Resist: It's Time

Tonight, Tuesday Feb 4, 5p ET. US Department of the Treasury. If you can be there tonight in DC, or at any other federal Treasury office, do it.

In the last two weeks, a lot of things have happened which are making a lot of people a lot of scared, and justifiably so. I'm not pretending that my personal situation is more dire than anyone else's. While some of the things going on do directly threaten my family, they're still currently at arm's length.

Someone was talking to me tonight about being scared, and I had some thoughts that might be useful.

Fear is what makes you focus and pay attention, and react to immediate threats. Humans evolved in an environment which is far more immediately dangerous than what we enjoy today. I think that fear is simply part of being human, and that when our brains don't get to experience dangers, we have to compensate for a lack of fear.

Now that there are "real" things to be afraid of, and we're so conditioned by personal experience to not be afraid, and we're still compensating for not being afraid ... while being afraid ... well, that's disorienting.

What I have done, what seems to be working for me, goes back to why I started this place here to begin with. Don't be worried, be prepared.

Worry is one thing, fear is another, of course. For me, I am adding Don't be afraid, pay attention and act accordingly. Again, I think that fear is what makes us focus and pay attention. Once you're paying attention, then you can better assess what the actual danger level is, and what your response (if any) should be.

This can be practiced in everyday situations. Example: I was driving the other day, and found myself at a stoplight. Cars in front of me, next to me, behind me. A curb and a steep slope down to my right. I didn't have an exit path for my car; if something "stupid" had happened at that moment, I would have had to abandon my car and take off on foot.

I wasn't afraid in that moment, but it came into my head to "look for an exit." What would it be? It would be running. I estimated that the likelihood that I would need to hoof it before the light changed was insignificant, but I was just a little more prepared than I was moments before.

I feel better thinking about fear as an important and necessary aspect of being human, and instead of trying to avoid it entirely, feeding little pieces to my brain consistently, and then consuming that fear with attention and planning.

Again, there are plenty more people in plenty more dire circumstances than I'm in right now, and I'm not trying to portray myself as some kind of superhero. But I'm finding that this way of addressing my own fears seems to be working for me, and if it works for me, it might work for someone else, too. We're all going to need a lot of endurance, and figuring out how to keep fear from taking away from that is a good thing.

tl;dw:

Modern cars are not as easy to siphon gas out of. You're going to need a narrow, semi-rigid tube to get past any check valve. Make sure this tube is long enough to reach the bottom of the tank.

Of course, if you're not concerned about the car, you can punch a hole in the bottom of the tank and capture the fuel that way, but you'll certainly waste some fuel.

@horse_battery_staple makes an excellent point: If you are uncertain about the quality of the fuel you are siphoning - whether that be because of its age, contaminants (rust/water), or if it has two stroke oil in it, be aware that the vehicle you run the fuel in may run badly, and you may incur mechanical problems, either in the short or long term. Generally speaking, "she'll run," especially if you're cutting the acquired fuel with known good fuel, but you should consider this as an "oh shit" option.

Long text post incoming!

Any popular resistance movement dies in the cradle if people feel isolated. Isolation breeds inaction. Therefore, to make people feel less isolated, word needs to go out to the general public to build solidarity and make them feel part of a greater whole. Resistors are not alone! It also has the psychological benefit of making oppressors feel surrounded (and rightfully so).

Therefore, to get those who want to resist motivated, we must advertise our cause. Thankfully, we live in a modern age where designing good looking graphics and printing them has never been easier.

The best information campaign will rely on guerilla tactics. Put posters up in heavy traffic areas outside, at work, in your neighborhood, on public bulletin boards, wherever needed to get the message out. One priority place would be inside government offices. There are plenty of federal workers who are resisting. If they put up even a few, we can psychologically terrorize the fascists, and this will force them to focus inward and divert from the rest of society.

Of course, these will be damaged or destroyed, whether intentionally or not, so we must be ready to replace posters as that happens, especially if it's ripped down.

Design: This, I think, is paramount. To attract those who may not like the current actions but are hesitant to really resist, it is important to use American symbology. Don't let the fascists take our flag, our symbols, our iconography. These things bind us together as Americans, and it can have an inspiring effect. We are all part of the greater whole.

Also highly important, make sure the designs are good. Marketers, graphic designers: that's your cue. If your an amateur, get the opinion of a trusted friend on a design.

If you don't have the time or ability to design, just take one off the internet. Therefore, I propose that we make repository of resistance posters on the web. Domains are cheap. VPSes are, too. It can also serve as a virtual poster.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you have some designs, post 'em, print 'em, and distribute 'em!

ID: A guide titled "Know Your Rights with ICE: What is a warrant?" posted by servicesnotsweepscoalition and created by WASHINGTON IMMIGRANT SOLIDARITY NETWORK. There are 9 images in English followed by the same 9 images in Spanish, which I will put in their own comment to the post:

After a volunteer confirmed an officer’s identity, they would alert neighbors to the agent’s presence, and our dispatch team would send a text message to our contacts in the area. ICE agents almost never carry judicial warrants giving them the authority to enter private homes or businesses without permission, so they often wait to make an arrest when the person they’re looking for leaves their home or car. And in every case we worked on, when the agents realized they were being watched, they abandoned their stakeout.

This is a very rough start for a guide to getting involved in activist work in your community.

Do they exist?

An interactive map of ICE sightings in the US, showing you only today's sightings by default. Use caution in any of the areas marked on the map. It looks like people can report sightings anonymously, but please only report confirmed sightings where you have a photo. We are stronger together.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects people from random and arbitrary stops and searches. Although the federal government claims the power to conduct certain kinds of warrantless stops within 100 miles of the U.S. border, important Fourth Amendment protections still apply. This helps you understand your rights within the 100-mile border zone.

Now that he is out, the Proud Boys leader wants revenge, he told Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist host of Info Wars.

“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted,” Tarrio said.

“Success is going to be retribution,” he added. “We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.”

In case you were wondering what all those pardons were for. That last quote sounds like some Fourth Reich shit.

You're going to need to be vigilant about fact checking the information you come across. Meta (FB, Insta, WhatsApp), X/Twitter, TikTok are all fascist mouthpieces at this point, and you don't have to use those services directly yourself for the messages they amplify to reach you.

Don't just be suspicious of those messages you oppose. Be as suspicious of rage-bait, and messages you are already primed to agree with. This is how propaganda works: by taking advantage of what people already want to believe.

If you can't find decent sources about the thing you're seeking to verify, set that thing aside. If you can find one source, or the same story being repeated multiple places, be skeptical. Be aware that early reporting on events as they unfold can easily be wrong in ways that impact the accuracy of the reporting, even if the story is substantially true as a whole.

Information gaps - where one party has more, or more accurate, information than another party - are how power is leveraged. When you take steps to be factually accurate, in line with objective reality, you are shrinking the power of those who would like to control you.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka criticized ICE agents for "raiding" a local business without a warrant, detaining several individuals, including U.S. citizens, a military veteran, and undocumented immigrants.

When they come, they are not going to have warrants. They're just going to strongarm and intimidate their way in, and they're going to detain people without cause.

• Do you have a warrant? No? Go get one then.
• I decline to answer any questions.
• I do not consent to any search.

And I know this sounds real "sovcit," but they're right on this one:

• Am I being detained, or am I free to go? If you are free to go, go. If you are being detained, shut the fuck up.

From Barrio Drive's free resources. Standing up for our immigrant communities is a team effort. Posts like this one help people avoid dangerous situations. Verify your facts and don't spread misinformation.

Below is a list of defendants charged in federal court in the District of Columbia related to crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.

This page is no longer linked to from its parent page (https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc).

If someone knows better than I do how to download all of this information before it goes in the memory hole, that's probably a good idea.

Seems to be mostly on archive.org, including PDFs.

Documents, including phone number and invitation to ‘join us’, distributed same day Trump took office

Anyone in Kentucky want to see what they can find out?

Out of them was produced a secret handbook developed on how to break down prisoners. The key was using shock to reduce adults to a childlike state.

I just got back from a long drive to nowhere. My welcome back was a litany of posts about all of the ridiculous things Trump did this afternoon.

This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. None of us, together or alone, are going to be able to really change anything for a long, long time. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. Yet.

Do not expect any of your actions to have immediate or visible effects. The strength will be in the cumulative efforts of everyone who is able to put obstacles in the way of the fascists, no matter how small those efforts may be. "Did you see something? No you didn't." If that's what you're able to do, that's good.

Be prepared, build contacts, look for opportunities. I'm a big proponent of everyone carrying pepper spray. Learn some first aid. If you're a gun owner, practice. Talk to people you trust. Let them know that they can come to you if they need to, or if they know someone who needs support. Protect people who are being threatened. The insurrectionists just got pardoned, so they're definitely making fresh plans; listen for those plans. Take note that if you're going to be on the "support" side of things, you will probably want to avoid being actively subversive, and vice versa. Above all, be careful. Of course, there will be risks no matter what, but honestly, we're all at much greater risk now regardless.

Good luck.

If you know someone in the United States who might be harassed by immigration agents, make sure they have a printout of this card. One side has a message for those agents in English, and the other side has important information in the cardholder's language.

All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The Red Cards were created to help people assert their rights and defend themselves against constitutional violations. Knowing and asserting rights can make a huge difference in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home. Red cards provide critical information on how to assert these rights, along with an explanation to ICE agents that the individual is indeed asserting their rights.

Good set of resources