D is for Dogma

American Donbas

As the Union starts to unravel on television, thanks to DC's drift towards fascism, it becomes easier for ordinary Americans to empathize with what it's like to live under an authoritarian regime. 

The experience of eastern Ukrainians, now Russians, after the Nuland Nazi takeover of Kiev, was somewhat similar: Feds driving tanks through their streets, calling anyone with "wrong views" (e.g. anti neo Nazi) a terrorist. Like the people of Minneapolis.

I still think Oliver Stone’s movie was pretty on target, or at least more informative than anything coming out of NATO. It never worked to disguise the Nuland Nazis for who they were. I tend to avoid discussing Project Ukraine with people who haven’t seen it. Why should I? Life is short.

Imitating Wikipedia regarding the Donbas (“Russian occupied”), I’d say the American Donbas (e.g. Cascadia) is still occupied by the Feds, but its control is loosening. We know the Feds to be a Beltway Mafia of literally soulless corporations, a giant bot, like the Borg. “Resistance is futile” says Stephen Miller, Hegseth and other sycophantic pretenders to the throne. 

So far I see little need to resist, as the prophecies seem to be self-fulfilling (the Feds are too bungling to keep a grip — politicians aren’t generally in the top half of the Bell Curve if you know what I mean (I’m being mean)). But I get why people wanna vent.

I think back to that anthropologist dude at Reed College, warning us that all this export of violence against Afghanis would eventually be coming home. He was right. They’re back.

MLK's Legacy

From our listserv on Sat, Jan 17, 2026:

Dear SMAD members,

Tomorrow is the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is often recognized for his "I Have a Dream" speech. I consider this unfortunate because he stood for so much more. We have two queries:

1. Name one other quality or action you admire about MLK. Elaborate on why you chose this.

2. Think of a dream that you would choose for our society. What would the realization of your dream look like?

What I'm thinking:

1. I admire MLK's scholarship, his commitment to a life of the mind.

2. My dream is for more civil polite even joyous sharing among subcultures who need to bury the hatchet between them, for example Freemasons and Catholics, Jews and Muslims, Friends and militants.

In practice, I follow MLK's scholarship into Mithraism and look for ways to intertwine my Quakerism with same. 

Sacrificing the bull is maintaining control (self control) over the stubborn (bull-headed) Ego; mind-over-brain in Bucky's talk.

With Mithraism came a kind of egalitarianism among militants that negated and/or transcended rank, making us all equals in the eyes of God, and/or in having God within. 

Imperial Rome may have found Mithraism less adequate as a tool of authoritarianism than Pauline Christianity, per suggestive lectures by predictive history expert Xueqin Jiang.

SMAD = Sunday Morning Adult Discussion, a program offered through Multnomah Friends Meeting.

XRL: Extreme Remote Living

CLIP: CAMPGROUNDS

CLIP: TRAIN TUNNEL

Work and Play Patterns (GST)

The design based on volunteers working many jobs, playing many roles, in succession, not necessarily in the same order as one another, has an egalitarian flavor when you assume everyone eventually does every job (even if that’s impractical in some situations). Because in a sense there’s just one job: to perform all the roles of the community, and everyone does it.

That’s how we did a lot of stuff around the Centers Network. When I say “we” I mean I was one of the volunteers, and there were sequences, like in college. You needed to be a mic runner before you did some job that involved supervising the mic runners. 

I rose to the level of Logistics Supervisor, which in the New York City situation might mean hailing a Checker cab and transporting beaucoup bankers boxes full of supplies from Port Authority East Side Bus Terminal (where NY area center had space) to whatever hotel ballroom venue (we’d book some of the bigger ones, right downtown). 

When I look at it that way, I realize my high comfort level around being in hotels and mingling with its paid staff (Centers Network did have paid positions, in addition to us volunteers), did not all start in a later chapter, when I’d work with Holdenweb and later Open Bastion. 

In fact, come to think of it, may comfort level around hotels might trace back to Kent Bondi days. His dad was manager of the Cavalieri Hilton and their whole family lived on the premises. Room service every night seemed ideal to me. Get on the phone: “send me a milkshake”. Utopia. And lets not forget the Fairmont.

However, hotels are not usually run on the principle of volunteers rotating (more could be). You’ll find more of that in unprogrammed Friends, the Quakers, where million-dollar properties with substantial budgets, as certified nonprofits, might be managed entirely by unpaid yet committed Meeting people. 

When the offspring of said meetings (GWYF) gathered at near Myrtlewood, Oregon, renting facilities at the Church of the Brethren’s Camp Myrtlewood (with paid caretakers, whom we cherished), we’d rotate through meal prep, dishwashing, cleanup and janitorial, fireplace duty, other duties I could continue listing out.

Amidst all these amiable volunteers, we’d have stars who would take up pre camp duties, such as meal planning and supplies procurement. This place was remote, so we packed in most of our requirements, think a hundred people over four to five days (mas o memo). The commitment to specific standards in cuisine is a marker of ethnic identity and we were mostly Cascadians which has its Asian characteristics (not limited to fresh tofu, which we brought in by the bucket full).

Those involved in these role would likely be foodies who also wanted to serve as chefs. Their roles were somewhat typecast. When they showed up, that’s what they did, and were expected to do. I recall helping out with procurement and transport, but in the kitchen I’m usually not the head chef although in Food Not Bombs days I’d be close to that sometimes.

A skilled ski instructor might be a harder to find and would tend to spend relatively less time doing dishes, though doing some of that might be welcome respite for hard work on the slopes. 

A lot depends on a camper’s goals. Are you joining in gain experience and acquire skills (soft and hard) or are so-called chores entirely ancillary to your main purpose, and so you are fine with doing your share, but without great ambition to do more?

Speculative Screenwriting

:: old haunt; more built up than in my day ::

Since everyone is speculating like crazy about what unfolded the other day in VZ, I feel as a kind of screenwriter I should offer my own idea of a recap. 

I’m not suggesting Netflix pick it up for the official version. That’ll be Frontline’s job, right?

I’m gonna have the VZers portrayed as still not entirely persuaded that Monster U is outta control. They were speculating the inner circle had moderating handlers who could keep it melodramatic without going over the top, to use Biden’s phrase. 

But when like-minded meet in Florida, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. 

As “commander in chief”, there’s this mystic ability to green light what anyone else would consider a highly improbable scenario. You need a scapegoat to really commit to the most unpopular decisions. When JFK red-lighted a couple outrageous things (vs green-lighted), deviating from his script… we saw the consequences.

What am I saying? That the VZers were taken by surprise and so didn’t mount a significant resistance. They were disbelieving the months of hype and bluster?

Even with all the big arrow armada movements, they still didn’t think the escalation would be that steep (as in vertical). Wasn’t this all Made for the USATV couch potatoes? They like to see glorious victory celebrations with lots of pomp and circumstance (lots of ribbons, hero awards). When in Rome. 

Now they know.  That’s why people are now saying: Greenland, get ready. Canada too. Cuba, Columbia… Nigeria… we’re just getting started.

So now the world knows too: there are no brakes left in Washington DC. That city is indeed a Monster U. Its think tanks are world-renowned for their inferior quality.

I used to call it the City of Morons. Same diff.

Maybe the miscalculation was the Pentagon brass thinking a “stony silence” — as they were being harangued to go against their oaths — was somehow going to mean something to their commanding bosses. It meant compliance is what it meant.

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