Excellence,” what Trump did was discriminate against trans people.

Here’s the order itself (whitehouse.gov link). It drips with contempt and hatred.

Here’s the order trying to ban health care for anyone trans under the age of 19.

Here’s the order trying to ban schools from supporting trans kids in any way. Unlike the above, it’s also implementing a defacto whites and men-first policy in all education.

Marco Rubio May Have Just Banned Trans Foreigners Seeking Visas From US Entry. This, along with multiple cases of abuse by border authorities, was followed by several European countries issuing travel warnings against travelling to the United States. This is the goal.

Mainstream media paved the way for Trump’s anti-trans policies – OPINION: Years of questionable coverage manufactured consent for Trump’s executive order targeting gender-affirming care. Sure did. Echoing bullshit, amplifying bad-faith bullshit and lies as equal to science, facts, and truth; all the usual complete failures of modern American political media.

Military issues policy banning trans military service, implementing Trump EO. And no, there is not any kind of “exception.”

Part of the “rewrite truth to match our lies” programme: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed. This applies to a lot more than LGBT people, but it certainly includes LGBT people.

This EO mandates Department of Transportation to prioritise areas with “high birth rates” and marriage rates. This is part of the “rural white people first” agenda, and is also kinda about eugenics.

Pentagon revokes travel policy for troops seeking reproductive health care, including abortions. This makes it harder for military families to get any kind of reproductive health care in red states, which is also about controlling sexuality, women, and eugenics.

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