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Updated: October 25, 2023
Training through Advanced divisions were our trailblazers today here at the 2018 USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena, with 10 championship divisions taking their turns in the rectangle. It's a lot to take in, but with the help of our hardworking friends at USEA and the Colorado Horse Park here's a rather massive roundup of the day's action!
Tamie Smith and Mai Baum. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
All eyes were on the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Advanced Final, the last division of the day to start, and we were all cheering for the very last pair up the centerline: Tamie Smith and the striking black Mai Baum.
We haven't seen much of Alexandra and Ellen Ahearn and Eric Markell's 12-year-old German Sport Horse gelding (Loredano x Ramira) since his memorable Fair Hill International CCI3* win in 2015, with a run of injury and bad luck to blame. After recovering from a mild strain sustained at Fair Hill, his return to competition was further delayed when he contracted an infection in his gut and then, on his way home from an event, fell and injured a leg, which necessitated more time off.
Now officially back in action, he entered the AEC with just three outings under his belt since Fair Hill: two in 2017 and one Intermediate this summer at Twin Rivers. Not much rust there to scrape off so far as we can tell! After putting on quite a show in the warm-up ("Just lemme at it already, mum!") Mai Baum channeled his energy into an expressive, buyant test. Their score of 26.4 gives them the early Advanced lead — Tamie brings us up to speed on their comeback.
On bringing Mai Baum back: "Dr. Rantanen and Dr. Martinelli at California Equine Orthopedics have this high-powered laser, there are only a handful in the world, and we decided that since he was going to have time off that we would do the laser on the leg he strained at Fair Hill, and that gave us even more time. We've been bringing him back slowly. He had that time off, so it's taken quite a while to get him fit and strong, but he feels fit and strong now."
On today's exuberant dressage: "He was completely wild today. ('Well, he likes to run and jump!' chimes in Eric Markell.) He smiles when he runs cross country. I wasn't sure what he was going to do in the ring and he was strong, not listening to my half-halts and flinging his legs. I think he was very happy to be on a stage like that. I picked up the canter and went around the ring and I couldn't help but smile. He's so special and he's such a showman, it's really fun."
Tamie Smith and Mai Baum. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
On that saucy lead change: "It's hilarious when he's naughty because it's not often that he's naughty. In my test I was doing my half-pass and then I went to go forward to do my change and he leapt in the air, kicked my right foot, and then bolted. And right after that came my stretchy circle so I didn't even start it until it was too late. It was fun, but he was wild." Markell adds, "When I was leaving I heard one man say to another, 'That horse comes in the ring and takes it over with his personality.'"
On the cross country course: "They've done a tremendous job on the footing. They've been working all night and my hat goes off to the officials who have been very diligent about getting a plan. I just got done from walking the course and they've aerated it and gone over it again and now they're watering it and it feels great. The track is very good. It's not overly technical, but technical enough, and it's big. I think Tremaine Cooper did a super job. The design and the fences are beautiful."
On her strategy for tomorrow: "Phillip [Dutton] told me once that the challenge when you go out of the start box is to look slow but be fast. That's my plan, just be efficient in the lines and be smooth and feel what the ground feels like and if it feels good then kick on and if it doesn't just stay steady."
Jordan Linstedt and Revitavet Capato, Barbara and Gary Linstedt's 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Contendro x Annabelle), sit in 2nd on a score of 27.5.
Jordan Linstedt and Revitavet Capato. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Tamie is also 3rd place with Fleeceworks Royal, Judith McSwain's 9-year-old Holsteiner mare (Riverman x Marisol), on a score of 30.8.
Tamie Smith and Fleeceworks Royal. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Top 5 after dressage:
Heather Morris and Charlie Tango. Photo by Leslie Wylie.Californians have a stronghold on the top of the Intermediate dressage scoreboard. We catch up with the dressage leader.
Leader: Heather Morris and The Team Express Group LLC's Charlie Tango, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Shannondale Sarco St. Ghyvan x Our Queen Bee), on a score of 25.8.
On goals for the future: "He's a pretty reliable horse. He's quite good in the ring, quite accurate. I think I would like for it to be more expressive, so that's what we'll work toward in the shows this fall and focusing on just making it a little more rideable."
On being in Colorado: "Being from the West Coast now, having the AEC here makes everything so much easier. I'm happy that this was out here because I love coming here. It's great!"
On their heels: Erin Kellerhouse and her own Woodford Reserve, a 7-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tinarana's Inspector x Laharns Laughton), sit 2nd on a 28.0. Bella Mowbray and Ruth Bley's En Vogue, a 13-year-old Hanoverian mare (Earl x Laurena), round out the top three on a 30.5.
Top 5 after dressage:
Preliminary Amateur
Cara Lavigna and Carrick Diamond Duke Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Leader: Cara Lavigna and her own Carrick Diamond Duke, an 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Carrick Diamond Lad x Uskerty Barnaby), on a score of 31.1.
On her history with Carrick Diamond Duke: "I've had 'Duke' for three years. I got him as a five-year-old. He's always been a fancy mover. He jumps really big and tries really hard. As he's become older and more mature, watching his progression has been really fun and creating a bond has been cool. He really enjoys his cross country. We are currently learning how to put the pieces together because now that things are getting harder. We are developing our partnership. When he goes into the ring for show jumping and dressage, he knows his job, he perks up, he really likes to show off and that's fun for both of us."
On coming to Colorado: "Having the AEC here in Colorado is lovely," she commented. "To only have to take one week off from work (she's a school teacher), as opposed to more, that was nice. I've never been to the AEC, I've never been to a show in Colorado, so I was excited that it was so much closer!"
On their heels: Lauren Hoover and Atlanta, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Vancouver x Philadelphia GHR), are 2nd on a 31.8. Ruth Bley and Rodrigue Du Granit, a 13-year-old Selle Francais gelding (Robin II Z x Delight Gree), are 3rd on a 31.9.
Top 5 after dressage:
Preliminary Horse
Jordan Linstedt and Staccato. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Leader: Jordan Linstedt and Staccato, Janine Jaro's 9-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Stakkato x Certosa), on a score of 27.6.
On their test: "I didn't feel like today was our very best but I was really happy with him. I was excited to see the leaderboard stay consistent throughout the morning. I was first in the ring, and I'm never normally in that position. You never know how the judging is going to be, and how that'll carry on."
On Staccato's development: "He's really been quite strong in all three phases recently," Linstedt noted."When I first got him, he was a challenging young horse, a bit of a late developer. He has really blossomed this past year so he's been really fun to work with and produce. He's stunning on the flat, very elegant, and puts in a good test."
On their heels: Tamara Smith and Judith McSwain's Fleeceworks Ghost, a 6-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Dhannondale Sarco x Riverlon Mist), sit 2nd on 29.0 penalties. In 3rd is Jennifer Wooten-Macouzet with R. Lawrence Sawyer's BSP Tuxedo, a 9-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Apokalipsis x Stutbuch 1), on a score of 29.1.
Top 5 after dressage:
Preliminary Rider
Mike Huber and Calliope. Photo by USEA.
Leader: Mike Huber and Calliope, an 11-year-old Oldenburg mare (Consul x Clintina) owned by Ann Adams, on a score of 25.7.
On his connection with the horse: "The horse is one that I ride for a client of mine," stated Huber, "Ann Adams normally rides the horse and I don't ride her that frequently. Ann is getting ready to move up to Preliminary and she's been riding Calliope in Training level, so I've taken her out a few times at this level this year and obviously qualified for the AEC; so we are competing here this weekend."
On the benefits of having the AEC in the Midwest: "It's always hard to find an AEC location that is good for everyone and you're not going to, because it's such a big event and we live in a big country. We're kind of lucky. We're from Texas so we are right in the middle, so it's usually pretty doable! I think it's great to have it out here, so the people who may not be able to go all the way to the East Coast finally get a chance to participate."
On their heels: Whitney Tucker Billeter and her own Karvaleo, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Kanna x Finod Cavalier), sit 2nd on a 29.1. Travis Atkinson and his own Don Darco, a 9-year-old Zweibrucker gelding (Damarco x Gong Lee), is in 3rd on a score of 31.1.
Top 4 after dressage:
Jr./Y.R. Preliminary
Charlotte Babbitt and 2 A.M. Photo by USEA.
Leader: Charlotte Babbitt and her own 2 A.M., a 6-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Sheraton x Regina K), on a score of 23.3.
On their test: "He was very good today. He put in a very nice test. We've been working really hard recently. He's had a bit of a rough go since [Rebecca Farm], so we've only had a couple of flat schools, but he's trained and he really just wants to go in the arena and try really hard. That's what he did. He knows his job and he went in and did his job. I'm super happy with him."
On their year-and-a-half old partnership:"It was interesting, when I got him he wasn't really my ride but he's young so it was a very good experience for me, developing him into the horse I wanted him to be. It's pretty cool now — he's my exact ride. I love him to death and I couldn't imagine having any other horse. It's been a struggle, but with the help of my trainers Andrea [Pfeiffer] and Amber [Levine] I've been able to work with him. He's pretty easy to work with. He's a super nice horse and he just wants to learn and do well so it's been really fun developing a partnership."
On their plan for the rest of the season: "The plan right now is to do the CIC 1* at Woodside and the CCI 1* at Galway," she said. "That's our plan and we'll take it day by day until then and see how it goes."
On NAYC 2019: "We'll see. I'll definitely put my name in and we'll see how his season starts next year and see how it goes."
On their heels: Nicole Hatley and Flagmount's Rebel, a nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse/Thoroughbred gelding (Flagmount's Freedom x Devious Princess) owned by Clarissa Bliss, are in second place on a 27.8. Kaitlin Vosseller and her own Clear Approval, a 12-year-old Warmblood gelding out of All Best Wishes is third with a score of 29.2.
Top 5 after dressage:
Training Amateur
Linda Quist and Belle Gambe. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Leader: Linda Quist and Belle Gambe, her own 14-year-old Iberian Warmblood (Temerario VII x Mojave), on a score of 27.3.
On their performance: "With today's test, I think I rode it well, I think she rode it well. There were a few spots where I kept thinking 'oh my gosh, we need to do better!' Apparently, we did good enough though, as we have the leading score for today! I'm definitely excited about that, this has been a dream."
On their partnership: "My horse is amazing. I've had her since she was born, so we have an incredible partnership. She's my friend, she's another mare and we connect like a pair of girlfriends. Sometimes we argue, sometimes things go great, sometimes they go not-so-great. She has her opinions, I have mine."
On their Heels: Nikki Lloyd and Mighty Smart, a nine-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Mighty Magic x Ravenna) owned by Ruth Bley, are 2nd on a 28.2. Leslie LaBraque and Falkonet, her own 17-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, are 3rd on a 28.4.
Top 5 after dressage:
Training Horse
McKenzie Rollins and Excel Star Lord. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Leader: McKenzie Rollins and Excel Star Lord, her own six-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Non-Stop x Korea B), on a score of 28.5.
On their test: "He was great, but I was very nervous. He does very well in atmosphere and that helps calm me down. It's surprising, because he just turned six in June, but he has never really given me any trouble. He shines in the dressage ring and he loves to get in there. He was a little bit fresh, so he got a little heavy in some places but he's just so lovely and it's really fun to ride him."
On moving from Massachusetts to Los Angeles a few years ago: "I did a Google search barns outside of Los Angeles and I ended up at Mill Creek where I met Jennifer Johnson and she's helped me all along since I brought Frankie in."
On her partnership with "Frankie," whom she imported from Ireland with the help of Courtney Cooper: "He came in as a four-year-old and we did a number of Novice [level events] and then moved up to Training. I think we'll be ready to move up to Preliminary after this. I've really been wanting to take my time with him and make sure I'm not pushing him or rushing him. He's so lovely. I didn't want to put any pressure on him."
Top 5 after dressage:
Training Rider
Kelsey Horn and Swingtown. Photo by the USEA.
Leader: Kelsey Horn and Swingtown, Swingtown Partners' 6-year-old Oldenburg mare (Sagnol x Dynamica), on a 24.2.
On coming to Colorado from Oregon: "When we heard that the AEC was going to be in Colorado, we knew we had to aim for that. We wanted to participate, so having it at CHP made a huge impact on our ability to get here."
On young horses and developing a string: "They're just so fun to work with. Initially, I had a few clients purchase me a younger horse for Pinnacle Syndicate and then I just kind of collected some others that were younger. As they've gotten older I have this great string of horses coming up the line."
Of her partnership with Swingtown: "I've been riding her since I broke her as a 3-year-old. She won the 4-Year-Old West Coast Event Championship in 2016, and then in 2017 she had a year off due to an injury. This season we are back at it and we did a couple of Novice events at the beginning of the season, bumped up to Training, and we will see where the rest of the year takes us!"
On their heels: Tracy Alves and her own Romulus, a 20-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Contango x Divottii), are 2nd on a 26.8. Rebecca Mortensen and Seattle Freckles, her own 10-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, round out the top three with a 28.8.
Top 5 after dressage:
Jr. Training
Eva Jacroux and Rubel. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Leader: Eva Jacroux and her own Rubel, a 12-year-old Zweibrucker gelding (Radikal x When the Worlds Unite), on a score of 31.4.
On their relationship: "I got 'Ru' about two years ago and this is my second season on him. It did start off a bit rocky. He was way too much horse for me and I was a little worried whether or not I'd be able to ride him. I came from a push button ride, but I decided that I was going to try my hardest to make it work. I started doing a lot of ground work. I started going back to the basic and it seems to have really worked because he's come into his own."
On their test: "I really didn't think this test went very well. Ru was a little tense and I was worried about whether or not I was going to be able to handle him, but it ended up being just fine. He was such a good boy, he paid attention to me and listened to what we've been working on."
On cross country: "Dressage is probably his strongest phase, but he does seem to also love cross country. I've already walked the course and I think it's going to be really fun!"
On their heels: Madison Santley and Excellence, her own 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Vaillant x Wolinda), sit 2nd with a 31.7. Rosie Smith and her own Seamus, a 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Corrcullen, RID, round out the top three on a 33.8.
Top 5 after dressage:
Phew. Much, much more to come. Go Eventing!
[2018 USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena® Feeds Commence at The Colorado Horse Park]
AEC: Website, Schedule, Ride Times, Live Scores, Live Stream, EN's Coverage, EN's Twitter, EN's Instagram


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Filed under: Roundup
Welcome to 2017.
This is the first installment of the All the News column this year and already it feels as if so much as happened, and so much has yet to happen, that it can be overwhelming to even begin to compile the information in an effort to think about what the current economic, political, and ecological situation looks like. While this continues to be a daunting task, we will continue to do our best.
While in the anarchist movement and among autonomous anti-capitalist circles, much discussion exists around the #DisruptJ20 mobilizations happening across the country, but we'd like to take this opportunity to bring attention to a lot of things happening behind the scenes and not being discussed in most mainstream media channels.
First off, as General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense has outlined in recent Senate Armed Service Committee meetings with support from both sides of the aisle, (including the leading 'left' Democrats) there continues to be intense build up and support of a coming war with both Russia and China. This is coupled with the fact that now, 4,000 US troops are now stationed along the Russian border for the first time since the Cold War:
Some 4,000 US troops, together with tanks, artillery and armored vehicles, arrived in Poland over the weekend, further escalating tensions with Russia ahead of the January 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump. It is the largest US troop deployment in Europe since the Cold War.
The troops will be dispersed over seven Eastern European countries, including the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all of which border Russia. After nine months, the troops will be replaced with another unit, making the deployment effectively permanent. NATO plans to deploy a further four battalions to the Russian border later this year, including one each to Poland and the three Baltic states.
Now, as the United States seeks to cement its stranglehold over Eurasia in preparation for a showdown with its main international rival, China, it prepares for a military clash with Russia, the world's second-ranked nuclear power.
While for now Trump has signaled a more accommodative stance toward Russia, this is only for the purpose of focusing US diplomatic, economic and military aggression against China. In an interview published this weekend by the Wall Street Journal, Trump simultaneously said he was open to lifting economic sanctions against Russia and reiterated his willingness to reconsider Washington's longstanding policy of not recognizing Taiwan. The Chinese have warned that such a policy move would lead to a rupture of diplomatic relations.
Trump's nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, used his Senate confirmation hearing last week to declare that the US under Trump would block Chinese access to its island possessions in the South China Sea. Chinese sources in response called any such action an act of war.
This deployment comes hot on the heels of the Trump administration's calls for an escalation of aggression with American 'roadblocks' to global hegemony that includes threats of the use of possible nuclear weapons:
General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, used his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday to outline an aggressive war policy, designate Russia and China as enemies and call for a dramatic expansion of military spending, including the "modernization" of nuclear weapons and expansion of cyberwarfare.
There will be no end to these global wars, the senators' questions and Mattis' answers made clear. The US will "be engaged in global conflict for the foreseeable future," McCain declared. "Believing otherwise is wishful thinking… Hard power matters, having it, threatening it, leveraging for diplomacy and at times using it."
Starting with McCain, senators repeatedly invited Mattis to denounce Russia and to separate himself from Trump over the president-elect's less publicly bellicose stance toward Moscow and his open conflict with US intelligence agencies over unsubstantiated allegations of Russian "hacking" of the US election.
Mattis labeled Russia a "strategic competitor" and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to "break" the NATO alliance, which he hailed as the greatest military alliance in history. "[T]here's a decreasing number of areas where we can cooperate actively and increasing number of areas where we're going to have to confront Russia," Mattis said. He also signaled his deference to US intelligence agencies, saying he has a "very, very high degree of confidence in our intelligence community."
When asked by Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico to identify "key threats" to the US, Mattis began with Russia, but from there developed a list that could include any nation in the world.
"I would consider the principal threat to start with Russia," Mattis responded, "and then it would certainly include any nations that are looking to intimidate nations around the periphery or nations nearby them whether it is with weapons of mass destruction or—I would call it unusual, unorthodox means of intimidating them."
This theme was taken up by Warren, who, alongside Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, is promoted as the "left" face of the Democratic Party.
Many of these moves would seem bizarre to most, considering most news media has generally just discussed the 'connections' between the US election and 'Russian hackers,' however in Washington DC there is talk within elite political circles about creating a consensus around the growing need to engage in a military conflict with Russia:
"Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?" Senator Marco Rubio (Republican from Florida) demanded of President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, at a hearing on Wednesday. "Do you believe that Vladimir Putin and his cronies are responsible for ordering the murder of countless dissidents, journalists and political opponents?"
While replying that Russia is a significant threat to US interests, Tillerson refrained from repeating Rubio's language. This prompted Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen to express her dismay that Tillerson was "unwilling to agree with Senator Rubio's characterization of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal."
The performance was repeated at a Senate hearing on Thursday for the secretary of defense nominee, General James Mattis. Republican Senator John McCain, who last month denounced Putin as a "thug and murderer" and called the alleged hacking of Democratic Party emails an "act of war," declared that the US will be "engaged in global conflict for the foreseeable future… Hard power [that is, the military] matters, having it, threatening it, leveraging it for diplomacy and at times using it."
The script always has the same ending. The US does not negotiate with "war criminals," "butchers" and "thugs," it organizes regime-change operations, wages war and, in the end, generally kills them. In this case, the target of the propaganda offensive is the president of a country with the second largest nuclear-weapons stockpile in the world. The next stage in the orchestrated offensive threatens to have catastrophic consequences for the entire world.
But wait, there's more! No satisfied with a war with Russia, let's throw in a war with China:
The confirmation hearings for Donald Trump's cabinet nominees confirm that his administration intends to vastly intensify US demands for massive economic and strategic concessions from the Chinese regime. In pursuit of the predatory ambitions of a tiny layer of corporate oligarchs, policies are being put forward that could result in a military clash and trigger a nuclear exchange.
On Thursday, Rex Tillerson, Trump's proposed secretary of state, made unprecedented statements on the attitude the next US government will take toward China's land reclamation activities and construction of facilities on the islets and reefs Beijing claims as sovereign territory in the South China Sea.
Tillerson declared: "We are going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed."
The implications of such a policy are immense. The islands referred to by Tillerson are occupied by Chinese military personnel. The waters surrounding them are patrolled by the Chinese Coast Guard and Navy. The airspace above them is patrolled by the Chinese air force. The only conceivable way to deny China access would be through the large-scale deployment of US aircraft carriers and associated military forces into the South China Sea.
Taken together, the predatory agenda of the American oligarchs toward China challenges the core interest of the Chinese capitalist class and the political stability, and even survival, of the Chinese Communist Party regime. The CCP, the representative of a brutal and corrupt Chinese oligarchy, is incapable of any response except to threaten US imperialism with nuclear war, while appealing behind the scenes for a compromise. The bankruptcy of American capitalism, however, and the desperation of its ruling elite to reverse the decline of its global dominance, excludes the prospect of any long-term retreat from its aim of transforming China into a semi-colonial client state.
Out of all of these moves comes a clear picture of a Trump Presidency that wants to construct a nationalist economic policy which uses a massive military apparatus to "Make America Great Again." As Nick Beams argued:
The shift in orientation by the US ruling class has profound historical significance. One of the lessons drawn by the American ruling elites following the disasters produced by the decade of the 1930s, when the division of the world economy into currency and trading blocs led to World War II, was the need to base the post-war order on free trade, with protectionism eschewed at all cost.
What was called the "liberal" trade agenda was itself based on, and underwritten by, the unchallenged global economic dominance of American capitalism, which emerged relatively unscathed from the carnage of the Second World War, in contrast to the devastation of Europe and much of Asia. The war amplified the already dominant position of US industry and finance. American capitalism sponsored the establishment of a set of institutions and programmes—the dollar-based Bretton Woods monetary system, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Marshall Plan—to stabilise and pry open the world market to its exports and investments and facilitate the profit-making of US corporations.
Today, after decades of protracted decline, US economic hegemony is a thing of the past and American capitalism finds itself threatened by the rise, in particular, of China. This is fundamentally what underlies the breakdown of the post-war economic order and the turn of the American ruling class to unbridled economic nationalism.
To put it in simple terms, the big gains that neoliberal American financial capitalism used to make ain't doing it like it used to, and now another form of globalized capital makes sense for some parts of the ruling class, but a much more 'nationalistic' version:
Fears about the new US orientation were voiced in a column by Financial Times economics correspondent Martin Wolf published on January 6. It was headlined "The long and painful journey to world disorder."
"It is not true that humanity cannot learn from history," Wolf began. "It can and, in the case of the lessons of the dark period between 1914 and 1945, the west did. But it seems to have forgotten those lessons. We are living, once again, in an era of strident nationalism and xenophobia. The hopes of a brave new world of progress, harmony and democracy, raised by the market opening of the 1980s and the collapse of Soviet communism between 1989 and 1991, have turned to ashes."
Moreover, the capitalists are scared. Why? Well, capitalism is actually shrinking:
In the years following the financial crisis, the central bankers and capitalist politicians insisted that the financial measures they had enacted would eventually bring about an economic recovery. But this fiction has now been well and truly exposed. Investment, the key driver of the economy, remains persistently below pre-crisis trends. Productivity is falling. Deflation has become widespread. And, most significantly, world trade growth has slowed markedly. Last September, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) noted that in 2016, the growth in world trade would fall below the rate of growth in global gross domestic product, only the second such occurrence since 1982.
The overall situation is graphically depicted by the fact that the world economy as a whole is one sixth smaller than it would have been had pre-crisis growth trends been maintained.
In response to this situation, the past year has seen, as the WTO noted, the increased use of protectionist measures, especially by the major economies, notwithstanding all the pledges to the contrary. It is within this broad economic context that Trump and his "America First" agenda, and the turn to such economic nationalist policies by other major powers, must be placed.
In the final analysis, they are the response by the ruling elites to their inability to devise any measures to promote sustainable economic growth. Consequently, the world market is increasingly becoming a battleground—a development that will become ever more apparent in the coming year.
Let's make an effort to understand, not only oppose these changes in the ruling class that are of course, not always uniform or united. Neoliberal capitalism is not our friend any more that right-wing populist/nationalist capitalism is. It's all fucking got to go.
In that spirit, let's get to the news.
Smash the State, Trump that Regime
This week brought both a collection of reflections on the end of the Obama era, which was marked by massive bailouts, the transfer of billions from the working-class to the wealthiest elites, unending wars abroad which grew to include deadly drone strikes, mass deportations, the erosion of democratic rights and the ushering in of indefinite detention, and the ramping up of repressive infrastructure and the militarization of the police in the face of an explosion of social movements. Joseph Kishore wrote:
Obama is the first president in American history to serve two full terms in office with the nation at war. This includes the continued bloodletting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the bombing of Libya, the six-year-long war for regime change in Syria, and support for the Saudi-led destruction of Yemen. A recent survey reported that in 2016, US Special Operations forces were deployed in 138 nations, or 70 percent of the countries of the world.
On the subject of Obama's record on health care and attacks on the working-class and poor, Kishore wrote:
Obama came into office in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, and the focus of his administration has been to restore the wealth of the financial aristocracy. Since their low point in March of 2009 (two months after Inauguration Day), stock values—fueled by the "quantitative easing" policies of the US Federal Reserve—have more than tripled, with the top one percent the overwhelming beneficiary of this new orgy of speculation. Aggregate quarterly corporate profits rose from $671 billion at the end of 2008 to $1.636 trillion in 2016, and the wealth of the richest 400 Americans increased from $1.57 trillion to $2.4 trillion.
At the other pole, eight years of the Obama administration have produced declining wages, rising living costs and growing indebtedness. Nearly 95 percent of all jobs added during the Obama administration's "recovery" have been temporary or part-time positions, according to a recent study by Harvard and Princeton, with the share of workers in temporary jobs rising from 10.7 percent to 15.8 percent. Obama presided over the bankruptcy of the auto companies early in his administration (imposing an across-the-board 50 percent cut in wages for new-hires). He supported the bankruptcy of Detroit and slashing of city workers' pensions. In the name of education "reform," he oversaw a wave of public school closures and attacks on teachers, who were laid off in the hundreds of thousands.
As for Obama's principal domestic initiative, the Affordable Care Act, its intended and actual outcome has been the shifting of health care costs from corporations and the state to individuals, with corporations slashing coverage and workers forced to pay exorbitant prices for substandard care. One statistic sums up the consequences: For the first time since the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1993, life expectancy fell in the US between 2014 and 2015 due to rising adult mortality from drug overdoses, suicides and other manifestations of social distress.
Furthermore, while liberals applauded the election of an African-American as the 'realization' of the civil rights movement, close to 10,000 people have been killed by police since Obama took office and a disgusting 3 million people have been deported, more than under any other President. Kishore goes on to comment:
For the ruling class, Obama's particular function was to fuse in his person and his administration identity politics with the absolute domination of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus. The "change" Obama was to represent was in the color of his skin, not the content of his policies.
While many herald Trump as a sign of the end times, the stage he is set to enter was made possible by the policies and repressive build up of the Obama administration.
But while liberals are often blind to this reality, many on the Right are likewise blind to the fact that Trump stands not to confront "the elites," but instead to usher in a new framework for their rule under nationalistic and reactionary lines. Speaking of Trump, last Wednesday, Trump announced that he would be putting his two weird ass looking sons in charge of the Trump Organization. At a press conference:
A significant portion of the event was given over to Trump's legal advisor, who declared that the "business empire built by President-elect Trump over years is massive," and proceeded to explain why conflict-of-interest statutes do not apply to Trump. She assured the American people that Trump "is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit."
Trump aides piled up hundreds of manila folders allegedly comprising documents showing the various arrangements to be made with respect to the Trump Organization. While the president-elect boasted of his wealth and success, he reiterated that he is exempt from conflict-of-interest rules (due to an obscure 1978 law passed to retroactively legitimize the free pass given to billionaire Nelson Rockefeller when he was appointed vice president by Gerald Ford in 1974).
Trump was not just citing a legal technicality. He was declaring the complete immunity of the capitalist oligarchy from the laws and regulations that apply to the general population. All laws and democratic principles are subordinate to oligarchic privilege.
Far from "standing up to the elites," Trump represents a championing of their power over any illusion of checks and balances. But as Patrick Martin noted:
There is deep and growing anger among workers and youth. According to the latest poll figures, Trump—the most unpopular president-elect in history—now has a favorable rating of only 37 percent, with the majority of the population viewing him unfavorably. This is before he even takes a single action as president of the United States. Masses of people are in for a shock beyond anything they are prepared for.
As we get nearer to the Trump Inauguration, plans continue to change as both the far-Right and the police ramp of threats against those mobilizing against the billionaire oligarch. Several days ago, Trump made statements saying that he would remove the head of the National Guard before 12:01 Noon, however now these statements seem to have been recanted:
The Trump transition team has reversed course and is now asking the head of the Washington, D.C. National Guard to not resign at 12:01 PM on Inauguration Day, after massive nationwide outrage including from at least one local city councilman. Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz received a memo instructing him to tender his resignation effective 12:01 PM January 20, the moment Donald Trump is sworn in as president – which is a customary expectation of all presidential political appointees and cabinet members on every Inauguration Day, even when a president is re-elected.
People are pouring into Washington in record numbers. Bikers for Trump are on their way. It will be a great Thursday, Friday and Saturday!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2017
Also, in a proto-fascist move, Trump gave a nod (or maybe more of a plea) for far-Right forces within 'Bikers for Trump' to bow before their new billionaire at his upcoming inauguration on Friday. While there are some interesting reports online stating that "low numbers" are expected for Trump when compared to the 1-1.8 million that turned out for Obama, according to the Department of Homeland Security (who actually reads all our emails and text messages) they think around 700,000 or so will be out. Despite this, it does appear that attendance for the inauguration for those everyday people that actually want to see him inaugurated will be smaller than the thousands that are expected to pour into the city to protest and disrupt Trump being sworn in. The role that far-Right groups like Bikers for Trump will play in all this, either as passive spectators or as auxiliary forces to the cops (cause bikers and cops are like this son!) – remains unclear. Meanwhile, approval ratings for Trump continue to drop and the majority of Americans are apprehensive about their new commander and chief.
Tripadvisor: All 20 of top 20 Hotels in Washington DC have rooms available for Thurs-Sat period. https://t.co/w39u9pptjE https://t.co/c5BzkI7A9Z
— Robert Rutledge (@rerutled) January 17, 2017
In regards to numbers present at the Inauguration, one journalist had this to say:
Britain's The Independent today reports that ticket scalpers are getting scalped – there's little demand to buy inauguration tickets.
Even before Trump's tweet, The Hollywood Reporter noted D.C. may be flooded, but with Trump protesters, not supporters.
You're fired. Sad!!
Protesters were arrested when they disrupted a meeting held by Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for Attorney General who (supposedly) used to have soft and fuzzy feelings for the KKK:
On the 10th of January, Trump's attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions began his confirmation hearings before Congress. He was known 30 years ago as a KKK sympathiser and this came up in the hearings. He claimed he would support civil rights, but anti-Trump protesters begged to disagree. Several were removed from the hearing, including two Code Pink activists dressed as KKK members to mock Session's past. Both of the protesters in the hoods were arrested.
Also, if you want to get your counter-insurgency read on as to what the police will be brushing up on before #DisruptJ20, check out:
We obtained FEMA's CDP's 135 page Field Force Operation Manual that trains law enforcement on how to quell protests https://t.co/vNqRdNYlqx pic.twitter.com/a58KncE7SH
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) January 13, 2017
We dig into the realities of National Special Security Events (NSSE's) https://t.co/u8TV65cqOi #J20 #DisruptJ20 #Trump #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/68q8NHiuoN
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) January 17, 2017
Class War
One big shock that seems to be ruffling the feathers of many people who supported Trump but said "he'd never touch" the Affordable Care Act, is that now Trump has made public his clear plans to do just that:
In a weekend interview, Donald Trump said that he is close to completion of a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act that will include "insurance for everybody." In comments to the Washington Post late Saturday, the president elect said of his proposal, "It's very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven't put it in quite yet but we're going to be doing it soon."
There is every reason to dismiss Trump's claims that under his plan people "can expect to have great health care" that is "much less expensive and much better" as so much hogwash. He has not provided any specifics on how he will achieve a replacement plan with "much lower deductibles," and a simplified and less expensive system in which all Americans are "beautifully covered."
A new report confirms that rich people continue to have most of the wealth – imagine that:
Eight billionaires, six of them from the United States, own as much combined wealth as the bottom half of the world's population, some 3.6 billion people, according to the latest report on global inequality from the British-based advocacy group Oxfam.
The report was released Monday, on the eve of the annual World Economic Forum in the mountain resort of Davos, Switzerland, at which many of the ultra-rich will converge this week. The Oxfam document contains a range of figures that highlight the staggering growth of social inequality, showing that the income and wealth gap between a tiny financial elite and the rest of the world's people is widening at an accelerating rate.
The report points to the systematic character of the siphoning of global wealth to the heights of society. The business sector is focused on delivering "ever higher returns to wealthy owners and top executives," with companies "structured to dodge taxes, drive down workers' wages and squeeze producers."
This involves the most barbaric and criminal practices. Oxfam cites a report by the International Labour Organisation estimating that 21 million people are forced labourers, generating $150 billion in profits every year. The world's largest garment companies all have links to cotton-spinning mills in India that routinely use the forced labour of girls.
Under Obama, the decades-long growth of inequality accelerated, along with the descent of the ruling class into parasitism and criminality. He paved the way for the financial oligarchy to directly seize the reins of power, embodied in the imminent presidency of casino and real estate billionaire Donald Trump, to whom Obama will hand over the keys to the White House on Friday.
Trump has also pledged to slash taxes on the uber-wealthy and large corporations, only adding to the amount of wealth flowing from the hands of the working-class and the poor.
Actions took place across the US marking MLK Day, including a land occupation in Oakland, CA:
We need #LiberatedZones everywhere! #BlackLandLiberation #MLK4BlackLand Grateful for The BlackOut Collective… https://t.co/GoLSt9gTRD
— Movement Generation (@MoveGen) January 17, 2017
Finally, Andrew Puzder, a former fast food CEO is set to become labor secretary:
Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump's nominee for labor secretary, is uniquely unqualified for that job. As secretary, he'd be charged with enforcing health and safety, overtime and other labor laws. But as CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee's and Carl's Jr., he's made his considerable fortune from violating these very same laws, according to a report by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United released this week.
ROC, which advocates for restaurant workers nationwide, surveyed 564 CKE workers, 76 percent of them women. In discussing the results of the survey, it's important to note that while ROC surveyed a large number of workers, the respondents are people who chose to fill out a survey distributed by a workers' rights organization, which they learned about through their social media networks. Still, ROC reported "unprecedented" interest in the survey among workers at CKE and their eagerness to be part of the study, and the experiences they reported, are striking reminders that by tapping Puzder, Trump has made clear that his administration will be a dystopian nightmare for U.S. workers.
Smash the Patriarchy
Pro-patriarchy, Alt-Lite troll, and Men's' Rights Activist (MRA) Milo Yiannopoulos got his shit fucking shut down in Davis, CA this week. While you dedicated readers at IGD probably saw the report back that was written, but to reiterate, overall it was a delicious shit show. Essentially Milo lied about the entire thing and of course wasn't there, but then used the situation to his advantage to create a media spectacle on the campus the next day. Imagine that. From the report:
The alt-light Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at the campus of UC Davis on Friday the 13th. Similar to other campuses where Yiannopoulos has spoken, he was invited by the campus Republicans. Just days before the event, he announced that in addition to his appearance, the pharmaceutical ex-CEO Martin Shkreli would be joining him. Shkreli made headlines in 2015 for raising the price of Daraprim, an HIV and Cancer drug, by 5000%. They have both been suspended by Twitter for harassment.
After meeting with campus police and UC Davis Student Affairs officials, DCR leaders decided to cancel the event. Hale told TheSacramento Bee that the university did not in fact order the shutdown of the event, but rather presented DCR with their concerns about attendees' safety.
Hale told the Bee, "They [the College Republicans] were presented with the details of what was happening around the venue that evening. Protesters were blocking the entrance, so to be able to get the ticketed persons inside the venue, that would have been difficult."
Following the event's cancellation, Yiannopoulos and Shkreli took to social media to malign the protesters and campus administration, and to incite their right-wing audience. Even though the university did not itself cancel the event, Yiannopoulos wrote on Facebook, "Left-wing thugs scared UC Davis into canceling my event last night by damaging property, hurling excrement at guests and starting fights. […] Come join us at 1pm today in the quad at UC Davis to protest the university's pathetic failure to protect free speech."
In fact, the university has said that no property damage was reported due to the protests.
At campus Saturday, Yiannopoulos reportedly stood on a picnic table with a loudspeaker and denounced the university for canceling the event, and then led a march of protesters through part of the campus, chanting, "USA! USA!" A group of counter-protesters simultaneously denounced him, shouting, "No Milo, No KKK, No Fascist U.S.A."
Check this literally shit out:
In proof the universe bends towards poetic justice, Martin Shkreli caught dog shit w/ his face at the defeated fascism soirée at Davis. pic.twitter.com/1gnejtVI2N
— Scott Campbell (@incandesceinto) January 14, 2017
Also, in a glorious open letter to Milo, one person called him out as the rich-kid troll that he and his supporters are:
Dear Milo,
You don't frighten me.
I'm going to take my heels off so I can get down to your level. Let's cover some basic ground: your bleach job and concealer several shades too light don't make you Aryan, it just makes you look like Gerard Way failing to get into a frat party. You've taken all your self-hatred, warped it, and levelled it at vulnerable people. I think you're pathetic and sad.
I'm not going to waste time telling you that you're a bigot. The faculty has pretty well covered why you shouldn't come here in their open letters to the chancellor. Besides, being called a Nazi doesn't appear to stop you or anyone else on the alt-right from doing a goddamn thing.
I ought to sue your "Dangerous Faggot" tour for misleading the public. The only thing you're dangerous to is a skinhead's self-esteem. The world is full of very dangerous faggots, but you are not one of them. I raise a glass to the real dangerous faggots, from the AIDS survivors and queer anarchists to the gender warriors and the mincers of Fire Island. Here's to every disobedient queer body to ever walk the streets in defiance of state and society.
If we, the gender deviant, were not dangerous, you would not be so clearly threatened by us.
This amazing letter goes on to say:
I'd like to address the real reason you're coming here — Berkeley College Republicans, a pit of snakes, money and Pepe memes, agreed to host you, upping their game from the cardboard Trump cutout. I, for one, am just happy that their tacit white supremacism is now completely undeniable. They bring you here and then complain that It's Going Down compiled [Note: We did not write the article mention, we reposted it.] their members' public information and that UCPD would like to be compensated for the heightened security your presence on our campus will require. Hey BCR, what happened to Blue Lives Matter?
Frankly, I hope BCR gets their dads' checkbooks out and raises the coin to bring you here. I hope our chancellor remains spineless in the face of justified faculty and student outrage.
When you get here on Feb. 1, we will be waiting here to strip you of your gay identity. You can have sex with all the men you want, but you're not gay anymore. You've used your sexual orientation as an excuse to spit bile and galvanize cowards for long enough. Put your badge and gun on my desk. The community rejects you. You have never been one of us.
You never should have booked this UC tour, Milo. But you want to come to my town? I say, welcome to Berkeley, motherfucker. I'm the meanest gay on this coast. I was assigned to raise hell at birth. You come through me.
See you soon, Milo.
More anti-Milo confrontations are coming up, see them here.
Also, across the US, people are fighting to keep Planned Parenthood open with demonstrations planned in various states.
Black Snake Killaz
The Ramapough Lenape Nation created the Split Rock Prayer Camp on their land to oppose Pilgrim Pipeline https://t.co/Dm2SlTLxL5 #NoPilgrim pic.twitter.com/IXbgMe0epT
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) January 16, 2017
Pipeline resistance camps, headed by indigenous people are growing across the US. Unicorn Riot has a great report up on their website we encourage you to read:
Direct opposition to fossil fuel extraction projects continues to spread throughout the USA. Resistance camps mirroring the #NoDAPL encampments opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) have sprung up to resist the Sabal Trail, Trans-Pecos, Comanche, AIM, and Pilgrim Pipelines.
Water protectors are concerned about the threats to the environment posed by the fracking process and the boring that occurs when pipelines are constructed underneath waterways.
Drawing from the Unicorn Riot article, we present these various sites of struggle:
- Comanche Trail, Texas: On January 7th, a week after the camp was founded, two water protectors were arrested for locking down to construction excavators in a direct action that stopped construction for the day. In a video from the Jan. 7th action Two Rivers Camp organizer Frankie Orona states:"People are coming in from other states, people are coming down from North Dakota, the momentum's growing and its growing here in Texas and that's what we need. All the fracking that's going to be happening here that's gonna be contaminating not just the water, the land, the air, but sacred sites and land that's owned by people who have lived here for generations and they're feeling like they're getting bullied." – Frankie OronaAnother action involving lockdowns to construction equipment occurred during Saturday, January 15th. Two people who called themselves Earth Protectors, were arrested, one of whom was charged with felony criminal mischief as well as felony interference with a state machine.
- San Eli, Texas: In San Eli, Texas, on Wednesday, January 12th, 2017, two water protectors targeted Pumpco construction equipment, owned by ETP's CEO Kelcy Warren, in attempts to stop work. One person locked down to the backhoe and another locked themselves underneath it.
- Sabal Trail, Florida: The Sabal Trail Transmission is a three-state, $3 billion natural gas pipeline project that is due to be completed by June 2017. Partners in this joint 'Sabal Trail' project which starts in Alabama, goes through Georgia, and ends in Florida, are Spectra Energy Corp., with 59.5% ownership, NextEra Energy, Inc. with 33%, and Duke Energy with 7.5%.In a report-back from the direct action camp, Panagioti Tsolkas states: "There is a bounty of reasons to oppose this project, from the regional threats our waterways and wild lands to the global impacts of climate change. For a few examples, the project is slated to impact 4,370 acres of forests, 1,958 wetland systems and 699 waterbodies; it will emit greenhouse gas and toxic pollutants through its compressor stations, not to mention the impacts from power plants that will burn the fuel for electricity and the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals that will process and store the fuel. Add to that the utter disregard for low-income/minority "environmental justice communities"—the Environmental Impacts Statement (EIS) acknowledged that 83.7% of the Project would cross or be within one mile of environmental justice populations, including 135 environmental justice communities. That is to say nothing of ongoing eminent domain proceedings and the potential impacts of leaks and combustion."
- DAPL, Illinois: The historic autonomous #NoDAPL encampments continue near Cannonball, North Dakota, on 1851 treaty land, to preserve the Missouri River and prevent pipeline construction. As they move through the harsh winter conditions into mid-January of 2017, construction continues away from Lake Oahe, where the Army's Dec. 4th denial of the Lake Oahe easement has prevented full boring under the Missouri River.
- Pilgrim Pipeline/AIM Pipeline Expansion, New Jersey: Pilgrim Pipeline, in the Northeast region of the USA, is being constructed by Pilgrim Holdings, LLC. to move oil through the region. "The 178-mile parallel underground pipelines will run between supply and distribution terminals in Albany and Linden, New Jersey." The Ramapough Lenape Nation, a tribe recognized by the states of New Jersey and New York, but not the federal government, are still trying to clean up from years of toxic contamination of its lands by a Ford plant decades ago. Now they're dealing with the new Pilgrim Pipeline and the expansion of the AIM pipeline.
Police attacks against the Standing Rock encampment continue, as this MLK Day saw continued actions:
Yesterday, water protectors at Standing Rock were reportedly tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets by militarized police again. Three unidentified people were also arrested by the Morton County Sheriff Department for trespassing onto private property, inciting a riot and resisting arrest, after cutting a wire fence and dismantling industrial lighting.
According to several sources, around 200 peaceful protectors — some of whom called the march a response to Martin Luther King Jr. Day — marched over the frozen Cannonball and Missouri River to the site of the oil drill pad. It is supposedly the largest confrontation since construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline was halted last month. As Fusion reported, there was also another assembly near Backwater Bridge, where law enforcement reportedly deployed tear gas, ran over activists and fired rubber bullets at the crowd — in the same spot they were filmed using excessive force on protesters last November.
When the United States Army Corps of Engineers announced on December 4, 2017, that it would not grant the easement that would allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota—threatening the drinking water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux reservation—water protectors were weary that the victory was only temporary. Though an environmental impact assessment was ordered to explore alternate routes, the company constructing the pipeline vowed to continue pursuing completion of the project.
Despite the positive news, several water protectors have stayed at the Standing Rockcamps to preserve the infrastructure and continue the movement to protect the Standing Rock Sioux's water supply and tribal rights for when the pipeline construction resumes.
On January 16, police allegedly resumed firing rubber bullets at water protectors praying peacefully at the barrier along the pipeline construction site. A new National Guard site has allegedly been set up within the vicinity of the camp in preparation for escalating action between water protectors and police after President Obama leaves office. A missile system was reportedly sighted in the hills behind the barriers that is apparently intended to take down any drones attempting to acquire aerial footage of the pipeline construction site.
Unarmed Water protectors are being shot by rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, pepper spray and chased on ski-doos tn in Standing Rock, ND pic.twitter.com/3mZy22koY9
— Steven Thompson (@stevestrr) January 17, 2017
People within the Trump organization remain steadfast that they will increase the amount of drilling and pipeline construction, at an even faster rate than under Obama:
President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the Department of the Interior, Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he would review President Barack Obama's moves to limit oil and gas drilling in Alaska and some other parts of the country if confirmed.
Yes," he said in response to a question from Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska about whether he would review drilling limits on federal land in her state as head of the department. "The president-elect has said that we want to be energy independent. I can guarantee you it is better to produce energy domestically under reasonable regulation than overseas with no regulation."
Mexico On Fire
The Zapatistas celebrated another anniversary of their insurrection against the Mexican State. One article wrote:
"If we had spent those 23 years exchanging gunshots," says Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in an evening address to the many gathered for "The Zapatistas and ConSciences for Humanity" encounter currently taking place in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, "would we have been able to build this?"
The Subcomandante was referring to the flourishing infrastructures of self-organized Zapatista life, lived by thousands of rebel Indigenous people in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. The Zapatista movement today celebrates the 23rd anniversary of its uprising in San Cristóbal on Jan. 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. In the 23 years that have followed the Zapatistas are organized by small communities known as caracoles and have built autonomous hospitals, schools, health clinics, security, transport, and communications operations.
The Zapatista "command" of which Subcomandante Moisés is a member had, as the Subcomandante was recounting in his address, begun shortly after the uprising to consider "another way of fighting" the system of neoliberal economics and bad government that currently has humanity in its grip, with Indigenous peoples of the world being squeezed the hardest. That is, they began to explore a resistance to this death grip that did not rely on weapons and violence and in which only guerrillas played a role. The leaders of the movement began to speak with the "compañer@s*" of the Indigenous communities that comprise it about alternatives to fighting the war against them. The alternative, they discovered, was to include all the rebel Indigenous who struggle — the women, the children, the older people — all together building the just and rational world being fought for "from below" while continuing to face the threat of extermination by the state and capital. As such, the Zapatistas decided they would stop using their weapons against their aggressors and develop a system of self-government, completely autonomous from the state and capital.
For a round up of current Zapatista and indigenous news from Chiapas, check out Dorset Chiapas Solidarity's monthly round up here.
The #Gasolinazo uprising continues. As Forbes wrote:
The present wave of gasolinazo in Mexico is torching more than social order, peace and property. It has left President Enrique Pena Nieto's political capital and credence in blisters. His government hiked the gasoline prices by up to 20% with less than a week's notice, sending millions into a last-minute scramble for filling tanks and jerry cans. The ensuing chaos, fuel shortages, stockpiling, protests, riots, arson, widespread mass looting and at least six deaths since the new year began is nothing but a spillover of public anger at Nieto's failure to curb corruption and his toothless reforms to boost living standards.
To worsen their woes, Mexicans now fear a steep rise in food prices and basic necessities is imminent. Consumer prices, according to analysts at Banamex, are expected to go up by more than 1.6% in January, highest rise in 17 years in month-on-month comparison. The cost of maize has already soared by 5% – touching 80 cents per kilogram. As a result, tortilla prices – the country's staple food – have already begun going up in several cities. Half of Mexico's population lives in poverty, with a significant number subsisting on $3.8 in daily minimum wages. Not being able to afford tortilla was once unthinkable, today millions of Mexicans are bracing to face the stark reality. In 2007, a similar spike in tortilla prices had triggered nationwide protests. But this time, the Mexicans know, it's different.
teleSur reports that the militant CNTE teachers union has entered the struggle:
Unionized education workers launched actions across the country Saturday, in order to protest against the gas price hikes that have sparked massive protests in recent weeks against the gasolinazo.
Since the protests broke out, clashes between police and protesters and looting have left six people dead, 1,500 arrested, 420 businesses affected and several roads blocked.
#Mexico: Thousands protest against gas price hikes & water privatization in #Mexicali, Baja California: https://t.co/ukD9rgRuGQ #Gasolinazo pic.twitter.com/u0HUarw0vD
— Saulo Corona (@saulocorona) January 13, 2017
Another article discussed some of the economics fueling the revolt:
Last week, the currency fell another 2.5 percent as investors grappled with potential changes in trade policy. Ford Motors, for example, has yielded to Trump's protectionist threats, cancelling Mexican projects worth billions of dollars. Fiat Chrysler is also considering closing its Mexican factories.
The spike in fuel prices, or "gasolinazo" (gasoline blow), coupled with the weakened currency, has sparked discontent across the country.
Angry Mexicans have taken the streets in at least 25 states, blockading roads, gas stations and fuel facilities. Looting has led to thousands of arrests.
If you're hungry for more, check out a great collection of articles here.
At the time of this writing, police have killed 46 people in the United States in the last 17 days, an average of 2.7 per day. This included one man in Queens armed with a screwdriver:
Police in the Springfield Gardens section of Queens, New York killed Jahlire Nicholson Friday after he allegedly threatened his mother with a screwdriver.
Nicholson was the third person killed by the NYPD in less than two weeks. Nine people were fatally shot by the NYPD in all of 2016.
The shooting was the fourth police-involved shooting in New York City so far this year, with three people shot by police in a span of 36 hours in the first week of January.
Fire to the Prisons
In Kentucky, a massive prison riot kicked off that led to several buildings getting torched:
Rioting inmates armed themselves and "were getting ready for war" during a disturbance at a maximum security prison in Massachusetts, the state's top public safety official said Tuesday.
The riot at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center began with a Monday afternoon fight between two inmates and quickly escalated when 47 inmates refused orders to return to their cells. The disturbance ended about three hours later after a state police response team flooded the unit with pepper spray and the inmates gradually gave up, prison officials said.
After the guards left the unit, Bennett said nearly four dozen inmates began smashing tables and other furniture, removing fire extinguishers from walls and destroying computers in the area where the officers normally would be stationed. Security video captured before camera systems were destroyed showed inmates fashioning makeshift knives, clubs and other weapons out of the broken items. Bennett said the prisoners intended to attack corrections officers with the weapons.
"They armed themselves," Bennett said. "They were getting ready for war."
Also, Chelsea Manning and Oscar Lopez Rivera are being released from prison! Peep this:
Chelsea Manning & Oscar Lopez are coming home because you fought like hell & wouldnt allow them to be forgotten pic.twitter.com/ud8TUMF1nE
— agitator in chief (@soit_goes) January 17, 2017
Ironically, on the eve of Trump's election, officially the Alt-Right in many ways, as internet subculture attempting to be a movement, seems effectively to have ended. At this point, the splits within it are deep and hardcore, and the contradictions among the various factions are causing large amounts of infighting and denunciations to the point of keeping it from functioning on any real level other than limping forward.
Since the start of 2017, several big things have been going on. First, Andrew Anglin, kind of the Pauly Shore of Neo-Nazism, only but dumber and much better actor, (Anglin edits the geocities grade level website, The Daily Stormer) set out to hold a march in Whitefish, Montana in order to support Richard Spencer's rich ass mom who was getting pressure from people to distance herself from her Neo-Nazi son. In an effort to 'defend' Spencer's madre and to attack 'the Jews' of Whitefish, Andrew Anglin claimed he would hold a Neo-Nazi march on MLK day, claiming it would feature armed skinheads from the bay area marching with high-powered rifles and was billed as a "James Earl Ray" celebration by Anglin, in reference to the white racist who assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While we all collectively rolled our eyes, people still mobilized in case Anglin did materialize, or random fascists decided to make their presence know.
But this move by Anglin made Richard Spencer look really bad, like even worse than he looks when he tries to give a speech, and although just days before the march was announced Spencer appeared on a podcast with Anglin where the two talked about their shared Neo-Nazi ideology, Spencer did backflips to distance himself in the press from his troll bruh breh. This ploy signaled that Spencer was moving closer to the world of internet Nazi trolls, after the old guard of white nationalist 'leadership' largely tossed him under the bus following his latest National Policy Institute (NPI) conference in Washington, DC, which ended in Nazi salutes for Trump.
As the date of Anglin's Nazi march in support of Spencer got closer, it became clearer that not only was Spencer's 'good name' essentially ruined, but that Anglin himself was a total troll that never had any intention of holding the march and more than likely, called for the march in an attempt to get money from his supporters and publicity for his shitty website.
RT annehelen: 10 different counterprotest groups for the fascist-march-that-wasn't here in Whitefish, Montana pic.twitter.com/vElwFjMoVh #New…
— Antifa-GB (@Antifa_GB_1) January 17, 2017
Regardless of Anglin's lies, over 60 anti-fascists rallied in Whitefish without a Neo-Nazi in sight. This is a victory on multiple levels. First, because it shows that Anglin and his Neo-Nazis are not a movement, they are an internet subculture. When they say they are going to do something, they are lying through their teeth in an attempt to use the mainstream media to promote themselves. We on the other hand, get next to no media attention. Through our networks and organizations, we put boots on the ground, not them. We are powerful, not them. This shows that Anglin is a troll, not a leader. If Anglin attempts to come out of his hole again, people will be there to smash him right back down. Big ups to everyone that showed up in Montana! From one glowing media article:
About 50 self-proclaimed anti-fascists gathered in downtown on Monday to show solidarity with the community on the day a neo-Nazi group had been planning an armed march through town that was later postponed.
Despite the cancellation of the Jan. 16 event, anti-fascists and others gathered in Whitefish in case neo-Nazis did move forward with their plan to march down Second Street from Memorial Park to City Hall.
Many of the protesters came from out of the area and were organized by a coalition of groups, including the Missoula chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Queer Insurrection Unit. Some were masked and dressed in all back with pink armbands. One man, who asked not to be identified, said organizers chose to wear black to show the neo-Nazis that they were "militant" and would not be deterred by their weapons.
"We're here to stand in solidarity with the community of Whitefish," said Damon Rodriguez, an IWW organizer from Missoula. "We're ready to show up to stand against the neo-Nazis, and if they do show up and march, we'll be back."
Jacob Johns, a community organizer from Spokane, Washington, was returning from the ongoing oil pipeline protest on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota when he heard about the proposed march in Whitefish. Johns said he helped organize rides for protestors from Washington and Oregon to stand against fascism.
"People from all different backgrounds are here to stand united and show solidarity with the community," Johns said.
Speaking of Spencer, he has now officially moved from his mom's big ass mansion into a place near Washington DC. According to Red Brick Town:
This month, Spencer's rebooting again: He is renting a "hub" for the alt-right movement in a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Spencer and Jason Jorjani, the editor-in-chief of Arktos, a publishing arm associated with the alt-right, have bought the domain name altright.com. Spencer and Jorjani met at the conference for the National Policy Institute, Spencer's innocuously named think tank, where attendees gave Nazi salutes as Spencer shouted "Hail Trump" from the stage. They quickly formed a bond, and are now joining forces to brand themselves as the intellectual leaders of the alt-right.
Multiple sources knowledgeable about the transaction confirm the townhouse rented by Richard Spencer is in Old Town at 1001 King Street. The townhouse is located ABOVE Bluprint Chocolatiers.
This means that Spencer is now based out of Alexandria, Virginia, located literally 20 minutes from downtown Washington DC. So, expect to see Spencer out in about at the Trump Inauguration. Also, Spencer's mom only pays his rent! She didn't by the house?! Spencer…are you cut off from that sweet momma milk? Your poor dapper young, almost 40 year old, prince. What's next, a job?
"Can I have a Hitler poster in my room mommy?" "Not now Spencer, momma needs another xanax."
But while that was going on in Montana, a war was brewing in the sewers of the internet between supporters and participants of the Right Stuff podcast network. To make things really easy to understand, various factions got mad at TRS being "soft on Jews," which led to to threats of doxxing (releasing of private info online), and low and behold, people began putting info on various internet messages boards. This war took place as Ghoul from TRS offered to snitch on his former comrades to IGD and info began to be released on two leaders within TRS, Bulbasaur and Seventh Son.
Soon after this, a report and doxx was released on the website Medium that included info on the final, head leader of TRS (Mike Peinovich aka Mike Enoch). What came next was even more damning, as Peinovich took to white power boards and told the world that he was in fact, married to a Jewish woman who got paid giving talks on diversity. Can't make this shit up folks.
The fault lines of Nazi land shook. Everyone from David Duke, to the Traditionalist Worker Party, to Richard Spencer all rushed to get behind Mike Enoch, the head of TRS. Meanwhile, the rank-n-file trolls and meme frog fucks cried their collective eyes out that their leader who based his entire career of a show called "The Daily Holocaust" and who rose to fame off of racial slurs and advocating violence against Jews, had been 'sleeping with the enemy' the whole time.
We won't get into a deep and lengthy dissection of who said what and who supports who, but what does this show us? First, these people aren't a movement. They are LARPing with these ideas and more than anything, putting on a show from the comfort of the internet. Also, while members of TRS seem hardcore dedicated to these ideas, what their actions in the real world show us, is how stupid and dumb these actual positions are and how divorced from reality they quickly become.
Despite this, TRS continues to have a mass audience of over 100k listeners a show. Also, it appears that Enoch is now divorcing his wife and will continue with the show:
The Daily Shoah then put out a special episode where the hosts said that Mike was unavailable because he was in the process of separating from his wife. Apparently, the opinions of Nazis on the Internet were enough to peer-pressure him into literally leaving his wife. At the same time, they allege that his family has completely disowned him and that he is out of a job. They are saying that this is going to make him come back to the show, likely because he has nothing left to lose.
This loss of anonymity is likely going to dissuade many others from getting involved in this type of project as few people want to get a divorce, lose their job, and get shunned by their family.
Also, lastly on the Neo-Nazi fail train, we wanna give a lol out to Matt Parrott of Traditionalist Worker Party/Youth Network. TWP has become essentially the 'God Hates Fags' (meaning failures that feed off of media) of white nationalism (that says a lot), largely moving all of their discussion and talk off of their public websites and facebook accounts, and now largely rely on Matthew Heimbach's falling media spotlight in order to bring people in. Their 'Trad Worker' website and twitter account haven't been updated in months, and despite claiming to have hundreds of members, they don't seem to be doing all that much. What this means is that Parrot is now largely the public voice of TWP (through tradyouth.org) and spends most of his time writing long ass rants that make him come off as a near 40ish man who spent 7.5 years at junior college and lives on youtube watching Ancient Aliens reruns. Here's a recent gem:
Knocking back Mountain Dews until three in the morning to help keep a pro-white hashtag trending on Twitter is real struggle. It's real work. Many namefags become namefags for the ego boost, and then cash in on the ego boost by bragging about it and leveraging it as a sort of get out of jail free card when they're losing Facebook arguments.
Well said Matt. I thought you were George Lincoln Rockwell for a second.
Recently TWP held a rally in Chicago that was not talked about online beforehand at all, and instead acted only as a media stunt. TWP, this time putting on their 'Nationalist Front' hat; the NF being a collection of Neo-Nazi, white power skinhead, TRS meme frogs, and KKK groups. The group rolled up, held banners while Heimbach spoke, and then dipped. Also, in the video online they begin their rally by chanting, "National! Socialism!" Great job guys, that's what the white worker wants, Nazism! Four years ago, Heimbach wrote this about National Socialism:
One other issue to address is the topic of National Socialism. "Nazism" as it is more commonly known…Backwards men in funny costumes are given the microphone and allowed to spew hateful and downright foolish rhetoric which only serves to deter legions of passionate white men and women who genuinely love their people and keep them sitting on the sidelines, waiting for a true banner to rally behind.
Now you're you're the one in the funny costume Matt! You've come so far!
What does the rally show? First, it shows that TWP and by that extension their puppets in the NF aka, the NSM, who look to Heimbach for 'leadership," do not want to release information about their activities online. If they do, it is always after the fact in order to make themselves appear strong. Also, its our guess that they could not get a permit (aka, get police protection) for their event, and thus decided to do a quick rally but without advertising beforehand in order to get a handful of people to come out. Too bad they weren't out there for very long, because sure as shit someone would have gotten wiser.
Lastly, the number were really low, only 15 people. Less than even their failed Sacramento rally. TWP boasts 500 members, but yet they could only get 15 people out to their event? The NSM is based out of Detroit, 4 hours away, but only 15 people could attend? What is going on? Clearly the rank and file of these groups don't want to come out into the open, or more likely, they don't fucking exist or are pacified with Trump in office. Check out their Chicago video here.
Shout Out
Oakland IWOC is fundraising! So is the Autonomous Womyn's Front!
There is a new zine out about prison strikes in Greek prisons. Check it out here.
Antifa International has new shirts to support Rojava. Get one!
A man from Edmonton in Canada, Nazzareno Tassone, has died in the service of the YPG in the fight against ISIS. Rest in power brother!
It's Going Down
#DisruptJ20 is right around the corner.
Stay safe. Be organized. Get the right tech tools, like Signal for your smartphone to encrypt your shit. Be smart. Move as a group. Don't leave your friends behind.
If you are organizing a #J20 event and want it added to our list, email us!
If you are organizing an event, also please send us a report back. IGD will be active throughout the day. Our plan is to have multiple pages going that are constantly updated along with our twitter feed. If you can, please consider making a donation to IGD in order to help us continue to do this work.
See you in the streets!
It's Going Down
info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Georgia is a country located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. It is bordered by the Black Sea, Russia, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The capital city is Tbilisi. The Kingdom of Georgia experienced a Golden Age under the rule of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. After the Golden Age, the kingdom eventually disintegrated and was ruled by various powers, including the Mongols and the Ottoman Empire. In the eighteenth century, the eastern Georgia Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti forged an alliance with the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution and Civil War in 1917, Georgia eventually emerged as an independent republic before the Red Army invasion in 1921, and it became a founding member of the Soviet Union. Georgia seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991. Its strained relationship with Russia includes the brief Russo-Georgia War in 2008 and ongoing territorial disputes.
Longitude: 42.498169541359


text:
Hey idiots, your old friend Fred is back again. I know what you are thinking, though: "Hey Fred! It's the offseason! Why aren't you sipping rum cocktails on the shores of Key West?!" Well, ol' Fred is just a short ways from retirement, and any and all vacation time spent now is just delaying the sweet release. And the bums here at SBNation only offer so much PTO to begin with and I used it all up earlier this year when I took the old lady on vacation to Rochester. Nice town. I liked that their Applebee's was cheaper than the one we have here.
But we are here to talk Reds. Walt Jocketty went and did all the work he needed to do already. What's the rush, Walt? The Reds re-signed Ryan Ludwick and Johnathan Buxton, traded for Shin Soochoo, and finally got rid of Drew Stubbs. So let's rate these moves one-on-one:
Re-signed Ryan Ludwick FOUR STARS **** I love this move for the Reds. Ludwick is a stud and a team-leader. When Joey Votto got hurt, Ludwick was the one who stepped up to lead the team. Without him, the Reds are probably a sub-.500 team last year. $15 million is a steal of a bargain for a team MVP.
Re-signed Johnathan Buxton D+ I don't like this move for the Reds. It looks like the plan is to move the Cuban Missile to the starting rotation with Buxton taking over as the closer. Big mistake. Like my father always taught me, "Only fix it if you think it's broken." Chapman at closer was not broken, as he was probably the best closer in the league last year. I like Buxton, but he's no Cuban Missile. This Cuban Missile is an ICBM - "In Closing Baseball Moments".
Traded for Shin Soochoo thumbs up All abroad! This Choo-Choo train is no caboose, as he'll be at the front of the Reds' lineup.
Traded away Drew Stubbs $$$$$ This is one of the best trades I've seen the Reds pull off in all my years covering the Reds. Just like the famous Joe Morgan trade, this is addition by subtraction. Stubbs was a square peg, a guy with great talent who was playing much better competition. He's a nice guy for sure, and I hope he figures it out in Arizona. But the Reds are better without him.
Now, on to your emails:
Dear Fred, did you get to go to Redsfest? I saw a number of Red Reporter's representatives at the event, but I didn't see you. - Cincinnati Jon
Hi Jon. I did get to go to Redsfest this year. You probably didn't see me though because I'm not like all of these idiots who narrate their every waking moment on the internet. It was a good time though, as it usually is. The crowd was much easier to manage this year and I got to sit down with a few old friends and have a few drinks. Jim O'Toole has some good stories about him and Stan Musial at a gentleman's club in Cleveland during the '63 All-Star game. I promised not to repeat them, though. You'll have to ask him.
Fred, the Blue Jays just traded their best catching prospect for Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey. Do you think the Reds should have offered up Devin Mesoraco for him? - Crum in Grove City
Crum, you are brilliant. If I were running things, I'd do that deal in a heartbeat. As far as I'm concerned, Mesoraco is still a prospect. Anytime you can flip prospects for a Cy Young winner, I think you do it. I would rather have had the Reds get James Shields, though. Big Man James is a winner, plain and simple. I like Dickey, but I don't trust screwballers. Shields is a proven ace, and I think the Reds would have been better to get him than to try the Cuban Missile in the rotation.


text:
The Alabama Crimson Tide have won the first game of the 2011 NCAA regionals by a score of 5-3 against the University of Central Florida Knights.
Alabama got a great start from Nathan Kilcrease as he went 7 innings giving up just four hits and two runs, he struck out ten and walked four. It was two of these walks that led to UCF's first run of the game. In the 4th inning Kilcrease walked Erik Hempe with a full-count to start the two-out rally, that led to a couple of hits that loaded the bases for UCF before another walk brought in the first run for the Knights that trailed 2-1. Kilcrease got the next batter with a strikeout that proved to be a key moment in the game as UCF stranded three runners.
Five of Alabama's starters had multi-hit games to lead the offensive attack. Austen Smith led the team on the day going 2-5 with two RBI's, and run scored with a stolen base. Smith blasted a home run in the 7th inning to extend the lead to 5-2 at that point and give the Crimson Tide some much needed insurance.
The Knights tried to rally in the 9th inning but Jonathan Smart got the save for Alabama as he got the tying run at the plate in UCF's Beau Taylor to line out to right field to end the game.


text:
Every now and then I undertake a large proofreading job, such as a manual or an annual report. The most recent was a meaty 90,000-word operations manual.
What I've noticed is that the same writing mistakes crop up time and time again with these kinds of jobs.
In fact, I reckon that about 80% of the mark-ups in this latest document fell into one of five categories.
So I thought I'd cover them in a blog post in the hope that it might help others from slipping up on the same mistakes in their writing…
1. Inconsistent use of initial capital letters
One of my many pet peeves is the random or inconsistent use of capital letters. Unlike German, which capitalises all its nouns, English only capitalises 'proper' nouns (i.e. specific names for people, places or things) not common nouns (i.e. generic names).
It's not uncommon for companies or organisations to want to draw attention to the name of a particular product or service by giving it an initial capital letter. This tends to be a stylistic choice, which I acquiesce to when proofreading or copy-editing – provided it's used consistently throughout the document.
But, on most other occasions, the only excuse for it is sloppy writing. The main culprit I had recently was the word "chlorine", which sometimes was written with "c" but other times with "C". (Of course, we're talking mid sentence here, as clearly it should be capitalised at the start of a sentence.) The same was true for various other chemicals – all of which I had to highlight on the PDF for the designer to amend.
2. Inconsistent handling of numbers
Most, but not all, companies will have a style guide that clarifies how they address certain editorial issues. One of these should be how they want numbers to be written.
This is largely a matter of preference, but the most common practice is to spell out numbers up to nine (or ten), then switch to numerals from 10 (or 11) upward.
Yet despite the latter being my client's stated preference, there were still plenty of occurrences of 1 / 2 / 3 etc. or higher numbers like seventy-five written in full.
3. Inconsistent spacing with units of measurement
Following on from the previous point, the 'norm' is to use numerals if the number modifies a unit of measurement, time or proportion (e.g. 7 minutes, 5 kilograms, 25 mph).
When the measurement is abbreviated, the spacing needs attention too. Most style guides recommend using a space before abbreviated units, e.g. 75 kg, but not before symbols for degrees or percentages.
What I found though was a mixture of 10g / 10 g, 5 mg/l and 5mg/l and so on. Because the majority of the instances had them squished together without a space, I chose to mark the remainder up to match.
4. Inconsistent/incorrect use of hyphens for compound modifiers
A compound modifier (or compound adjective) is two or more words joined together to modify a noun, e.g. J.K. Rowling is a best-selling author. In this example, the two words best and selling act collectively like one adjective.
One of the most common hyphen mistakes is the lack of a hyphen for compound modifiers. How often do you see "an award winning company" written on websites or marketing material?
But all too often people get carried away with hyphens and add them to compound adjectives when they're NOT needed. The basic rule is to only hyphenate them if they appear before the noun.
✔ An up-to-date operating manual is important.
✖ It's important to keep your operating manual up-to-date.
✔ It's important to keep your operating manual up to date.
Another misuse of hyphens in compound modifiers is when the first word in the pair is an adverb ending in –ly. As explained by Merriam Webster, the use of a hyphen here is redundant.
✔ XYZ is a locally based business.
✖ XYZ is a locally-based business.
This last 'rule' catches a lot of people out, even professional or experienced writers!
5. Inconsistent/lack of commas to separate clauses
If a conditional clause precedes the main clause, remember to use a comma between the two clauses. (See what I did there?)
This particular document had a lot of sentences starting with words like if, when or where. Sometimes they were separated by a comma; often they were not. This can lead to ambiguity. And the need to draw breath while reading.
✔ If you don't sign in, your account might be suspended.
✖ If you don't sign in your account might be suspended.
✔ Your account might be suspended if you don't sign in.
Still unsure about any of the above writing mistakes? Choose a spelling or formatting convention and stick with it throughout your piece of text – whether that's a manual, a website or an article.
The 'average' reader probably won't notice (or care) if you decide to write [Product Name] with initial capitals or if you don't add a space before units of measurement. However, they most likely WILL notice if you jump around between two versions, especially on the same page or, worse, within the same paragraph.
Correct spelling, grammar and punctuation are, of course, ideal at all times. The next best thing is to be consistent.
And if you'd ever like an objective pair of eyes to give your words a thorough going-over, you know where I am!
(image courtesy of artur84 via Freedigitalphotos.net)


text:
Dispatch from the Brickyard, Indianapolis, Indiana: I'm trying to decide if the 2014 California Avalon Cabernet or the 2017 Columbia Valley 14 Hands Merlot will go better with my goat cheese, pear, and micro arugula beet cup. Well, what the hell, it's an open bar… I'll start with the Cab and follow it up with the Merlot when I sample the braised beef en croute.
I pass the elegantly printed menu to my wife and lean back on the richly padded white leather sofa. To my left is one of the three bars in the Sky Lounge. Above it, the largest TV outside of Times Square. To my right, tastefully arranged seating groups of couches are interspaced with bar-height tables decked out with crisp linen, fresh flowers, sparkling wine glasses, and polished flatware.
Wearing black ties, waiters and waitresses circulate among the race fans, carrying trays of hors d'oeuvres. Doormen open the double glass doors of the lounge as a shuttle van deposits another half dozen fans at the end of the red carpet for the finals of the 2017 Red Bull Air Race season. Now this is the way to enjoy an air race.
It's just too bad there's no racing going on.
I turn and look out the long bank of windows that face the racecourse. They're splattered with rain. Ugly grey clouds are nearly kissing the tops of the white and orange pylons, which sway back and forth in the wind.
The final day of Race 8 in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship is off to a bad start. Meanwhile, the official hostess of the club, British TV personality Abi Griffiths, keeps assuring us that even if the race is cancelled there's a full lineup of fun activates scheduled for the club, and that a great day is on tap.
It will take more than two glasses of wine to convince me of that, I think, as I glare at the sky.
Smoke on!
Well, it's old news by now, but luckily, a bit past mid-day, the weather (barely) cleared enough for the main event — although the Challenger Class heats were cancelled, and their winners decided based on the previous day's qualifying runs.
But battling the elements, the Master Class flew all three of their heats, half the racers being bumped out in each round as they progressed towards the podium.
It's fun stuff, I'll grant you that, but at one point the breathless announcer, caught up in the action and his own rhetoric excitedly gushed, "Remember folks, this isn't acrobatics, this is air racing!"
No, it isn't.
Not in my book. A competition? Yes. A damn fine spectator sport? Sure. A demonstration of superb flying skill? Absofreakinlutely. But an air race? Ha!
The Red Bull "Air Race" is really just a series of timed acrobatic performances, engineered into a complex global competition. It has more in common with Olympic gymnastics than traditional air racing, if you ask me. Heck, no two "racers" are ever on the course at the same time.
But like I said, it's fun stuff. And easy to follow.
Fan support and the fans themselves
Unlike the Reno Air Races, the official Red Bull race program has an excellent section explaining how the heats are designed and how pilots move through the system, as well as detailing the various time penalties that can be assessed. I guess I won't be writing Red Bull Air Racing for Dummies any time soon!
As the racing finally got underway, members of the Sky Lounge crowded out on the soggy outdoor terrace to watch the runs and cheer for their heroes, returning to the warm sanctuary of the lounge between heats. Back inside, a quickly updated race board showed us the results of each pairing as the pilots advanced from the round of 14 to the round of 8 to the final four.
So just whom was I sharing the lounge with? In the seating group to the right of my gang was the family of Master Class racer Pete McLeod of Canada. My first clue to their identity was the giant Canadian flag they draped over the back of their couch. The second clue was their "crew" lanyards. McLeod lost at Indy in the Round of 14, but took the Bronze for the global championship.
At the next seating area toward the main bar were the wife and child of Race 5 from the Master Class, Cristian Bolton of Chile.
Sharing our conversation pit were French employees of watchmaker Breitling. Their lyrical language wasn't the only non-English one being spoken. The air was alive with conversations in Czech, German, Japanese, Spanish, and languages I couldn't sort out. Was that Swedish or Danish?
But it wasn't just the race families, world travelers, and the rich and famous making up the Sky Lounge. One table over from us was the home-schooled son of a police officer, a boy of about 10 who painted and repainted his cherished collection of die cast Red Bull race planes as the season progressed to match the livery of his current favorites. I felt compelled to give him a Sport Air Racing League challenge coin for his race collection.
Beyond the truly classy environment, the generous bar, and the excellent food, we had special visitors. The Red Bull doctor came in and spoke. Pilots drifted in, signed autographs, and posed for selfies with fans. Even 2014 Word Champ Nigel Lamb was on hand.
My Sky Lounge pass — a thick plastic badge trimmed with titanium-colored metal featuring an embossed three-blade propeller, and complete with barcodes, holograms, and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale logo — also granted me access to the race airport and the pit area.
But as you might have guessed, all this luxury and all these perks did not come cheaply.
A heavy investment
The cost of a Sky Lounge pass for the final day of the final race of the season — and the crowning of the 2017 world champion — was $670 per person. The lounge was open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 pm on the final day of the race, so watching the race in high style cost me about $103 per hour.
OK, if you just fainted, consider that you'd be hard-pressed to rent a Cessna 172 for that rate, and the Cessna doesn't come with all the Red Bull you can drink, much less smoked paprika seared mahi-mahi or stout grilled flat iron steak with a horseradish demi gaze.
That said, for a family of five, it felt a bit like making the down payment on that 172…
So did I get my money's worth? Sadly, unlike my recent less-luxurious experience at the National Championship Air Races' Checkered Flag Club, I'd have to say no.
Because even though I had a grand time, and while Red Bull and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway absolutely nailed the luxury experience with the atmosphere, service, food, booze, guests, and more, they failed on the key element of watching an air race.
The view, frankly, sucked.
The Sky Lounge's "unrivaled views" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were, in my opinion, worse than poor. I guess I had expected that in this high-end racing venue, the Red Bull folks would take over some sort of skybox high on the grandstands at the racetrack.
Instead, we were in a tent-type building set up on the flat ground in the center of the speedway, forward of the famous Pagoda. We had a good view of the start gate and the first turn, but that was about it. The chicane pylons on the backside of the course were largely hidden by trees, and the finish air gate was completely hidden from view.
The cheapest seats in the grandstands, at $25 each, had a better view of the race than we did.
Based on video clips I've seen online, this may be unique to the Brickyard. Or put another way, I don't believe that all of the Sky Lounges have such terrible views.
Still, given the cost, the view of the race should be splendid at any venue, much less the grand finale, so this was the deal killer for me, and I can't picture myself going back.
But that said, my peeps weren't in 100% agreement. At the end of the day, before the shuttle van was even through the tunnel under the race track taking us back to our members-only parking lot — which was closer than the crew parking lot — my air race-loving 91-year-old mother turned to me and asked, "So, when's the next race? Do I have time to unpack when we get home?"
For a full rundown of the final race of the season, go to AirRace.RedBull.com.


text:
Farmville, Part Two
May 28, 2010
One of my mom's favorite Young Amalah anecdotes is the time I very seriously announced, as if I'd just finished several years of clinical research into the subject, that I was "not an outside kid." I was an "inside kid," and planned to live my life accordingly, finally at peace with who I was. (Of course, I was also "not good at sports" and "dreadfully uncoordinated" and "couldn't kick/throw/catch/block a ball if my life or straight-A report card depended on it," but I guess I thought my declaration sounded a little better.) Toward the end of yesterday's field trip to the pony farm, I turned to one of Noah's teachers and admitted that "I don't really 'do' the outdoors." Complete with inflected air quotes. I had an appointment for a haircut almost immediately after and apologized to my stylist in case I smelled like a barn. (She insisted I didn't. She was just being nice.) The temperature shot up to the mid-90s just for the occasion (seriously, I was wearing a sweater on Monday, and I'm pretty sure this afternoon's Water Day at preschool is going to get canceled because it's too chilly), and there's just no way to spend... Read more →