Libertarians are like house cats - they perceive themselves to be fiercely self-reliant, while being utterly dependent on a system they don't appreciate and can't understand.
Nov 27, 2021
Describe Libertarians For Me
How Rich?
It would be good if I could figure out how to embed this, but I can't - and it's possible the people who came up with it are smart enough not to give me the chance.
Anyway, go look it over, and scroll all the way thru it so you get the full effect of just how fucked up our system of "meritocratic capitalism" has become.
I got ridiculously lucky and made a few million dollars in my career. If you take all that money and make a stack of 100-dollar bills, it would be about 10 feet tall.
If you take all of Jeff Bezos's money (let's be really conservative and say $150 billion), and you make a stack of 100-dollar bills, it would be over 100 miles tall.
100 MILES
COVID-19 Update
In yesterday's update, there was a quote from a guy in Europe bitching about how hard it is to run his business, and this sat on my brain:
What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus
A new variant of the coronavirus that causes covid-19 is raising concern around the globe.
South Africa on Thursday confirmed that scientists there had detected a variant with a high number of mutations that could make it more easily transmissible. On Friday, the World Health Organization labeled it a “variant of concern,” a classification it has given to only four other variants so far. The global health agency also gave it a Greek letter designation: omicron.
Several countries, including the United States, moved to curb flights on Friday Saturday from southern Africa, while pharmaceutical makers vowed to keep close watch on how well their vaccines hold up against the new variant.
Thus far, there is too little research to draw conclusions, with experts urging caution but not panic.
“This is the most concerning variant we’ve seen since delta,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said in an interview Friday. “It’s going to take a really high bar for something to take over for delta, and we don’t know whether this is going to do it.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Where has omicron been confirmed?
Although it is unknown where the variant came from, it was first detected in the southern region of Africa. On Tuesday, scientists in South Africa made data of the variant public. Noticing the distinct sequence, a virologist at Imperial College London, Tom Peacock, raised alarms about the “really awful Spike mutation profile.”
In South Africa, where just 35 percent of people are fully vaccinated, the variant has begun to spread rapidly. A number of factors could be contributing to the rising caseload, including the nation’s low vaccination rate. Researchers are also working to determine if the mutations make the variant more easily transmissible or if it has a mechanism that allows the variant to escape a natural or vaccine-acquired immune response.
At a news conference Friday, Ian Sanne, an infectious-disease specialist who is a member of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Council on covid-19, said that “Overall, we do think it’s more transmissible.”
Thus far, some cases have also been identified in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel. But officials from a number of countries warn that the variant, also known as B.1.1.529, may already be spreading undetected.
The United Kingdom on Friday reported that while no cases have been detected there, the variant’s large number of mutations “are likely to be biologically significant.”
Scientists have cautioned that while more cases are expected to crop up, it’s unclear if the variant will match the reach of the delta variant, by far the world’s most dominant, according to the WHO.
“It’s concerning, but it’s still iffy,” Topol said.
What do we know about the variant?
While there’s much to still learn, scientists have confirmed some important details.
For one, its genetic profile is unique from other circulating variants, meaning it represents a new lineage of the virus.
The new variant is distinct from other variants in another critical way: There’s a greater number of mutations. Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, said there are more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that binds to human cells, allowing it to gain entry.
Scientists are worried that could mean omicron is more transmissible and better at evading the body’s immune defenses, making vaccines less effective.
“The one good news, if there’s any good news, is that this variant, the B.1.1.529, can be detected by one particular PCR assay,” de Oliveira said at a news conference, meaning diagnostic labs can quickly identify the new variant rather than having to rely on whole genome sequencing.
Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has conducted mutational scanning experiments for the B.1.1.529 variant, noted that three mutations of the variant could make the virus a more elusive target for antibodies produced through vaccines or prior infection but cautioned that there is still much to learn.
“What that’s going to mean for how likely people are to get infected, even if they’ve been vaccinated, it’s too early to say,” Bloom said, noting that more traditional experiments should provide more data. “But having a drop in the antibody neutralization is never a good thing.”
What’s being done about it?
Within days of the discovery of the variant, several countries began imposing restrictions on flights to and from South Africa and its neighbors.
Britain, Australia, Japan, Thailand and others introduced travel bans or quarantine rules for air passengers arriving from the southern African region. The European Union and the United States have also announced restrictions.
The U.S. restrictions will apply to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. They do not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents. President Biden, in a statement, said the move is “a precautionary measure,” and urged Americans to get vaccinated and get booster shots.
“If you have not gotten vaccinated, or have not taken your children to get vaccinated, now is the time,” he said.
Officials in South Africa expressed concern about the travel bans, while some experts cast doubt on the efficacy of the restrictions and whether they could “give a false sense of security.” The nation’s health minister, Joe Phaahla, characterized them as a “draconian reaction.”
“It really doesn’t look scientific in any way,” he said. “That kind of reaction is quite a knee-jerk and panicked and almost wants to put a blame on other countries rather than work together.”
Do we know if vaccines are effective?
Even if the variant limits the effectiveness of vaccines, it’s unlikely to completely subvert the protections that vaccines provide, experts say.
“My expectation would be that the mutations in this variant are not going to ablate or completely escape that type of antibody neutralization” from vaccines or prior infection, Bloom said.
“Regardless of whether or not this new variant ends up spreading, I would suggest that people do what they can to minimize their chances of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2,” Bloom added, referring to the virus by its technical name. “There are certain obvious things you can do: Get vaccinated, get a booster vaccination, wear a mask.”
Though the sample size is still small, Sanne said physicians have seen a higher rate of breakthrough infections among those previously vaccinated in South Africa. But he added that initial data indicates the vaccines are still proving effective, with the majority of hospitalizations being among those who hadn’t gotten the shot.
“We have every indication that the vaccines are still effective in preventing severe disease and/or complications,” he said. “The data, however, is small and early.”
Meanwhile, vaccine-makers, which have done preliminary research using vaccines with formulas tailored for other variants, are working to understand how well their vaccines can counter omicron.
“In the event that vaccine-escape variant emerges, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval,” a Pfizer spokesperson said in a statement.
Given the spread of B.1.1.529 in South Africa, several experts have pointed to the critical need to vaccinate underserved countries to bolster the world’s protection from future, more-evasive variants.
“It seems the government is always running behind the facts,” Dossche said. “They shouldn’t be changing the rules every two weeks.”
I hate that shit. Governments aren't changing the rules just for grins-n-giggles, dummy. Governments have to change their response to circumstances dictated by the virus, and people's behavior.
Maybe you'd like it better if we go back to leeches and incantations - that way, you never have to be burdened with learning anything new, and you can just die after infecting your whole neighborhood.
I'll make a radical assumption here, and say you may be ignorant but that doesn't make you uneducable.
So here's the short version - it's not my job to change your fuckin' diaper. Time to grow up a little.
WaPo: (freebie)
What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus
A new variant of the coronavirus that causes covid-19 is raising concern around the globe.
South Africa on Thursday confirmed that scientists there had detected a variant with a high number of mutations that could make it more easily transmissible. On Friday, the World Health Organization labeled it a “variant of concern,” a classification it has given to only four other variants so far. The global health agency also gave it a Greek letter designation: omicron.
Several countries, including the United States, moved to curb flights on Friday Saturday from southern Africa, while pharmaceutical makers vowed to keep close watch on how well their vaccines hold up against the new variant.
Thus far, there is too little research to draw conclusions, with experts urging caution but not panic.
“This is the most concerning variant we’ve seen since delta,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said in an interview Friday. “It’s going to take a really high bar for something to take over for delta, and we don’t know whether this is going to do it.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Where has omicron been confirmed?
Although it is unknown where the variant came from, it was first detected in the southern region of Africa. On Tuesday, scientists in South Africa made data of the variant public. Noticing the distinct sequence, a virologist at Imperial College London, Tom Peacock, raised alarms about the “really awful Spike mutation profile.”
In South Africa, where just 35 percent of people are fully vaccinated, the variant has begun to spread rapidly. A number of factors could be contributing to the rising caseload, including the nation’s low vaccination rate. Researchers are also working to determine if the mutations make the variant more easily transmissible or if it has a mechanism that allows the variant to escape a natural or vaccine-acquired immune response.
At a news conference Friday, Ian Sanne, an infectious-disease specialist who is a member of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Council on covid-19, said that “Overall, we do think it’s more transmissible.”
Thus far, some cases have also been identified in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel. But officials from a number of countries warn that the variant, also known as B.1.1.529, may already be spreading undetected.
The United Kingdom on Friday reported that while no cases have been detected there, the variant’s large number of mutations “are likely to be biologically significant.”
Scientists have cautioned that while more cases are expected to crop up, it’s unclear if the variant will match the reach of the delta variant, by far the world’s most dominant, according to the WHO.
“It’s concerning, but it’s still iffy,” Topol said.
What do we know about the variant?
While there’s much to still learn, scientists have confirmed some important details.
For one, its genetic profile is unique from other circulating variants, meaning it represents a new lineage of the virus.
The new variant is distinct from other variants in another critical way: There’s a greater number of mutations. Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, said there are more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that binds to human cells, allowing it to gain entry.
Scientists are worried that could mean omicron is more transmissible and better at evading the body’s immune defenses, making vaccines less effective.
“The one good news, if there’s any good news, is that this variant, the B.1.1.529, can be detected by one particular PCR assay,” de Oliveira said at a news conference, meaning diagnostic labs can quickly identify the new variant rather than having to rely on whole genome sequencing.
Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has conducted mutational scanning experiments for the B.1.1.529 variant, noted that three mutations of the variant could make the virus a more elusive target for antibodies produced through vaccines or prior infection but cautioned that there is still much to learn.
“What that’s going to mean for how likely people are to get infected, even if they’ve been vaccinated, it’s too early to say,” Bloom said, noting that more traditional experiments should provide more data. “But having a drop in the antibody neutralization is never a good thing.”
What’s being done about it?
Within days of the discovery of the variant, several countries began imposing restrictions on flights to and from South Africa and its neighbors.
Britain, Australia, Japan, Thailand and others introduced travel bans or quarantine rules for air passengers arriving from the southern African region. The European Union and the United States have also announced restrictions.
The U.S. restrictions will apply to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. They do not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents. President Biden, in a statement, said the move is “a precautionary measure,” and urged Americans to get vaccinated and get booster shots.
“If you have not gotten vaccinated, or have not taken your children to get vaccinated, now is the time,” he said.
Officials in South Africa expressed concern about the travel bans, while some experts cast doubt on the efficacy of the restrictions and whether they could “give a false sense of security.” The nation’s health minister, Joe Phaahla, characterized them as a “draconian reaction.”
“It really doesn’t look scientific in any way,” he said. “That kind of reaction is quite a knee-jerk and panicked and almost wants to put a blame on other countries rather than work together.”
Do we know if vaccines are effective?
Even if the variant limits the effectiveness of vaccines, it’s unlikely to completely subvert the protections that vaccines provide, experts say.
“My expectation would be that the mutations in this variant are not going to ablate or completely escape that type of antibody neutralization” from vaccines or prior infection, Bloom said.
“Regardless of whether or not this new variant ends up spreading, I would suggest that people do what they can to minimize their chances of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2,” Bloom added, referring to the virus by its technical name. “There are certain obvious things you can do: Get vaccinated, get a booster vaccination, wear a mask.”
Though the sample size is still small, Sanne said physicians have seen a higher rate of breakthrough infections among those previously vaccinated in South Africa. But he added that initial data indicates the vaccines are still proving effective, with the majority of hospitalizations being among those who hadn’t gotten the shot.
“We have every indication that the vaccines are still effective in preventing severe disease and/or complications,” he said. “The data, however, is small and early.”
Meanwhile, vaccine-makers, which have done preliminary research using vaccines with formulas tailored for other variants, are working to understand how well their vaccines can counter omicron.
“In the event that vaccine-escape variant emerges, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval,” a Pfizer spokesperson said in a statement.
Given the spread of B.1.1.529 in South Africa, several experts have pointed to the critical need to vaccinate underserved countries to bolster the world’s protection from future, more-evasive variants.
Nov 26, 2021
COVID-19 Update
I guess we can look forward to another rude surprise this winter, but maybe we can dodge the bullet a little as more people start to understand they're being uncool and unfashionable by refusing to do the right thing / the smart business thing / the patriotic thing / the thing that makes it so grandma can see your kids again etc etc etc.
WaPo:
‘We let our guard down’:
Frustrated Europe heads into second pandemic winter
KNOKKE-HEIST, Belgium — Life was finally starting to feel normal. An online flier for an October party in this Belgian beach town cursed the coronavirus and invited people to dance and drink again, to “get your clacker back from the attic” and kick off Carnival season.
Hundreds attended that event and another Carnival party the next night. Most of the town is vaccinated, and people were required to show proof, or a recent negative test, to enter. But it wasn’t enough. Coronavirus cases spiked the week after. Officials worried about pressure on the local hospital. And soon the town found itself under semi-lockdown once more.
As Americans catch up with family and friends this holiday week, with some trepidation about enduring risk, Europe is facing another wave of the virus — and a gloomy and frustrating second pandemic winter.
Despite vaccine supplies that are envied by much of the world, Europe is the only region where covid deaths are on the rise, according to the World Health Organization.
Reported deaths reached nearly 4,200 a day last week, doubling since the end of September, for the 53 countries the WHO counts as part of the European region. The organization predicts “high or extreme stress” on intensive care units in 49 of those countries between now and March.
What’s driving the surge in infections? The WHO cites the prevalence of the highly contagious delta variant, people gathering in indoors without the precautions they took when the virus was considered an emergency, pockets of people who remain unvaccinated, and declining protection among those who were vaccinated last winter or spring.
Europe has been behind the United States in its booster rollout. But otherwise, the same factors could shape the U.S. situation in the weeks ahead.
The new wave in Europe has led towns, cities and countries to bring back the sorts of restrictions that people hoped they were done with.
Slovakia, which has more new infections per capita than any other European Union country, declared a two-week lockdown on Wednesday. People are allowed to leave home for a limited number of reasons, including buying groceries, going to work and to school, and getting vaccinated. And starting next week, all workers will have to show they’ve been vaccinated, recovered from the coronavirus or had a recent negative test.
Austria, too, has imposed a lockdown that will last at least 10 days but more likely 20. The Netherlands, known for its nightlife, has ordered bars and restaurants to close at 8 p.m. Belgium has mandated that all but essential employees work from home four days a week.
“I look for it every day, but I don’t see any sign of slowing down yet,” Steven Van Gucht, head of viral diseases at Belgium’s national public health institute, said in a local news interview this past week. “The number of infections has even accelerated somewhat.”
Many of the restrictions across the continent are expected to be lifted before Christmas. Still, people are growing more fatigued, impatient and angry with repeated disruptions that, even after 21 months, have yet to rid their communities of the virus. Protests erupted across Europe this month, with people decrying new measures in Rotterdam, Brussels, Vienna and elsewhere.
“I don’t want to get into politics, I just want to run a bloody restaurant and see some tourists and pay my bills,” said Hans Blanckaert, who owns a restaurant and nightclub in the Belgian city of Bruges and helped organize a protest in Brussels last weekend.
Under Belgian law, Blanckaert must check that customers are vaccinated, recently tested negative or have recovered from the virus before they can enter his establishment. Belgium also reinstituted an indoor mask mandate this month, which means partygoers must be masked on the dance floor.
“They shut us down, and then shut us down again,” said Blanckaert, who predicts his restaurant wouldn’t survive another lockdown. “It’s just one big massive lie. It’s not working.”
Blanckaert is unvaccinated, as are many of the protesters across Europe. They argue that new measures to control the virus, on top of what in effect amount to vaccine mandates, are infringing on their freedoms.
Most people in the European Union, though, have now received two — and in some cases three — doses of coronavirus vaccines. They had expected the shots to bring back their pre-pandemic lives.
“I have the third vaccination, so okay, we must be a bit more careful, but the problem is that not everyone’s vaccinated,” said Luc Daems, an Antwerp resident who has a home in Knokke-Heist.
Frustration is to be expected, said Jeffrey V. Lazarus, a health systems and policy professor at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health. He said government messaging has been poor and inconsistent throughout the pandemic. For example, he said, it was never realistic to tell people life would return to normal if they got vaccinated. And he said it’s hard to convince people that stricter policies are necessary when different European countries are taking drastically different approaches.
“Europe needs to come together and come to an agreement on what it means to end this pandemic in broad strokes,” Lazarus said. “Every time we get good news in Europe, we let our guard down.”
That’s basically what happened with the Carnival parties in Knokke-Heist. Afterward, officials feared infection numbers would continue to rise, as more vacationers and second homeowners arrived, further straining the hospital in a town that has a large elderly population. Already, the nine ICU beds were filled, two of them by covid patients.
So they made a decision that shops and restaurants could remain open, but all indoor events on city property — including youth sports, theater productions and regular gatherings of elderly people in recreation centers — would be banned.
Anthony Wittesaele, Knokke-Heist’s alderman for tourism and European affairs, said town officials got plenty of feedback, both positive and negative. “You have people sending messages saying you have the balls to do what’s necessary,” he said. “And then you have people saying dirt on Facebook. It’s dividing deeper and deeper, with all the measures taken.”
Stefan Dossche, owner of Marie Siska, a Knokke-Heist restaurant and hotel that has been in his family since 1882, said he’d rather the Belgian government enact stricter policies now to avoid a lockdown, which would force him to take another financial hit.
Business has been back to what it was like during the slow winter seasons before the pandemic, he said. Local residents, along with Dutch and Belgian vacationers, have been coming to Marie Siska’s for the specialty waffles and rounds of minigolf.
Dossche, whose vaccinated mother-in-law was hospitalized with covid this month, has two employees checking the vaccination status of customers as they enter. He keeps masks at the door for those who forget they now have to wear them while they walk to their table or the bathroom. He said customers are often confused about the latest rules, particularly since policies are different in the Netherlands, just a few miles away.
“It seems the government is always running behind the facts,” Dossche said. “They shouldn’t be changing the rules every two weeks.”
KNOKKE-HEIST, Belgium — Life was finally starting to feel normal. An online flier for an October party in this Belgian beach town cursed the coronavirus and invited people to dance and drink again, to “get your clacker back from the attic” and kick off Carnival season.
Hundreds attended that event and another Carnival party the next night. Most of the town is vaccinated, and people were required to show proof, or a recent negative test, to enter. But it wasn’t enough. Coronavirus cases spiked the week after. Officials worried about pressure on the local hospital. And soon the town found itself under semi-lockdown once more.
As Americans catch up with family and friends this holiday week, with some trepidation about enduring risk, Europe is facing another wave of the virus — and a gloomy and frustrating second pandemic winter.
Despite vaccine supplies that are envied by much of the world, Europe is the only region where covid deaths are on the rise, according to the World Health Organization.
Reported deaths reached nearly 4,200 a day last week, doubling since the end of September, for the 53 countries the WHO counts as part of the European region. The organization predicts “high or extreme stress” on intensive care units in 49 of those countries between now and March.
What’s driving the surge in infections? The WHO cites the prevalence of the highly contagious delta variant, people gathering in indoors without the precautions they took when the virus was considered an emergency, pockets of people who remain unvaccinated, and declining protection among those who were vaccinated last winter or spring.
Europe has been behind the United States in its booster rollout. But otherwise, the same factors could shape the U.S. situation in the weeks ahead.
The new wave in Europe has led towns, cities and countries to bring back the sorts of restrictions that people hoped they were done with.
Slovakia, which has more new infections per capita than any other European Union country, declared a two-week lockdown on Wednesday. People are allowed to leave home for a limited number of reasons, including buying groceries, going to work and to school, and getting vaccinated. And starting next week, all workers will have to show they’ve been vaccinated, recovered from the coronavirus or had a recent negative test.
Austria, too, has imposed a lockdown that will last at least 10 days but more likely 20. The Netherlands, known for its nightlife, has ordered bars and restaurants to close at 8 p.m. Belgium has mandated that all but essential employees work from home four days a week.
“I look for it every day, but I don’t see any sign of slowing down yet,” Steven Van Gucht, head of viral diseases at Belgium’s national public health institute, said in a local news interview this past week. “The number of infections has even accelerated somewhat.”
Many of the restrictions across the continent are expected to be lifted before Christmas. Still, people are growing more fatigued, impatient and angry with repeated disruptions that, even after 21 months, have yet to rid their communities of the virus. Protests erupted across Europe this month, with people decrying new measures in Rotterdam, Brussels, Vienna and elsewhere.
“I don’t want to get into politics, I just want to run a bloody restaurant and see some tourists and pay my bills,” said Hans Blanckaert, who owns a restaurant and nightclub in the Belgian city of Bruges and helped organize a protest in Brussels last weekend.
Under Belgian law, Blanckaert must check that customers are vaccinated, recently tested negative or have recovered from the virus before they can enter his establishment. Belgium also reinstituted an indoor mask mandate this month, which means partygoers must be masked on the dance floor.
“They shut us down, and then shut us down again,” said Blanckaert, who predicts his restaurant wouldn’t survive another lockdown. “It’s just one big massive lie. It’s not working.”
Blanckaert is unvaccinated, as are many of the protesters across Europe. They argue that new measures to control the virus, on top of what in effect amount to vaccine mandates, are infringing on their freedoms.
Most people in the European Union, though, have now received two — and in some cases three — doses of coronavirus vaccines. They had expected the shots to bring back their pre-pandemic lives.
“I have the third vaccination, so okay, we must be a bit more careful, but the problem is that not everyone’s vaccinated,” said Luc Daems, an Antwerp resident who has a home in Knokke-Heist.
Frustration is to be expected, said Jeffrey V. Lazarus, a health systems and policy professor at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health. He said government messaging has been poor and inconsistent throughout the pandemic. For example, he said, it was never realistic to tell people life would return to normal if they got vaccinated. And he said it’s hard to convince people that stricter policies are necessary when different European countries are taking drastically different approaches.
“Europe needs to come together and come to an agreement on what it means to end this pandemic in broad strokes,” Lazarus said. “Every time we get good news in Europe, we let our guard down.”
That’s basically what happened with the Carnival parties in Knokke-Heist. Afterward, officials feared infection numbers would continue to rise, as more vacationers and second homeowners arrived, further straining the hospital in a town that has a large elderly population. Already, the nine ICU beds were filled, two of them by covid patients.
So they made a decision that shops and restaurants could remain open, but all indoor events on city property — including youth sports, theater productions and regular gatherings of elderly people in recreation centers — would be banned.
Anthony Wittesaele, Knokke-Heist’s alderman for tourism and European affairs, said town officials got plenty of feedback, both positive and negative. “You have people sending messages saying you have the balls to do what’s necessary,” he said. “And then you have people saying dirt on Facebook. It’s dividing deeper and deeper, with all the measures taken.”
Stefan Dossche, owner of Marie Siska, a Knokke-Heist restaurant and hotel that has been in his family since 1882, said he’d rather the Belgian government enact stricter policies now to avoid a lockdown, which would force him to take another financial hit.
Business has been back to what it was like during the slow winter seasons before the pandemic, he said. Local residents, along with Dutch and Belgian vacationers, have been coming to Marie Siska’s for the specialty waffles and rounds of minigolf.
Dossche, whose vaccinated mother-in-law was hospitalized with covid this month, has two employees checking the vaccination status of customers as they enter. He keeps masks at the door for those who forget they now have to wear them while they walk to their table or the bathroom. He said customers are often confused about the latest rules, particularly since policies are different in the Netherlands, just a few miles away.
“It seems the government is always running behind the facts,” Dossche said. “They shouldn’t be changing the rules every two weeks.”
Nov 25, 2021
COVID-19 Update
Be smart. Be safe.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — At Spectrum Health, a major health-care system here, officials spent part of last week debating whether to move to “red status” in a show of how strained hospitals had become.
A flood of mostly unvaccinated covid-19 patients was arriving at emergency departments already packed with people suffering other medical issues, sending capacity to unprecedented levels. The only hesitation for Spectrum’s decision-makers? Data suggested the covid surge was not over.
“We don’t have a darker color,” said Darryl Elmouchi, president of Spectrum Health West Michigan. “So if we’re red now, what are we in two weeks?”
He and other leaders ultimately decided Thursday to make the change, upgrading the health-care system to the most serious tier for the first time since the pandemic began. In recent days, the state had emerged as a new covid hot spot, leading the nation in new infections and hospitalizations. By the end of last week, its seven-day average of new cases had hit a pandemic high. State leaders asked the U.S. Department of Defense to provide emergency hospital staffing to handle the surge — a request granted Wednesday.
Coronavirus cases are on the rise nationally, an unwelcome trend after leveling off earlier this fall. On Monday, the United States reported a seven-day daily average of just under 93,000 cases — an 18 percent jump from a week earlier, according to figures from a briefing by the White House covid-19 response team. Hospitalizations were also up, increasing 6 percent to about 5,600 patients admitted per day.
At least two dozen states have seen cases rise at least 5 percent in the past two weeks, with Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Hampshire and North Dakota each recording per capita jumps of more than 60 percent. Some highly vaccinated states, including Vermont and Massachusetts, were also seeing steep rises in cases.
The growing caseload across the country has raised the specter of another surge this winter — what would be the nation’s fifth. Expert opinions vary, but Amber D’Souza, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said a surge seems imminent. This one, though, could prove to be much milder than last winter’s due to vaccines, boosters and therapeutics that were not available last year.
“We are absolutely heading into an additional wave this winter across the country that may hit at different times and it may be at different extents in different parts of the country,” she said. “The good news is that we really do have hope that the toll from this wave this winter will be much less than last winter.”
- more -
Jan6 Stuff
It's just not possible to cover up conspiracies that require the participation of a whole big bunch of conspirators. Somebody's gonna spill the beans, or leave some evidence, or something.
And so let us now re-affirm: three people can keep a secret as long as two of them are dead.
Also - I guess if you're prone to buy into the weird "theories" about stolen elections and liberal shape-shifting lizard people eating babies, and how it can all be kept hidden from the public because everybody's in on it expect you and Mike Flynn - then you're probably a good candidate to go along with a shitty little plot to overthrow the government, and believe it's all OK cuz it's a secret that no one will ever find out about, and after all, you're just doing the lord's work, and...whatever the fuck (?)
Anyway, let's take a look at this new wrinkle.
Organizers of the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the deadly Capitol attack on Jan. 6 allegedly communicated with members of former President Trump's family and administration, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
Multiple sources told Rolling Stone that Kylie Kremer, an organizer for the rally that took place at D.C.'s Ellipse park, had an aide buy three burner phones a few days before Jan. 6. Kremer said that it was "of the utmost importance" that the phones be purchased with cash, one source, who was a member of the March for Trump team, told the magazine.
Kremer kept one of the phones herself, while another was reportedly given to her mother, Amy Kremer, who was also an organizer of the rally. Sources could not say who the third was given to.
According to Rolling Stone, the phones were used to communicate with high-ranking members of Trump's inner circle, including his son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law and former campaign official Lara Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump surrogate Katrina Pierson.
Speaking of when Kylie Kremer bought the phones, the March for Trump member said, “That was when the planning for the event on the Ellipse was happening, she needed burner phones in order to communicate with high-level people is how she put it."
When reached for comment by The Hill, representatives for Donald Trump, Eric Trump and Kim Kremer did not immediately respond to the Rolling Stone article.
Rolling Stone reported last month that Trump White House officials and many of his GOP allies had been involved in the planning of the Jan. 6 rally, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Louie Gohmert (Texas.).
Meadows, who was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, was reportedly "100 percent made aware of what was going on,” according to planners of the rally. The committee has recently demanded to know whether Meadows was using a private cell phone on Jan. 6 and has asked where his text messages from that day are.
The scope of this attempted coup is wide and deep. Which is why the coverup was bound to fail in the first place, but also why it takes a really long time to develop the case. The guiding principle is that you have to know a lot about the overall criminal activity before you can bring the charges, and you never ever go into court - or into a committee hearing that'll be televised around the whole fucking planet - without knowing the answer to every question you're going to ask every witness.
This is likely to get weirder and bigger as we go, which is both good and bad. Bad because the other side intends to run out the clock, hoping to take back majorities in Congress, which of course will kill the investigations. But good because the more people who get caught up in the probe, the better the chances are that somebody will crack and become the new John Dean (one confession is worth a thousand accusations).
Overheard
the deafening crash of a pin falling to the carpet made it impossible to hear what Republicans were saying as they reacted to the news that three white guys were convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.
Today's Today
Most of us had the good fortune to grow up heading over to a relative's house for Thanksgiving dinner, and as kids, most of us rolled our eyes when Grandma said it was time to go around the table so everybody could say what they were thankful for that day.
Eventually, we came to understand that it was good to stop and think about such things, even if it was just one moment, once a year.
This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later.
Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Overlooking the chilly waters of Plymouth Bay, about three dozen tourists swarmed a park ranger as he recounted the history of Plymouth Rock — the famous symbol of the arrival of the Pilgrims here four centuries ago.
Nearby, others waited to tour a replica of the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrims across the ocean.
On a hilltop above stood a quiet tribute to the American Indians who helped the starving Pilgrims survive. Few people bother to visit the statue of Ousamequin — the chief, or sachem, of the Wampanoag Nation whose people once numbered somewhere between 30,000 to 100,000 and whose land once stretched from Southeastern Massachusetts to parts of Rhode Island.
Long marginalized and misrepresented in the American story, the Wampanoags are braced for what’s coming this month as the country marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Indians.
But the actual history of what happened in 1621 bears little resemblance to what most Americans are taught in grade school, historians say. There was likely no turkey served. There were no feathered headdresses worn. And, initially, there was no effort by the Pilgrims to invite the Wampanoags to the feast they’d made possible.
Just as Native American activists have demanded the removal of Christopher Columbus statues and pushed to transform the Columbus holiday into an acknowledgment of his brutality toward Indigenous people, they have long objected to the popular portrayal of Thanksgiving.
For the Wampanoags and many other American Indians, the fourth Thursday in November is considered a day of mourning, not a day of celebration.
Because while the Wampanoags did help the Pilgrims survive, their support was followed by years of a slow, unfolding genocide of their people and the taking of their land.
To learn the history of the Wampanoags and what happened to them after the first Thanksgiving, a visitor has to drive 30 miles south of Plymouth to the town of Mashpee, where a modest, clapboard museum sits along a two-lane road. Outside, there’s a wetu, a traditional Wampanoag house made from cedar poles and the bark of tulip poplar trees, and a mishoon, an Indian canoe.n their
Inside the three-room house sits Mother Bear, a 71-year-old Mashpee Wampanoag, hand-stitching a deer skin hat. She’s lived her whole life in this town and is considered one of the keepers of the Wampanoag version of the first Thanksgiving and how the encounter turned into a centuries-long disaster for the Mashpee, who now number about 2,800.
That story continues to get ignored by the roughly 1.5 million annual visitors to Plymouth’s museums and souvenir shops. The Mashpee Wampanoag museum draws about 800 visitors a year.
Paula Peters, a Mashpee Wampanoag who is an author and educator on Native American history, said “we don’t acknowledge the American holiday of Thanksgiving … it’s a marginalization and mistelling of our story.”
‘The Great Dying’
The Wampanoags, whose name means “People of the First Light” in their native language, trace their ancestors back at least 10,000 years to southeastern Massachusetts, a land they called Patuxet.
In the 1600s, they lived in 69 villages, each with a chief, or sachem, and a medicine man. They had “messenger runners,” members of the tribe with good memories and the endurance to run to neighboring villages to deliver messages.
They occupied a land of plenty, hunting deer, elk and bear in the forests, fishing for herring and trout, and harvesting quahogs in the rivers and bays. They planted corn and used fish remains as fertilizer. In the winter, they moved inland from the harsh weather, and in the spring they moved to the coastlines.
They had traded — and fought — with European explorers since 1524.
In 1614, before the arrival of the Pilgrims, the English lured a well-known Wampanoag — Tisquantum, who was called Squanto by the English — and 20 other Wampanoag men onto a ship with the intention of selling them into slavery in Malaga, Spain. Squanto spent years trying to get back to his homeland.
During his absence, the Wampanoags were nearly wiped out by a mysterious disease that some Wampanoags believe came from the feces of rats aboard European boats, while other historians think it was likely small pox or possibly yellow fever.
Known as “The Great Dying,” the pandemic lasted three years.
By the time Squanto returned home in 1619, two-thirds of his people had been killed by it. The English explorer Thomas Dermer described the once-populous villages along the banks of the bay as being “utterly void” of people.
In 1620, the English aboard the Mayflower made their way to Plymouth after making landfall in Provincetown. The Wampanoags watched as women and children got off the boat.
They knew their interactions with the Europeans would be different this time.
“You don’t bring your women and children if you’re planning to fight,” said Paula Peters, who also runs her own communications agency called SmokeSygnals.
The Wampanoags kept tabs on the Pilgrims for months. In their first winter, half died due to cold, starvation and disease.
Ousamequin, often referred to as Massasoit, which is his title and means “great sachem,” faced a nearly impossible situation, historians and educators said. His nation’s population had been ravaged by disease, and he needed to keep peace with the neighboring Narragansetts. He probably reasoned that the better weapons of the English — guns versus his people’s bows and arrows — would make them better allies than enemies.
In the spring of 1621, he made the first contact.
“It wasn’t that he was being kind or friendly, he was in dire straits and being strategic,” said Steven Peters, the son of Paula Peters and creative director at her agency. “We were desperately trying to not become extinct.”
By the fall, the Pilgrims — thanks in large part to the Wampanoags teaching them how to plant beans and squash in a mound with maize around it and use fish remains as fertilizer — had their first harvest of crops. To celebrate its first success as a colony, the Pilgrims had a “harvest feast” that became the basis for what’s now called Thanksgiving.
The Wampanoags weren’t invited.
Ousamequin and his men showed up only after the English in their revelry shot off some of their muskets. At the sound of gunfire, the Wampanoags came running, fearing they were headed to war.
“One hundred warriors show up armed to the teeth after they heard muskets fired,” said Paula Peters.
Told it was a harvest celebration, the Wampanoags joined, bringing five deer to share, she said. There was fowl, fish, eel, shellfish and possibly cranberries from the area’s natural bogs.
In his book, “This Land Is Their Land,” author David J. Silverman said schoolchildren who make construction-paper feathered headdresses every year to portray the Indians at the first Thanksgiving are being taught fiction.
The Wampanoags didn’t wear them. Men wore a mohawk “roach” made from porcupine hair and strapped to their heads.
Darius Coombs, a Mashpee Wampanoag cultural outreach coordinator, said there’s such misinterpretation about what Thanksgiving means to American Indians.
“For us, Thanksgiving kicked off colonization,” he said. “Our lives changed dramatically. It brought disease, servitude and so many things that weren’t good for Wampanoags and other Indigenous cultures.”
If some small part of this day is set aside for contemplation, maybe we could make an effort to understand that not everybody's traditions are as happy and worthy of gratitude as ours, and that no one is asking us to feel bad - just that we should look for the truth, recognize the truth, and be thankful for it when we see it.
WaPo: (pay wall)
This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later.
Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Overlooking the chilly waters of Plymouth Bay, about three dozen tourists swarmed a park ranger as he recounted the history of Plymouth Rock — the famous symbol of the arrival of the Pilgrims here four centuries ago.
Nearby, others waited to tour a replica of the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrims across the ocean.
On a hilltop above stood a quiet tribute to the American Indians who helped the starving Pilgrims survive. Few people bother to visit the statue of Ousamequin — the chief, or sachem, of the Wampanoag Nation whose people once numbered somewhere between 30,000 to 100,000 and whose land once stretched from Southeastern Massachusetts to parts of Rhode Island.
Long marginalized and misrepresented in the American story, the Wampanoags are braced for what’s coming this month as the country marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Indians.
But the actual history of what happened in 1621 bears little resemblance to what most Americans are taught in grade school, historians say. There was likely no turkey served. There were no feathered headdresses worn. And, initially, there was no effort by the Pilgrims to invite the Wampanoags to the feast they’d made possible.
Just as Native American activists have demanded the removal of Christopher Columbus statues and pushed to transform the Columbus holiday into an acknowledgment of his brutality toward Indigenous people, they have long objected to the popular portrayal of Thanksgiving.
For the Wampanoags and many other American Indians, the fourth Thursday in November is considered a day of mourning, not a day of celebration.
Because while the Wampanoags did help the Pilgrims survive, their support was followed by years of a slow, unfolding genocide of their people and the taking of their land.
To learn the history of the Wampanoags and what happened to them after the first Thanksgiving, a visitor has to drive 30 miles south of Plymouth to the town of Mashpee, where a modest, clapboard museum sits along a two-lane road. Outside, there’s a wetu, a traditional Wampanoag house made from cedar poles and the bark of tulip poplar trees, and a mishoon, an Indian canoe.n their
Inside the three-room house sits Mother Bear, a 71-year-old Mashpee Wampanoag, hand-stitching a deer skin hat. She’s lived her whole life in this town and is considered one of the keepers of the Wampanoag version of the first Thanksgiving and how the encounter turned into a centuries-long disaster for the Mashpee, who now number about 2,800.
That story continues to get ignored by the roughly 1.5 million annual visitors to Plymouth’s museums and souvenir shops. The Mashpee Wampanoag museum draws about 800 visitors a year.
Paula Peters, a Mashpee Wampanoag who is an author and educator on Native American history, said “we don’t acknowledge the American holiday of Thanksgiving … it’s a marginalization and mistelling of our story.”
‘The Great Dying’
The Wampanoags, whose name means “People of the First Light” in their native language, trace their ancestors back at least 10,000 years to southeastern Massachusetts, a land they called Patuxet.
In the 1600s, they lived in 69 villages, each with a chief, or sachem, and a medicine man. They had “messenger runners,” members of the tribe with good memories and the endurance to run to neighboring villages to deliver messages.
They occupied a land of plenty, hunting deer, elk and bear in the forests, fishing for herring and trout, and harvesting quahogs in the rivers and bays. They planted corn and used fish remains as fertilizer. In the winter, they moved inland from the harsh weather, and in the spring they moved to the coastlines.
They had traded — and fought — with European explorers since 1524.
In 1614, before the arrival of the Pilgrims, the English lured a well-known Wampanoag — Tisquantum, who was called Squanto by the English — and 20 other Wampanoag men onto a ship with the intention of selling them into slavery in Malaga, Spain. Squanto spent years trying to get back to his homeland.
During his absence, the Wampanoags were nearly wiped out by a mysterious disease that some Wampanoags believe came from the feces of rats aboard European boats, while other historians think it was likely small pox or possibly yellow fever.
Known as “The Great Dying,” the pandemic lasted three years.
By the time Squanto returned home in 1619, two-thirds of his people had been killed by it. The English explorer Thomas Dermer described the once-populous villages along the banks of the bay as being “utterly void” of people.
In 1620, the English aboard the Mayflower made their way to Plymouth after making landfall in Provincetown. The Wampanoags watched as women and children got off the boat.
They knew their interactions with the Europeans would be different this time.
“You don’t bring your women and children if you’re planning to fight,” said Paula Peters, who also runs her own communications agency called SmokeSygnals.
The Wampanoags kept tabs on the Pilgrims for months. In their first winter, half died due to cold, starvation and disease.
Ousamequin, often referred to as Massasoit, which is his title and means “great sachem,” faced a nearly impossible situation, historians and educators said. His nation’s population had been ravaged by disease, and he needed to keep peace with the neighboring Narragansetts. He probably reasoned that the better weapons of the English — guns versus his people’s bows and arrows — would make them better allies than enemies.
In the spring of 1621, he made the first contact.
“It wasn’t that he was being kind or friendly, he was in dire straits and being strategic,” said Steven Peters, the son of Paula Peters and creative director at her agency. “We were desperately trying to not become extinct.”
By the fall, the Pilgrims — thanks in large part to the Wampanoags teaching them how to plant beans and squash in a mound with maize around it and use fish remains as fertilizer — had their first harvest of crops. To celebrate its first success as a colony, the Pilgrims had a “harvest feast” that became the basis for what’s now called Thanksgiving.
The Wampanoags weren’t invited.
Ousamequin and his men showed up only after the English in their revelry shot off some of their muskets. At the sound of gunfire, the Wampanoags came running, fearing they were headed to war.
“One hundred warriors show up armed to the teeth after they heard muskets fired,” said Paula Peters.
Told it was a harvest celebration, the Wampanoags joined, bringing five deer to share, she said. There was fowl, fish, eel, shellfish and possibly cranberries from the area’s natural bogs.
In his book, “This Land Is Their Land,” author David J. Silverman said schoolchildren who make construction-paper feathered headdresses every year to portray the Indians at the first Thanksgiving are being taught fiction.
The Wampanoags didn’t wear them. Men wore a mohawk “roach” made from porcupine hair and strapped to their heads.
Darius Coombs, a Mashpee Wampanoag cultural outreach coordinator, said there’s such misinterpretation about what Thanksgiving means to American Indians.
“For us, Thanksgiving kicked off colonization,” he said. “Our lives changed dramatically. It brought disease, servitude and so many things that weren’t good for Wampanoags and other Indigenous cultures.”
At Thanksgiving, the search for a black Pilgrim among Plymouth’s settlers
Powhatan and his people: The 15,000 American Indians shoved aside by Jamestown’s settlers
Linda Coombs, an Aquinnah Wampanoag who is a tribal historian, museum educator and sister-in-law of Darius, said Thanksgiving portrays an idea of “us seeming like idiots who welcomed all of these changes and supports the idea that Pilgrims brought us a better life because they were superior.”
Mother Bear, a clan mother and cousin of Paula Peters whose English name is Anita Peters, tells visitors to the tribe’s museum that a 1789 Massachusetts law made it illegal and “punishable by death” to teach a Mashpee Wampanoag Indian to read or write.
She recounts how the English pushed the Wampanoag off their land and forced many to convert to Christianity.
“We had a pray-or-die policy at one point here among our people,” Mother Bear said. “If you didn’t become a Christian, you had to run away or be killed.”
Wampanoag land that had been held in common was eventually divided up, with each family getting 60 acres, and a system of taxation was put in place — both antithetical to Wampanoag culture.
Much later, the Wampanoags, like other tribes, also saw their children sent to harsh Indian boarding schools, where they were told to cut their long hair, abandon their “Indian ways,” and stop speaking their native language.
Paula Peters said at least two members of her family were sent to Carlisle Indian school in Pennsylvania, which became the first government-run boarding school for Native American children in 1879. Its founder, Civil War veteran and Army Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, was an advocate of forced assimilation, invoking the motto: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”
Mother Bear recalls how her mother’s uncle, William L. “High Eagle” James, told his family to destroy any writings he’d done in their native language when he died. He didn’t want them to get in trouble for having the documents.
‘Still fighting for our land’
Frank James, a well-known Aquinnah Wampanoag activist, called his people’s welcoming and befriending the Pilgrims in 1621 “perhaps our biggest mistake.”
In 1970, he created a “National Day of Mourning” that’s become an annual event on Thanksgiving for some Wampanoags after planners for the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower landing refused to let him debunk the myths of the holiday as part of a commemoration. By then, only a few of the original Wampanoag tribes still existed.
“We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people,” he wrote in that speech.
In the 1970s, the Mashpee Wampanoags sued to reclaim some of their ancestral homelands. But they lost, in part, because a federal judge said they weren’t then officially recognized as a tribe.
The Mashpee Wampanoags filed for federal recognition in the mid-1970s, and more than three decades later, in 2007, they were granted that status. (The Gay Head Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard are also federally recognized.)
In 2015, about 300 acres was put in federal trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag under President Barack Obama. That essentially gave them a reservation, although it is composed of dozens of parcels that are scattered throughout the Cape Cod area and represents half of 1 percent of their land historically.
But President Donald Trump’s administration tried to take the land out of trust, jeopardizing their ability to develop it.
Mashpee Wampanoag tribal officials said they’re still awaiting final word from the Department of the Interior — now led by Deb Haaland, the first Native American to head the agency — on the status of their land.
Some tribal leaders said a potential casino development would bring much-needed revenue to their community. But without the land in trust, Mashpee Wampanoag council member David Weeden said it diminishes the tribe’s sovereignty.
“Four hundred years later we’re still fighting for our land, our culture and our people,” said Brian Weeden, the tribe’s chairman and David Weeden’s nephew.
The Wampanoags are dealing with other serious issues, including the coronavirus pandemic. The tribe paid for hotel rooms for covid-infected members so elders in multigenerational households wouldn’t get sick.
Even before the pandemic, the Wampanoags struggled with chronically high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancers, suicide and opioid abuse. In the expensive Cape Cod area, many Wampanoags can’t afford housing and must live elsewhere.
They also worry about overdevelopment and pollution threatening waterways and wildlife.
“The land is always our first interest,” said Vernon “Silent Drum” Lopez, the 99-year-old Mashpee Wampanoag chief. “It’s our survival.”
‘I’m still here’
When she was 8 years old, Paula Peters said, a schoolteacher explained the Thanksgiving tale. After the story, another child asked, “What happened to the Indians?”
The teacher answered, “Sadly, they’re all dead.”
“No, they’re not,” Paula Peters said she replied. “I’m still here.”
She and other Wampanoags are trying to keep their culture and traditions alive.
Five years ago, the tribe started a school on its land that has about two dozen kids, who range in age from 2 to 9. They learn math, science, history and other subjects in their native Algonquian language. The tribe also offers language classes for older tribal members, many of whom were forced to not speak their language and eventually forgot.
“We want to make sure these kids understand what it means to be Native and to be Wampanoag,” said Nitana Greendeer, a Mashpee Wampanoag who is the head of the tribe’s school.
At the school one recent day, students and teachers wore orange T-shirts to honor their ancestors who had been sent to Indian boarding schools and “didn’t come home,” Greendeer said.
In one classroom, a teacher taught a dozen kids the days of the week, words for the weather, and how to describe their moods. A math lesson involved building a traditional Wampanoag wetu. Another involved students identifying plants important to American Indians.
There are no lessons planned for the 400th anniversary of Thanksgiving, Greendeer said. If the children ask, the teachers will explain: “That’s not something we celebrate because it resulted in a lot of death and cultural loss. Thanksgiving doesn’t mean to us what it means to many Americans.”
This year some Wampanoags will go to Plymouth for the National Day of Mourning. Others will gather at the old Indian Meeting House, built in 1684 and one of the oldest American Indian churches in the eastern United States, to pay their respects to their ancestors, many of whom are buried in the surrounding cemetery. Plenty of Wampanoags will gather with their families for a meal to give thanks — not for the survival of the Pilgrims but for the survival of their tribe.
“History has not been kind to our people,” Steven Peters said he tells his young sons.
“Children were taken away. Our language was silenced,” he said. “People were killed.” Still, “we persevered. We found a way to stay.”
Mother Bear, a clan mother and cousin of Paula Peters whose English name is Anita Peters, tells visitors to the tribe’s museum that a 1789 Massachusetts law made it illegal and “punishable by death” to teach a Mashpee Wampanoag Indian to read or write.
She recounts how the English pushed the Wampanoag off their land and forced many to convert to Christianity.
“We had a pray-or-die policy at one point here among our people,” Mother Bear said. “If you didn’t become a Christian, you had to run away or be killed.”
Wampanoag land that had been held in common was eventually divided up, with each family getting 60 acres, and a system of taxation was put in place — both antithetical to Wampanoag culture.
Much later, the Wampanoags, like other tribes, also saw their children sent to harsh Indian boarding schools, where they were told to cut their long hair, abandon their “Indian ways,” and stop speaking their native language.
Paula Peters said at least two members of her family were sent to Carlisle Indian school in Pennsylvania, which became the first government-run boarding school for Native American children in 1879. Its founder, Civil War veteran and Army Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, was an advocate of forced assimilation, invoking the motto: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”
Mother Bear recalls how her mother’s uncle, William L. “High Eagle” James, told his family to destroy any writings he’d done in their native language when he died. He didn’t want them to get in trouble for having the documents.
‘Still fighting for our land’
Frank James, a well-known Aquinnah Wampanoag activist, called his people’s welcoming and befriending the Pilgrims in 1621 “perhaps our biggest mistake.”
In 1970, he created a “National Day of Mourning” that’s become an annual event on Thanksgiving for some Wampanoags after planners for the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower landing refused to let him debunk the myths of the holiday as part of a commemoration. By then, only a few of the original Wampanoag tribes still existed.
“We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people,” he wrote in that speech.
In the 1970s, the Mashpee Wampanoags sued to reclaim some of their ancestral homelands. But they lost, in part, because a federal judge said they weren’t then officially recognized as a tribe.
The Mashpee Wampanoags filed for federal recognition in the mid-1970s, and more than three decades later, in 2007, they were granted that status. (The Gay Head Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard are also federally recognized.)
In 2015, about 300 acres was put in federal trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag under President Barack Obama. That essentially gave them a reservation, although it is composed of dozens of parcels that are scattered throughout the Cape Cod area and represents half of 1 percent of their land historically.
But President Donald Trump’s administration tried to take the land out of trust, jeopardizing their ability to develop it.
Mashpee Wampanoag tribal officials said they’re still awaiting final word from the Department of the Interior — now led by Deb Haaland, the first Native American to head the agency — on the status of their land.
Some tribal leaders said a potential casino development would bring much-needed revenue to their community. But without the land in trust, Mashpee Wampanoag council member David Weeden said it diminishes the tribe’s sovereignty.
“Four hundred years later we’re still fighting for our land, our culture and our people,” said Brian Weeden, the tribe’s chairman and David Weeden’s nephew.
The Wampanoags are dealing with other serious issues, including the coronavirus pandemic. The tribe paid for hotel rooms for covid-infected members so elders in multigenerational households wouldn’t get sick.
Even before the pandemic, the Wampanoags struggled with chronically high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancers, suicide and opioid abuse. In the expensive Cape Cod area, many Wampanoags can’t afford housing and must live elsewhere.
They also worry about overdevelopment and pollution threatening waterways and wildlife.
“The land is always our first interest,” said Vernon “Silent Drum” Lopez, the 99-year-old Mashpee Wampanoag chief. “It’s our survival.”
‘I’m still here’
When she was 8 years old, Paula Peters said, a schoolteacher explained the Thanksgiving tale. After the story, another child asked, “What happened to the Indians?”
The teacher answered, “Sadly, they’re all dead.”
“No, they’re not,” Paula Peters said she replied. “I’m still here.”
She and other Wampanoags are trying to keep their culture and traditions alive.
Five years ago, the tribe started a school on its land that has about two dozen kids, who range in age from 2 to 9. They learn math, science, history and other subjects in their native Algonquian language. The tribe also offers language classes for older tribal members, many of whom were forced to not speak their language and eventually forgot.
“We want to make sure these kids understand what it means to be Native and to be Wampanoag,” said Nitana Greendeer, a Mashpee Wampanoag who is the head of the tribe’s school.
At the school one recent day, students and teachers wore orange T-shirts to honor their ancestors who had been sent to Indian boarding schools and “didn’t come home,” Greendeer said.
In one classroom, a teacher taught a dozen kids the days of the week, words for the weather, and how to describe their moods. A math lesson involved building a traditional Wampanoag wetu. Another involved students identifying plants important to American Indians.
There are no lessons planned for the 400th anniversary of Thanksgiving, Greendeer said. If the children ask, the teachers will explain: “That’s not something we celebrate because it resulted in a lot of death and cultural loss. Thanksgiving doesn’t mean to us what it means to many Americans.”
This year some Wampanoags will go to Plymouth for the National Day of Mourning. Others will gather at the old Indian Meeting House, built in 1684 and one of the oldest American Indian churches in the eastern United States, to pay their respects to their ancestors, many of whom are buried in the surrounding cemetery. Plenty of Wampanoags will gather with their families for a meal to give thanks — not for the survival of the Pilgrims but for the survival of their tribe.
“History has not been kind to our people,” Steven Peters said he tells his young sons.
“Children were taken away. Our language was silenced,” he said. “People were killed.” Still, “we persevered. We found a way to stay.”
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