late post coming

Hello all.  Sorry but I think I'm going to be late (as in, more than a few hours late) as I've got nothing written to use, it seems likely that I'm going to completely miss tomorrow's scheduled post.  I will endeavor to have something fresh up by weekendland, and hopefully even sooner.  But to put this in perspective, I have managed to make updates on every Wednesday since late June, a full three months and 2 weeks of perfection. 

Looking forward to talking to you again real soon!

Solidarität

Where Scotland Has Been and Where It Goes From Here

Hello all.

     Well, last Thursday was quite sad.  Scottish independence went down by 11%, when it had been projected to lose by only 4.  The “Yes” campaign only took 4 counties, including a seriously underperforming Glasgow which had been predicted to go for them overwhelmingly, whereas “Project Fear” (the No camp’s self-bestowed moniker in internal memos) swept the board, including the Highlands, and Edinburgh.  I shouldn’t be surprised- all major banks threatened to suspend services in Scotland, should it become independent.  That reversed the lead that “Yes” had temporarily taken.  On the bright side, independence did poll 5-10% higher than anyone thought it could back when the referendum was first proposed, so that could be encouraging.

     I’ve previously mentioned why I support Scottish independence- I agree with Scotland’s leaders: Scottish political ideas are increasingly different from English ones- Scotland is on the road of Democratic Socialism and pacifism, while England is becoming more and more neoliberal and remains hawkish.  That’s basically the big difference, and I’m all for Scotland getting the authority it needs to set its own tax rates, fund its branch of the National Health, divert oil revenues into alternative energy and social justice, and divest itself of nuclear weapons.  None of these things is guaranteed to happen now, despite Project Fear’s 11^th hour promise to extend more devolved powers to the Scottish Parliament.  Even now, Cameron is backtracking, now amending the promise by saying that any improvement in Scottish local powers must be matched by reducing the voting competence of Scottish Members of Parliament.  The people of Scotland were betrayed by the British government, and coerced by their financial sector into accepting continued rule by people who profoundly disagree with them over almost every issue of statesmanship.

     The hardest thing for me though, was seeing Alex Salmond sad.  For those who haven’t read my last piece, he’s the leader and face of the Scottish National Party, First Minister of Scotland’s devolved government, and leader of the “Yes” campaign.  For the two years I’ve watched him, he’s projected an image of confidence, (along with oiliness), charm, and unquestionable commitment to his cause.  This is a man who has done the impossible again and again- come back to lead the SNP after moderates purged him in the 80s, keeping the fascists out, reforming the SNP as a Socialist movement, winning two elections outright for his party in a system designed to permanently keep Labour and the Liberals in power, and then going on to do everything cool from lowering the voting age to increasing access to public daycare.  I don’t think he once contemplated losing this election, and I cried a bit watching his resignation the following day.  He is exactly the kind of politician I want to be- one who pulls no punches, delivers meaningful legislative results, expands the public sector, helps the vulnerable first, beguiles his opponents, and thoroughly enjoys his job.  Seeing him defeated put yet another new face on a familiar story: good leftists losing elections through the machinations of big finance and the Washington consensus.  One thing that did make me smile was that he closed his speech with a reference to Ted Kennedy, promising that the dreams of an independent Scotland would never die.  He’s surely done his part to make that the case.

     Other than sentimentality, the only positive I can note is that Salmond’s deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, is almost certain to succeed him.  She’s had a longer career than I thought, and is a second generation female politician for the SNP.  After briefly running for party leader in 2000, she agreed to serve as Salmond’s deputy and Health Minister, in which capacity she spearheaded the government’s successful campaigns to expand daycare and abolish prescription copays.  She’s been in the thick of the SNP’s quest to use government for the people, especially working mothers, and I couldn’t be happier with Scotland’s government than if she is to lead it.

     So where does Sturgeon take Scotland from here?  The first step is to try to negotiate for as much of the powers Cameron falsely promised as possible.  The next step is of course to do what she can with devolved power to follow through on campaign promises of renewable energy.  She’s definitely a leader to keep our eyes on for those days when we desperately need some good news.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen. 

Fighting Bobfest 2014

Hello, all.

Last Saturday was the 13th annual Fighting Bob Fest, in honor of "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Wisconsin's beloved governor, senator, and perennial presidential candidate in the early 20th century, who did really important work for consumer protection, women's suffrage, public education, and the anti-war movement.  A bunch of left and semi-left politicians, journalists and union leaders get together and speak to the faithful.

I must say a lot of this felt more forced than usual- almost like we're all lying to each other.  For one, Mary Burke (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) is rather conservative, but we heard everyone, including some really good leaders, say how sure they are that she'll put a stop to Walker's agenda.  Even if she manages to win, I'm skeptical- she's refrained from taking positions on a lot of key issues- protecting women's right to choose, infrastructure development, and health care among them, and I just feel slimy voting for someone whose main qualification is success in business.  Government is not a business, it's a collective arrangement for everyone's benefit.

There were plenty of bright spots, though we lacked some of the best speakers who usually grace the stage.  Susan Happ came out swinging on equal pay and voter rights, (Wisconsin's supreme court just disenfranchised 200,000 voters, for those who don't follow it), and I think we were all wishing she was running for governor.  The only thing wrong with her speech is that she didn't ride her Harley onto the stage, but plenty of time to fix that once she wins.

Baldwin spoke as well, and she didn't mess up like she did last year- it's nice not to have to riot against your own senators over their possible support of an unjust war.

Doug La Follette spoke there as well, and he has really improved as a speaker since the last time I saw him- a pity they didn't do question and answer, as that's where he does his best, but he was on- voting rights protection, unequal wage distribution, he really hit his stride.  I'm looking forward to his visit to Beloit in October.

The high point, as always, was Sen. Bernie Sanders, Soc-Vt.  Aside from his grave slander that Wisconsin "should be proud of producing the second-best cheddar cheese in the nation" he laid out a perfect indictment of plutocracy at every turn, spoke about climate change as a national security threat, and still called for public employment and nationalized healthcare.  I went up to him afterward and told him that I'd move to wherever his campaign needs me, if he runs.

The event was entirely white (the speakers were a tad more diverse), due largely to a location change to a remote, rural town called Baraboo, rather than the Madison venue of previous years.  Genossin Sophie also pointed out that calls to resistance against unjust regimes may be insensitive, or offensive to minority citizens who are engaged in a constant struggle for basic dignity and in many cases survival; the event would have done well to have a breakout session focused on race-conscious organizing, on everything from transportation to safety.  Finally, there were two speakers who seemed to be inserted as tokens- Angela Trudell Vasquez- her speech was billed as a poem but it was a speech- who talked passionately about immigration and the burden placed on children of deported parents, who often end up caring for their siblings.  She made good points but it seems like the fest made little effort to attract anyone who isn't white, and this was somewhat questionable.  More problematic was Philomena Kebec, a representative of the Ho-Chunk tribe as well as the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.  She spoke at great length about the spiritual beliefs of her tribe, and why they would be violated by allowing unsafe mining practices, which is an argument we definitely need to have, as Burke has shown next-to-no leadership on this issue, but this seemed to undermine it as much as anything.  I'm not sure if the organizers deliberately chose someone to speak for the Ho-Chunk with a bad stutter, and a spiel all about spiritual matters which most people will reject out of hand.  In short, I felt that, while this woman does great work for her cause, the way she was presented here served to make her look incompetent and exoticized in her beliefs.  I don't think this is any fault of hers, just that she was being used as both a token and in some ways a ready-made rhetorical strawman, and that the festival should do a much better job in future of not exoticizing women of color.  To their credit, they did back her up with other anti-mine campaigns, but it seems they chose an inexperienced spokeswoman on purpose to make her and her religion look silly.  It's also worth nothing that neither of the Wisconsin Dems' prominent African-American leaders- Firefighter Union President Mahlon Mitchell and Milwaukee congresswoman Gwen Moore- were present.  Whether this was a schedule conflict on their parts, a deliberate decision not to attend the event after changes made it more hostile to minority constituents, or a snub by the organizers, I don't know but it looked bad.

Oh and Mark Pocan did a nice little trick of linking the American Revolution to opposition to the India Company.  That was fun.  I also got to see a lecture by Professor Nancy Unger, La Follette biographer, who is finishing a work on Belle La Follette and her activist work for feminism, Civil Rights, Peace and Socialism.  Can't wait to read it.

It felt like a sadder, weaker Bobfest than before, and that was disheartening, but we do have some great people in office and on the ballot this year, and it's always nice to hear them speak.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Guest Post: Genossin Erin/My Little Sister's Heroine

Hello all.

As you may know, I am the proud sibling of a rather remarkable young woman of only ten years of age, who is a sweet, caring, often macabre, musical, and all around interesting little swimming ace, who is beginning to learn how wonderful it can be when someone stands up for what they believe in.  (She's not quite a Socialist yet but I'm working on that part).  I'd like to offer you her account of Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak, first woman fighter ace and Soviet War heroine in the Great Patriotic War.  Remember, this came from a ten-year-old's pen, so be impressed.

Genossinnen und Genossen- my little sister, Erin Lamping!

   Lidiya Litvyak

                                       By: Erin Kehle Lamping

The first thing I want you to do is to think. Think about this: have you ever thought about how pilots, fighter pilots, or even women fighter pilots have made a difference? I ask you this because I am about to tell you about an outstanding woman fighter pilot, who goes on outstanding adventures, does outstanding things, and is outstandingly beautiful.  Her name is Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak. One reason this person is probably unfamiliar to you is because she is from Moscow, Russia. Lidiya Litvyak was born on August 18, 1921. Her parents were Vladimir and Anna. When Lily was only considered the “little girl in the window with the big red bow in her hair,” her wide imagination would grow every time she listened to her mother’s songs and stories.  Lily became the first and highest scoring female air-ace of all time.

I guess you could say that Lily had a fairly interesting childhood. I encourage you to read more to find out about Lily.  When she was very young, her brother Yuriy came into the world. Her family was Jewish and lived in Russia which was under the horrible leadership of Joseph Stalin. I hate to mention this horrible man, but he did play a role in Liliya’s life. (Liliya is Lidiya’s well-known nick-name.) When Lily was a child, her father was arrested and killed by the police. Why the police?  You may ask. This is why; since Stalin was such a horrible person, he sent out the police to arrest and kill random people and Liliya’s father just happened to be one of the many unlucky people arrested and killed by Stalin’s police. I find this crazy, and you may to, but since Stalin was the leader of “Stalingrad”, he was considered the father of Russia. To add to that, he is not even Russian!  Stalin invented the 5 year plan for transition. This included a summer camp that had different age levels. One group was called the Little Oktoberists for ages 7-9. It was called Little Oktoberists to commemorate the Russian Revolution. Liliya joined in 1928 when she was 7. She later joined the Young Pioneer group which was for older children in the 5 year plan. When she was 13 years old and still in the Young Pioneer group, the Moscow Metro was built. The Young Pioneers were in the parade for the new train. Liliya was one of the lucky pioneers that got to be in the parade. Having never seen anything like this train in her life, Liliya paid 50 kopecks to take one ride on the new form of transportation.  Lily had a very interesting childhood…hence, I must write more.

I promise you that part two of her childhood will be just as exciting as the first…just not as long. One of Liliya’s good friends was by the name of Nina. Nina was a bright young journalist who wrote about practically EVERYTHING in her journal. Lidiya’s beloved family lived on Novaslobodskaya Street in an apartment that contained only 2 rooms. As a child, this young-at-heart girl LOVED to watch plane shows. She would stare up at the sky in awe as the skilled pilots zipped overhead. Moscow had several flying clubs for the young ones that were eager to learn to fly. When Liliya was 14, she tried to get into a flying club, but was not let in. I do not know for sure why, but it very well could have been because of her age.  I do know that when she was 15, she was accepted. Once she got in a plane, it seemed like she had been flying her whole life. While still 15, she started teaching others to fly planes. So I guess you could say that Lily’s love of flying was the tip of the huge iceberg.

             Since I have merged Lily’s childhood and her young adult life, I will now tell you about her career which took up the rest of her life. This young lady took flight in a beautiful Yak-1 during the raging battles of World War II, in which she was known as the “White Rose of Stalingrad.” Yak-1s at that time were slower and less maneuverable than the German planes. Now I do assume that most of you know that men who joined one of the armed forces had to cut their hair to the appropriate length, right? Well, so did all of the brave young women that dared to join. Yep. Short as the men, and I do speak the truth. Did Lily cut her hair? Oh no, not this young lady. She was far too passionate about her hair to cut one inch off. No siree. Luckily, the army people let her have her way. If they had not, they would have had a very unhappy fighter pilot on their hands. This young, long-haired fighter pilot was one of the brave women that joined the all-woman fighter pilot group called, The Red Falcons. The Red Falcons were led by the fighter pilot, Marina Raskova, a wonderful person that in fact, had had her picture carried in the backpack of a bright young girl named Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak. Operation Barbarossa was the code name of the Nazis’ Invasion of the Soviet Union, culminating in the Battle of Stalingrad. Lily fought in this battle. Now let me tell you that she had quite a busy Soviet Air-Force career…hence I continue to write…

Now even though we all want to think that Lily never had any close calls and was never shot down; she did and she was. She had quite a few close calls, and was shot down at least two times. Since you are probably dying to hear one of her close calls, I will gladly tell you. One day, Lily was flying on one of her fighting missions, when one of those blasted Nazis came into the picture…no, there were six. Yes, you heard me, six planes were following the legendary White Rose of Stalingrad. So I bet you cannot guess what this young fighter did. Well, she stood her plane on its tail, and shot straight up into the clear blue sky. As the six planes in pursuit of the White Rose of Stalingrad stared dumbstruck at the sky, Lily dove straight down and shot at one of the planes. She managed to take it down, and possibly another, but we are not sure. After seeing one of their mischievous comrades get shot, the other five bailed themselves out and managed to avoid getting shot. Lily had taken one shot in the leg, yet she had managed to pull off a miraculous accomplishment. And even though you have probably just heard one of the most thrilling adventure stories, every hero has their failures, too. One time Lily was looking for another one of her prey, when, out of the blue, she was shot. Again, shot in the leg. This time she was shot down and due to her unfortunate injury, she could not move. So she was stuck in an open field until someone came to get her. At one point, she could actually hear the Nazi soldiers coming for her! Eventually her kind-hearted mechanic, Inna, swooped in and picked Lily up. Now you are hearing just the good and the bad about her. But this girl had some pretty funny habits. For example, after a successful mission, she would fly really close to the ground, swoop up, and do acrobatics. As you can imagine, this completely enraged her commander, but Lily did not care. Also, if she had just flown an aircraft that a man fighter pilot would fly next, she would leave a fresh bouquet of flowers in the cockpit. So as you can see, Lily did have a very interesting career.

In case you have not noticed, Lily had  many accomplishments. For instance; the first plane she shot down was a Junkers Ju 88. She scored this on September 13, 1942. In total, she scored 14 planes by herself and 6 more with the help of another human being. She earned 2 patriotic war medals - each one is for shooting down 6 planes, the highest award for valor, 1 HSU award - for scoring 10 planes, and the red star - for being a hero of the Soviet Union. You must admit that she was quite a hero…correct? Now, I think we all know that if you are not immortal, you will eventually die. Yes, Lily was a mortal, and yes, she did sadly die.  I tell you that she died for a very good purpose. On August 1, 1943, this Lily of a fighter died. She and a few comrades were surrounded by quite a few planes when she decided that no matter what, she would not make it out alive. She used all of the horse-power in her yak-1 and rammed her plane into the closest opposing plane, and managed to take it down, but she was killed herself while completing this task. Her friends were able to get away. Lily was not.  She sacrificed herself for her friends.

As you probably noticed, Lily made a HUGE DIFFERENCE. For example; she was the first woman fighter ace, which means that a pilot has shot down 5 planes. She sacrificed herself for her friends. In Russia, Lily remains a well-revered heroine. In conclusion, Lily is one of those people who made a difference, but whom we don’t hear about. I hope you now know a little about Lily.

 -END-

I was very proud to have Erin as my sister when I saw how well she's beginning to develop as a writer, and even more so to watch her growing interest in women's history.  Hope you all see why

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

Race in Dungeons and Dragons

I thought this would be a good time to address a concern I have about my primary hobby, Dungeons and Dragons.  Particularly, the comments in the game source material about race.

Race is used as one of several categorical descriptions for characters.  The traditional groups from which players can choose in 3^rd edition are human, Elf, Dwarf (fantasy dwarf, not littleperson, although this itself could be somewhat problematic to anyone with a modicum of sensitivity), Halfling/hobbit, Gnome, and Orc (though usually only as villains), with human- orc and human-elf hybrids also being playable in standard format.  I believe that 

games like D/D and their source material are using “race” where it is actually scientifically accurate to use “species”, and in so doing are buying into several damaging and racist perceptions in our society. 

When the game was developed, race was used synonymously with the word “species” in some circles.  In the fantasy case, this practice was more likely grandfathered in from the J.R.R. Tolkien source material with no regard to whether or not it was appropriate, and has since been adopted unquestioningly by many other works in the fantasy genre which have missed the “ok for its time” excuse by several decades.

See, each of these character types have inherent advantages and disadvantages, measured in the six core abilities of Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  Many of these are physiological in nature- for example, differences in body type account for dwarves and gnomes being hardier, elves and halflings being nimbler, and orcs being more physically powerful.  The three physical abilities seem naturally differentiated enough.  The problem arises with the mental abilities- namely, that Dwarves, Orcs and Half-Orcs suffer particular reductions in certain mental abilities, some of which are implied to be inherently determined by race, and that this reinforces every racist lie from involuntary sterilization backers to “the Bell Curve” and its popular attacks on the abilities of Students of Color.

Briefly stated, Dwarves take a penalty to people skills, but this is implied to be culturally determined- their society is frequently shown to be suspicious of outsiders and to value directness (and wealth) over niceties in interpersonal dealings.  That’s fine- cultural norms differ, and someone from this background would surely have some difficulties dealing with someone who wasn’t.  As Dwarves are a minority, this rule makes some sense.  Orcs have the same penalty for similar reasons- they are suggested to live in frequently reworked tribes and kept out of desirable land, meaning that they are often forced to banditry or hardship, and therefore have a hard time dealing with others, especially as they are regarded as monstrous.  The problem comes when we look at the reductions they automatically suffer to intelligence and wisdom.  Biologically, there is precedent for this difference between species, not races, if you peg it to brain development.  All human brains develop at pretty much the same rate and extent, given adequate nutrition, stimulation, safety, and other factors of opportunity.  Now, a chimp’s brain does not grow and develop as much as a human’s- they’re born with something like 60% of their relative brain matter to body size compared to our less than half.   

There are of course other distinctions, for instance most of these species are genetically compatible with humans – (elf and orc normally, dwarf with severe consequences such as insanity, and Halfling in certain houserules).  One of the common descriptors of a species is that its members cannot reproduce viable offspring except with each other, so by this reasoning one may say “race” is the correct term.  But this may not be adequate- ducks, for example, seem to breed across species lines to some extent, and this distinction would only apply to humans- orcs cannot mate with elves for example, nor dwarves with hobbits. 

Considering that this is an invented genealogy whose member “races” have inherent differences which in real life would only be the result of environmental difference in upbringing, I’m troubled.  Species seems a more appropriate taxon given the drastic differences in mental ability between orcs and the rest of the population, to say nothing of “race” frequently being used as the article of distinction for every remotely humanoid creature from lizardfolk to giants.

This is problematic because claiming there are differences in human population that are inherent in the phenotypic presentations we refer to as “race” has been used to justify many oppressive practices, and is just plain bad science.  My brain is not better or worse than anyone else’s because of my race, it is better than that of a duck because I am human.  I am fine referring to the “human race” for rhetorical purposes, but to use that as a distinguishing trait from other sapients seems to buy into many lies used to back everything from Slavery to the Nuremberg laws.  Especially since Dungeons and Dragons is such a white hobby, we need to be especially careful not to linguistically reinforce the racist misconceptions that still persist in many circles just because it sounds cool and old-timey.  Accordingly, I ask my players to refer to character “species” rather than “race” unless they’re referring to something very, very specific.

If I get 20 reads this week I’ll post some descriptions of political messages I’ve worked into D/D over the years.  Stay tuned if you want this, ignore us this week if you don’t- not really.  Please read us.  And comment.  We are lonely.  Pageviews for the Internet God!  Comments for the Sitethrone.  

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.  Now roll for initiative.