Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

I wish my headline was some of the “fake news” Democrats complain about but Alexandra Rosemann proves the truth of that headline in:

Ignoring anti-Trumpers: Why we can expect media blackout of protests against Trump’s inauguration.

Not ignored by just anybody, ignored by the media.

On Jan. 20 — 16 years ago — thousands of protesters lined the inauguration parade route of the incoming Republican president. “Not my president,” they chanted. But despite the enormity of the rally, it was largely ignored. Instead, pundits marveled over how George W. Bush “filled out the suit” and confirmed authority.

“The inauguration of George W. Bush was certainly a spectacle on Inauguration Day,” marvels Robin Andersen, the director of Peace and Justice studies at Fordham University, in the 2001 short documentary “Not My President: Voices From the Counter Coup.”

It’s nearly impossible not to anticipate the eerie parallels between George W. Bush’s inauguration and that of Donald Trump.

“Forty percent of the public still believed that Bush had not been legitimately elected, yet there’s almost no discussion of these electoral problems or the constitutional crisis,” Andersen explains in the film. “Instead, Bush undergoes a kind of transformation where he fills out the suit and becomes a leader. Forgotten are any of the questions about his ability, his experience or his mangling of the English language. His transformation is almost magical,” she adds.

…

Andersen estimated the inauguration protests, which occurred throughout the country, garnered approximately 10 minutes of total coverage on all the major networks.

“When we did see images of protesters, there was no explanation as to why. We were asked to be passive spectators in this ritual of legitimation when the real democratic issues that should have been being discussed were ignored,” Andersen says in the film, reflecting on the “real democracy” in the streets of Washington, D.C.
…

Your choice. Ten minutes of coverage out of over 24 hours of permitted protesting, or the media covering a 24 hour blockade of the DC Beltway.

Which one do you think draws more attention to your issues?

A new president will be inaugurated on January 20, 2017, but its your choice whether its him, his wife and a few cronies in attendance or hundreds of thousands.

See protests for more ideas on that possibility.

Resistance Manual

An essential reference for the volatile politics of the Trump presidency.

Indivisible

Four former congressional staffers banded together to write: “A practical guide to resisting the Trump Agenda.”

Both are shaped by confidence in current political and social mechanisms, to say nothing of a faith in non-violence.

Education is seen as the key to curing bigotry/prejudice and moving towards a more just society.

You will not find links to:

Steal this Book or the Anarchist Cookbook, 2000 edition for example.

There are numerous examples cited as “successful” non-violent protests. The elimination of de jure segregation in the American South. (Resource includes oral histories of the time.)

But, de facto segregation in schools is larger than it was in the 1960’s.

How do you figure that into the “success” of non-violent protests?

Read both Resistance Manual and Indivisible for what may be effective techniques.

But ask yourself, do non-violent protests comfort the victims of violence?

Or just the non-violent protesters?

The Intercept tweeted today:

Kudos to The Intercept for reaching out to (US) federal employees to encourage safe leaking.

On the other hand, have you thought about the allocation of risks for leaking?

Take Edward Snowden for example. If caught, Snowden is going to jail, NOT Glenn Greenwald or other reporters who used the Snowden leak.

The Intercept has a valid point when it says:

…
Without leaks, journalists would have never connected the Watergate scandal to President Nixon, or discovered that the Reagan White House illegally sold weapons to Iran. In the past 15 years alone, inside sources played a vital role in uncovering secret prisons, abuses at Abu Ghraib, atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and mass surveillance by the NSA.
…

At least historically speaking. Back in the days when hard copy was the norm.

Hard copy isn’t the norm now and leaking guidelines need to catch up to the present day.

Someone could have leaked a portion of the Office of Personnel Management records but in a modern age, digital was far more powerful. (That was a straight hack but it illustrates the difference between sweaty smuggling of hard copy versus giving others the key to a vault.)

If instead of leaking documents/data, imagine following these instructions:

…

The best option is to use our SecureDrop server, which has the advantage of allowing us to send messages back to you, while allowing you to remain totally anonymous — even to us, if that is what you prefer.

• Begin by bringing your personal computer to a Wi-Fi network that isn’t associated with you or your employer, like one at a coffee shop. Download the Tor Browser. (Tor allows you to go online while concealing your IP address from the websites you visit.)

• You can access our SecureDrop server by going to http://y6xjgkgwj47us5ca.onion/ in the Tor Browser. This is a special kind of URL that only works in Tor. Do NOT type this URL into a non-Tor Browser. It won’t work — and it will leave a record.

• If that is too complicated, or you don’t wish to engage in back-and-forth communication with us, a perfectly good alternative is to simply send mail to P.O. Box 65679, Washington, D.C., 20035, or to The Intercept, 114 Fifth Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, New York, 10011. Drop it in a mailbox (do not send it from home, work or a post office) with no return address.

…

And you send the following:

1. Your email address
2. Screen shots of legitimate emails you get on a regular basis
3. What passwords are the most important

That’s it.

The receiver constructs a phishing email and sends it to your address.

Like John Podesta and numerous other public figures, you are taken in by this scam.

Evil doers use your present password for access and you have system recorded evidence that you were duped.

How does that allocation of risk look to you, as a potential leaker?

PS: Some, but not all, journalists will be quick to point out what I suggest is, drum roll, illegal. OK, and the question?

Those journalists are being very brave on behalf of leakers, knowing they will never share the fate of a leaker.

I make an exception for all the very brave journalists writing outside of the United States and a few other areas at great personal risk. But then they are unlikely to be concerned with the niceties of the law when dealing with a rogue government.

Update: Apologies but I forgot to include a link to the original post: Attention Federal Employees: If You See Something, Leak Something.

A recent news report mentioned the potential for blockades of DC Metro Rail stops.

Curbed Washington DC posted a list of those stops, but like many reporters, did not provide links to the stops.

🙁

Here’s their list:

Metro Stops with Hyperlinks

Here’s my version, in the same ticket color order:

• Green Ticket Holders Capital South or Eastern Market
• Orange Ticket Holders Federal Center SW or L’Enfant Plaza
• Blue Ticket Holders Judiciary Square or Gallery Place-Chinatown
• Yellow Ticket Holders Union Station or NoMa-Gallaudet U
• Silver Ticket Holders Federal Center SW or L’Enfant Plaza
• Red Ticket Holders Judiciary Square or Gallery-Place-Chinatown

Presented as the original, the list leaves the impression of more Metro stops than require blockading. Here is “apparent” count of Metro Stops is twelve (12).

Discovering Duplicate Metro Rail Stops

Rearrangement by Metro Rail stops reveals duplicates:

• Green Ticket Holders Capital South
• Green Ticket Holders Eastern Market
• Orange Ticket Holders Federal Center SW
• Silver Ticket Holders Federal Center SW
• Blue Ticket Holders Gallery Place-Chinatown
• Red Ticket Holders Gallery-Place-Chinatown
• Blue Ticket Holders Judiciary Square
• Red Ticket Holders Judiciary Square
• Orange Ticket Holders L’Enfant Plaza
• Silver Ticket Holders L’Enfant Plaza
• Yellow Ticket Holders NoMa-Gallaudet U
• Yellow Ticket Holders Union Station

Deduped Metro Stops and Priority Map

If we remove the duplicate stops and sort by stop name, we find only eight (8) Metro Stops for blockading.

1. Capital South Green Ticket Holders
2. Eastern Market Green Ticket Holders
3. Federal Center SW Orange Ticket Holders, Silver Ticket Holders
4. Gallery Place-Chinatown Blue Ticket Holders, Red Ticket Holders
5. Judiciary Square Blue Ticket Holders, Red Ticket Holders
6. L’Enfant Plaza Orange Ticket Holders, Silver Ticket Holders
7. NoMa-Gallaudet U Yellow Ticket Holders
8. Union Station Yellow Ticket Holders

All of this is public information and with a little rearrangement, it becomes easier to focus resources on any potential blockading of those stops.

In terms of priorities, Curbed Washington DC posted a map of the gate locations and guest sections for ticket holders. I took a screen-shot of the center portion:

If your are interested in activities around the checkpoints, see the larger map.

So You Want To Blockade A Metro Stop

A map of Union Station reminded me that open street blockading isn’t likely to close a Metro Rail stop.

Why? Even with a large number of hardened protesters, the police can approach you from all sides, driving you in particular directions with “less lethal” weapons.

But the architecture of a Metro Rail stop offers an alternative strategy to open air resistance.

Don’t blockade outside a Metro Rail stop, blockade the stop by occupying stairwells, access points, etc.

Anyone opposing the blockade will seek to restore service and so be less likely to use persistent gases or other irritants in closed spaces.

The other advantage of escalators, stairways is that the police can only approach from in front or from behind you. Enabling you to defend the edges of your formation with layers of the most recalcitrant protesters.

I know you intend to peacefully and lawfully assemble only but be aware you may have those in your midst who damage and/or disable turnstiles. Either with some variety of fast acting adhesives or jamming them with thin metallic objects. Although illegal, those acts will also contribute to delaying the restoration of full service.

More thoughts on blockades reduce the number of people reaching Metro Rail stops tomorrow.

PS: It’s unfortunate the Metro doesn’t use tokens anymore. There are some interesting things that can happen with tokens.

The ANSWER Coalition has:

…secured another permitted assembly area for an even larger gathering site on the parade route, the Navy Memorial (8th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW).

See: ANSWER Coalition for details and ways to support.

If your not interested in “permitted” protesting, it could be the case that attendees and protesters alike find it difficult if not impossible to attend the inauguration. See protests for an ongoing series of speculations in that direction.

PS: I remember the Constitution reading:

Congress shall make no law … abridging…the right of the people peaceably to assemble…

NOT:

Congress shall make no law … abridging…the right of the people to be permitted to assemble…

Do you?

Trump Inauguration Planners Unveil Tickets, Map says:

…
About 3,000 people holding purple tickets got stuck on foot in the Interstate 395 tunnel when trying to attend President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, causing many of them to miss the ceremony. The tunnel was later nicknamed the Purple Tunnel of Doom.
…

Data science projects should define criteria for success, before the project starts.

That helps prevent management from moving the goal posts to claim victory where none exists and protects you from “but it doesn’t ….” when that feature wasn’t included in the criteria for success.

In efforts to #DisruptJ20 the Trump inauguration, it appears that at least 3K people must be prevented from reaching the inauguration.

For your planning purposes, the 2017 SWEARING IN CEREMONY INFORMATION (FAQ) advises:

…
What time should I get to the US Capitol for the ceremony?

The gates to the mall will most likely open at 5:00am, and the ticketed areas are usually filled by 8:00am. The ceremony will begin around 11:30am with a musical performance prior to that time.
…

Blockaders are in for a long night!

The rate of removal of cars that intentionally or unintentionally run out of gas, disabled vehicles (think flat tires), etc., is unknown.

As a guesstimate, I would say gridlock conditions starting around 3 AM and persisting until NOON, EST, would result in an inauguration to which a majority of the ticket holders did not attend.

I wonder if the news channels will focus more on protesters or empty bleachers? Guesses?

Permits secured for Jan. 20 Mass Protest at the Inauguration!

From the post:

…
The ANSWER Coaltion has a permit for 14th street and Pennsylvania Ave NW and a portion of Freedom Plaza, beginning at 7:00am on Jan. 20 for a protest that will continue throughout the day.

…

We are also continuing our long legal battle for additional permitted space along Pennsylvania Ave. on Inauguration Day. The National Park Service has stonewalled the issuance of additional permits in an attempt to sanitize the most visible and primary locations along the route from dissent and free speech activity. Additionally, we are continuing to challenge the illegal, unconstitutional system whereby NPS reserves large portions of the route and other parts of D.C. on Inauguration Day, and in the days and weeks prior to and after, on behalf of Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee.

We think it’s critically important for the people to not be intimidated, to not be silent and to use all public spaces to express themselves.
…
(emphasis in original)

All of that is true, but attending the ANSWER protest means you will be counted as “attending the inauguration.”

What if you took ANSWER’s later advice:

use all public spaces to express themselves.

With tailgate parties on the Beltway (Tailgating @DisruptJ20), and blockades of the same (Low Risk Blockading of the DC Beltway).

Secure President-elect Trump’s place in the history books, with the least attended inauguration in history.

You can be part of that historical event, while sitting on the Beltway out of gas.

Which is it? Do you want to be “in attendance” or “truant” for Trump’s inauguration?

Beryl Lipton writes in FEMA Field Force manual offers protesters insights into the future of crowd control:

Though construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline has halted for now, the lessons for law enforcement and protesters are still percolating. For the former, they’ll likely find themselves one day studying the event as they prepare for future mass gatherings, maybe in a guide just like the one distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to North Dakota law enforcement in September.

… (graphic of DHS omitted)

Obtained by Unicorn Riot via a request to the North Dakota Department of Corrections, an agency with far fewer individuals in its custody than attended the protest at Standing Rock, the manual is a Field Force Operations training program for students, a crash course in eight parts on how to deal with a mixed crowd of lawful and unlawful dissenters.
…

I extracted the Field Force Operations PER-200 manual, from the zip file posted at MuckRock for your reading/access convenience.

As a government training document, allegedly “our” government, the manual fails in a number of aspects.

Consider its efforts to demonize protesters:

…
b. Protesters. Not every protester is the same nor should be viewed the same by law enforcement. By better understanding protesters, law enforcement officers can make better choices on how to respond. A small group of unruly protesters can stand out from the peaceful majority—often comprised of others who just want to be there along with innocent bystanders accidentally caught in the melee.

(1) Everyday citizens. Most protests include everyday citizens gathering through their First Amendment right to peaceably make their voices heard (Driscoll, 2003).

(2) Professional protesters. These people train or are trained in protester tactics often by direct action organizations that promote two universal messages: First, intervention demands responsibility. Second, a smaller harm is acceptable if it prevents a greater harm. One interpretation of this second message is that it is acceptable for protesters to break laws they consider less important like vandalism to prevent a greater harm like environmental damage. Some activism organizations may produce booklets that demonstrate use or construction of devices, including the infamous Road Raging – Top Tips for Wrecking Roadbuilding (Road Alert!, 1997).

(3) Anarchists. These people aim to disrupt, often seeking to challenge authority and capitalism at any cost. They are frequently young college students who express themselves through the destruction of property. Anarchists may mix into peaceful protests despite the efforts of the nonviolent protesters to limit destructive activities—leading to fighting sometimes between protesters. One common anarchist technique is the black bloc (violent, destructive activity), demonstrated at the Occupy Seattle protests.
… (at page 106)

If you think that lacks a charitable attitude towards ordinary people out-raged as some government misconduct, consider this listing of the “types” of individual protesters:

…
(1) Impulsive. These short-tempered people are the kind who are always spoiling for a fight and only need a fancied insult or a slight provocation to excite them to violence or incite others to violence.

(2) Suggestible. People who get into the action early and are easily influenced to follow the lead of the more violent.

(3) Cautious. Individuals who wait for the cloak of anonymity to give them courage by hiding their identity.

(4) Yielders. Those who do not join the action until a large number of participants give the impression of universality. In other words, “Everyone is taking part, so why shouldn’t I?”

(5) Supportive. People who do not actively join the mob but who enjoy the show and even shout encouragement.

(6) Resisters. Persons whose standards of judgment are not swayed by the emotional frenzy of the mob but who maintain level heads. They can disagree with the actions of the majority.

(7) Psychopathic. Individuals with a pathological personality structure are angry at the world and seek to use a riotous situation as a means of getting even with society (FBI, 1967, p. 21).
… (page 108)

How’s that for a rhetorical move?

In three pages the reader is drawn from “everyday citizens” to a range of personality disorders that range up to the “psychopathic.”

Any reader instinctively feels a gathering of protesters is a boiling pot of crazy ready to explode.

A false worldview but one promoted by the FEMA manual.

Imagine you are a local law enforcement officer, with little or no personal experience with civil disobedience, being told by FEMA that protesters are the harbingers of chaos. What’s your reaction going to be?

It’s only one example but Julia Carrie Wong and Sam Levin report in: Standing Rock protesters hold out against extraordinary police violence:

…
Harkening back to an earlier era, when police in Birmingham, Alabama, attacked African American schoolchildren with dogs and high-pressure water hoses, North Dakota officers trained water cannons on hundreds of Dakota Access pipeline protesters.

On the night of 20 November, though, the temperature was below freezing and the protesters, who call themselves “water protectors”, were camping outdoors for the evening.

Water is just one many “less-than-lethal” munitions that have been trained against the activists.

“They seem to have almost an infinite arsenal of different types of weapons,” said Rachel Lederman, attorney for the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). “I don’t think local law enforcement understands how dangerous they are.”

Police have acknowledged using sponge rounds, bean bag rounds, stinger rounds, teargas grenades, pepper spray, Mace, Tasers and a sound weapon. The explosive teargas grenades in use at Standing Rock have been banned by some US law enforcement agencies because they indiscriminately spray people, Lederman said.

…

More than two dozen people were hospitalized and 300 injured during the conflict, according to the medic and healer council. One woman’s arm was nearly blown off, according to her father, and the complaint alleges that another woman was shot in the eye, resulting in the detachment of her retina and possible permanent blindness.

…

Question: Should “everyday citizens” be sprayed with water cannon in sub-zero weather and assaulted with sponge rounds, bean bag rounds, stinger rounds, teargas grenades, pepper spray, Mace, Tasers and a sound weapon?

That’s not a hard question is it?

I suspect every non-psychotic law enforcement officer at Standing Rock would answer no, just like you.

But Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier confirms the FEMA schooled view of law enforcement:

…
On Thanksgiving, Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier released a statement condemning the actions of “paid agitators and protesters” without offering any evidence that people were being paid to fight the pipeline. The department has not responded to requests to substantiate the claim.

In another statement that week, the sheriff said activists were not engaged in “civil disobedience” but were acting like “evil agitators”. The Mandan, North Dakota, police chief, Jason Ziegler, has asserted that law enforcement agencies “can use whatever force necessary to maintain peace”.
…

To be fair, numerous law enforcement agencies have declined to subscribe to this FEMA inspired madness, Sheriffs Across US Refusing to Send Police and Equipment to DAPL as Outrage and Costs Grow by Claire Bernish.

At least in this instance. When protests come closer to home is the real test of law enforcement avoiding the FEMA “…evil agitators….” psychosis.

Government training manuals that humanize protesters are less likely to result in protests being used as proving grounds for “less lethal” weapons.

Teaching police officers to see protesters as their kith and kin will make major strides in the humane treatment of protesters.

Police officers may realize they have more in common with protesters than with players far removed from consequences on the streets. (Is that what FEMA is trying to avoid?)

As an improvement to my musings in How To Brick A School Bus, Data Science Helps Park It (Part 2), have you considered tailgating on the Washington DC Beltway on January 20, 2017?

Joe Cahn, The Commissioner of tailgating, has numerous tips, recipes and suggestions at Tailgating.com, saying on the homepage:

I look forward to sharing our common ideas of tailgating food, family, country, and hopefully meeting you whether it be at a concert, NASCAR race, or the Super Bowl as I travel the parking lots researching and cataloging my annual travels of your favorite sporting event. Whether it be a media tour or just sitting in a hot tube in front of the stadium the commissioner of tailgating wants to bring you the fan all the LATEST TAILGATING TRENDS, WHERE FANS CAN COME TOGETHER TO SHARE, FIND, AND LEARN ABOUT TAIGATING FROM THE COMMISHIONER OF TAILGATING while I continue with my celebration of winners. How about those Black Hawks winning their 3rd Stanly Cup, any photo’s you can share? I’d like you to submit them, and I’ll get them posted right away. Did you say Triple Crown Winner, share your story, send a photo, take my poll and enjoy the one thing we all have in common tailgating the last great American Social.

Combine protesting with the all-American social tradition of tailgating on the Beltway January 20, 2017.

Tailgating requires more cooperation by a group of drivers, plus buses carrying protesters, to create entirely blocked areas for protesters to disembark and tailgaters to setup their grills, tables, etc. Safety of your tailgaters and protesters being a primary concern.

Once you have established a tailgating/protest area, invite other drivers join. Live music is too much to ask but you could use generators and sound equipment.

Sports teams talk about their tailgate parties, you have the opportunity to create the most dispersed tailgate party in the history of tailgate parties!

Weather

As of today, WeatherTAB is predicting for January 20, 2017, a 20% chance of rain/snow, high temperature 34 to 44 F, low temperature 14 to 24 F, no wind predictions.

Take appropriate cold weather precautions, dress in layers, use buses as warming stations, etc. Post on social media to get advice from Redskins fans on tailgating in cold weather.

Timing

The inauguration proper is set to begin around NOON, EST so if you are going to impede traffic flow with out of gas cars and tailgating parties, best to start 8:30 – 9:00 AM to have the maximum impact on attendance. Much earlier than that and you may be cleared away, although that effort will further impede traffic flow as well.

Misc.

Did you know that potential protesters are the biggest concern of inauguration planners? I kid you not: Inaugural planners’ biggest concern: Protesters.

You have already set a world record and the event is thirty-five (35) days out!

The details on street closures don’t appear until about ten days before the inauguration but I will post links new inauguration data as it appears.

PS: Be sure to ask for comfortable cold weather clothing as holiday presents. You will be needing it.