The fight about Trump's name on the Kennedy center bores me to death. Seems like so much of the time of 'our' courts is taken up with rich people in a slap fight with each other. Defamation lawsuits, this name thing. (There are people in jail waiting months for a hearing...)
But what I don't get is why the court deciding that the name must come down is an order being followed by ... who? Trump's people at the center?
It's very funny that it is covered up.
1/
But, to the point of force, right down to the "and then they would arrest you" can someone explain *why* the name came down? Why doesn't Trump just ignore the court?
The court orders the name must come down. Great. Very funny.
But why listen. Why don't we get "oh OK I'll take it down" but then nothing happens?
How does the power flow?
That seems a little important to me maybe.
2/2
Well maybe their solution will be to just cover it up and then there will be more fighting in the courts.
That makes sense to me in terms of how these people operate.
@futurebird I agree that this is an important question - because yes, if he could just do his usual "fuck you, try to stop me!" thing, he would have, which implies that he doesn't have the power to resist this court order.
- whic obviously begs the question: Where *does* his actual power end? Since lawsuits etc. keep stopping his initiatives, he's certainly not as powerful as he thinks & opposition should be delineating those borders & then hammering on them.
A lot of people are despondent. Saying things like "he will cancel the election"
How exactly? Will he put a gun to Gov. Hochul of NY's head? (and at least 20 other governors?)
"he will do marshal law"
They tried that in MN. They don't have the man power to do it nationwide. They don't even have enough to take NYC, that's why ICE has not cracked down here like in MN.
Middle class people throwing fits works.
I don't like it when people are despondent and defeated since that's the ONLY way that these clowns win in the long term. If we just give up and believe that an election could be canceled. Or stay in our houses if ICE shows up and tries to shut down every street.
MN saved us all really. It's an illustration of the limits.
I forget who keeps pointing this out--Thom Hartmann? Paul Krugman? Whoever, it's true that a stolen election needs to be plausible. Bush2 could only steal his election because it was actually close (after millions of people were disenfranchised in the red states, of course). This one won't be close by any measure. Flagrantly stealing it might be enough to rouse the white middle class from its privileged slumber.
I've been putting up signs in the park that say "Pollinator Sanctuary Do Not Mow" in a small ragged area of my mostly ignored inner city park. It's working. If there are a lot of people who really love the idea of the wildflowers being mowed someone might find out that the signs aren't real. But I can do it because I care the most about this issue, (and I want to think because I'm right about it being better for the park.)
This is how a lot of power works.
Yup. You can only make people do something if you go through the hassle of actually making them. It's the weakness of all totalitarian systems. They end up devoting all their energy on internal control and collapse against the pressure of the outside world.
Free states always defeat slave states.
There is an ongoing debate in myrmecology (ant science) about if it's "problematic" to call what some social parasite species of ants do "slavery."
These ants will raid the nests of other species and take their pupae and youngest workers. These workers end up feeding and caring for the eggs of the slaver ants.
Slavery is such a horrible institution that some people have wondered if it's insensitive to use that word for what the ants do.
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They worry that it makes it seem like "slavery is natural" and some racists have even admired Polyergus ants who are unable to feed themselves since their survival is so dependent on stealing the brood of other colonies.
I personally think it's fine to call it "slavery." To me it shows that like other forms of predation and parasitism slavery isn't driven by ideology. It's about free stuff. It's about the path of least work and resistance.
2/
And I might find it disturbing if slaver ants were the most common. But they can only exist because regular ants are so absurdly dominant.
There is a little mystery however: why are there so few social parasites of Camponotus ants? There is only one for the whole vast genus. Meanwhile Formica and Lasius are overrun with scammers.
I'm getting off topic. My point is cheating exists where it is possible. But it does not negate the power of eusociality.
I have a search that I use to highlight social parasites in ants and I'm always finding new things to add to it.
Ant colonies are very successful and some ants try to steal or find a free ride ... these are their stories:
@Ambulocetus @clayfoot @housepanther @Uair
Maybe. Though when social parasites evolve in ants they always evolve from their host species.
Polyergus are most closely related to Formica. Often they will be from the same genus. See Tetramorium atratulum and their host Tetramorium immagrans.
The only Camponotus parasite out of about 1000 species (some of the most successful ants on earth) is Camponotus universitatis who targets only two species: Camponotus aethiops and Camponotus pilicornis.
@Ambulocetus @clayfoot @housepanther @Uair
My theory for Camponotus having just one social parasite is that they are too large. The social parasite is a spammer, they make many queens and males and few workers and try to just infiltrate to get them raised. But a Camponotus queen is very large and you'd need to be large to defeat her. It's too much investment per an organism for success.
This doesn't explain why they aren't raided for brood however.
I think we know that it isn't a virus. It's an alteration to the normal founding behavior of ants. And it has an "evolutionary advantage" which is why it exists.
If you like the mysterious mind altering organisms you will find looking into the impact of the bacteria 'Wolbachia' shocking and amazing.
Caution: Wolbachia is a whole rabbit hole!
The longer the signs stay up the more real they become.
Maybe in twenty years a "Pollinator Sanctuary" will be a real thing. But I'm operating in a vacuum of power and concern. I'm the most active force in this zone, so I can change the rules.
I could have written a proposal to the city and tried to set this up from the other direction. But then the grass would be mowed right now and I'd still be waiting.
It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Source of quote:
The fascists have an instinct for this. But I think it's something that some of us fighting them need to teach ourselves and teach each other.
Rules and systems are created by the people that follow them. An election happens because people show up to vote and expect their votes to be counted. To stop the election you'd need to stop all of those people from doing that. Physically stop. It would be very messy and hard.
Apple and Google did not need to change it to "The Gulf of America" they could have just said "oh OK I understand it's called that now" and done nothing.
But they wanted to earn favor instead and thought the public would care less than the government.
Just don't listen. Are you in their army? Do you take their orders? Do you shine their boots?
I like that you put up the signs... because by the time someone figures out that they were not put there by any government agency and they get removed and the area gets mowed, plenty of people will have found the pollinator sanctuary delightful and beautiful and will complain about its removal without you having to canvass or collect signatures or anything.
We don't call them that here in Ontario but we have them all along the freeways and in parks in Toronto and Montreal, and now I am wondering how 'official' they actually are?
(Don't worry random rogue sign-maker if they aren't official. Secret is safe with me lol)
The sign makes it "official"
This sign cost $18
With a high-vis vest and a clipboard, you can get almost anywhere:
@futurebird
In Poland there are 'Polinator's hotel' shelters set up in the city's parks. Photo to the left taken at Pole Mokotowskie Park.
These can be great because they help people to notice pollinators more, but I think they are only good for education.
Simply having some wood branches and tree stumps can stimulate much more diversity. So in your own garden you don't need to have a hotel like this. Just find some branches and put them in a shady area.
Also if a "hotel" like this isn't in a good location or there aren't enough wildflowers it won't attract guests.
They are very cute.
@futurebird
> These can be great because they help people to notice pollinators more, but I think they are only good for education.
To the contrary, there are plenty of such constructions in the public areas and it does work.* And as for the "Sanctuary spot" – this is the rule. Public lawns are never mowed whole.
(There was a research by Magdalena Siemaszko from University of Warsaw a ten years ago, but I can't find it now.)
@futurebird @Uair @jwcph recent story about a retiring native bee house maker, how beneficial it is to gardens or farms, and how critical each construction step is
BeeTreasure – CRAFTFOLK
https://craft-folk.com/pages/bee-treasure
Pretty easy to simply take such a sign down. It's litter.
@futurebird @Uair @jwcph I'm reminded of that guy who got annoyed by a missing freeway navigation sign (that should have been there per the DOT's own rules) and couldn't get through to the right people to fix it "legally", so he went out of his way to make a perfect imitation sign to all the relevant codes, don some hi-viz, and climb up on the thing to install it in the middle of the day. Apparently everyone at the DOT thought some other department had done it, because it was a perfectly compliant sign that should have been there anyways.
Cut to 10 years later, after he's published the article on it (after the statute of limitations expired, of course) and someone grabs a photo of them taking the sign down. Everyone panics a bit until they put out a press release saying "relax, we're just putting a new one up as part of the standard signage maintenance cycle."
@futurebird As I understand it, he is trying to appeal it (And tried to get a TRO to prevent it from being taken down until the appeal failed, I think?), so *might* be trying to "Steelman" their case by obliging this one time?
Either that, or the people who had put it physically up are under risk of contempt of court (Or the justice department is, given that they are based on the ICE cases they keep losing.).
@futurebird I think President Trump and his handlers all do this political calculus in their heads as to what benefits them personally and they conclude it is best to selectively obey the law even when they don't like the outcome, like it is medicine that tastes bad or has side effects but ultimately makes you better overall.
To ignore ALL law would quickly incite rebellion against him. To obey all law is intolerably limiting to him, so the sociopath tries to calculate where the boundaries are that serve him best.
In this regard the battle over the name of a building is an easy decision. It isn't really important beyond ego stroking so if you just put up a bit of a fight on court then ultimately comply with orders he now has a new grievance to bitch about to his deluded admirers. "It's lawfare! This is why we have to Fix the Courts!"
So the calculus works in his favour. Grievances to defend the ultimate goal are worth the cost of hurt feelings.
@futurebird power can be a lot about position - like chess, are you near a strong structure? Even strong pieces can be threatened when they're out of position.
Matt Floca is the one actually on the chopping block. Trump gets the headline, but it's really about a low ranking loyalist under no real protection from their mafia. They'll tell him to fight, but he knows he's not Pam Bondi.
How long can that guy really hold the line? Walls stand or fall, brick by brick.
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