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Tag: Gonzo Notes

How To Break Rules In 2017 (Gonzo Notes 03)

Posted in Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and Journalism

Here in Austin, Texas, activists love to hold rallies at the state capitol building.

It’s a magnificent edifice of pink granite and the symbolic center of our state, so I can understand the impulse. Yet the grounds are so massive that all but the biggest crowds become visually lost among the monuments, and for about 18 months out of every 24 the building is empty (“a big pink tourist trap”).

I’m tired of attending protests outside an empty building. The bigger issue is that strongly worded speeches alone won’t solve the immense problems we face. Neither will petitions or angry letters.

#GonzoNotes 02: Celebrate Every Victory

Posted in Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and Journalism

During the first meeting of Occupy Austin, the general assembly agreed that the movement would “celebrate every victory.”

It’s an idea that I’ve often returned to in the years since OWS ended, and I was thinking about it when the water protectors of Standing Rock won an unexpected but hard-fought victory last weekend.

On Sunday, the Army Corps Of Engineers refused to grant a permit for the pipeline to continue under a river that passes through sacred lands in Sioux territory, temporarily preventing completion.

As thousands of veterans streamed into Standing Rock, promising to put their bodies in between cops and Native Americans, “the power structure itself blinked in the face of our unity,” Kelly Hayes wrote, eloquently, on Monday.

#GonzoNotes 01: Life Under President Trump

Posted in Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and MintPress News

Donald Trump is going to be president.

That’s fucking ugly, so I want you to just sit with it for a minute.

I know some people are working for a different outcome. I will rarely tell anyone not to act, and this includes my comrades petitioning the electoral college to reject Trump, or supporting efforts to recount the vote.

Still, fundamentally, our democracy isn’t built for this. The electoral college was never meant to serve the people, and it never will.