Bunny mailbag: Would you leave America if Sarah Palin became President?

Posted by Bunny.

From the mailbag:

Dear Bunny... I'm assuming that you guys aren't big fans of Sarah Palin. Would you guys move to another country if Sarah Palin got elected President of the United States? I was just curious how you feel about how the US might become too ridiculous if she was President. Best wishes, Yalonda

Response:

Hello Yalonda. You're right, we are not fans of Sarah Palin the politician. I don't know much about her as a person, although she does strike me as more of a dog person.

I've thought about possibly leaving the United States, but that's to hunt poachers in South Asia, not because I don't like a certain politician. In general, I don't like politicians, it's not just a Sarah Palin thing. Truthfully, I don't find her to be particularly unique. Yes, she often says "ridiculous" things, but that's nothing new in American politics.

It’s important to remember that as of right now, she's not in charge. President Obama is the President of the United States; he’s in charge. And year after year the U.S. government does its thing resulting in the death and suffering of millions of ordinary people - 'collateral damage' of our colonial wars (official and unofficial) and imperial policies institutionalized all across the world. This happens whether there’s a Democrat or a Republican in office. So I think the U.S. is already ridiculous - ridiculously callous and violent. Rolling our eyes at people like Sarah Palin is easy and maybe even a little fun to do, but in the end she's not the system. She's just one (ridiculous) person.

Strategically speaking, I think it's important that Pinky and I continue to critique the U.S. from inside the U.S. Although if we booted out of this country then I guess that will be moot.

Take care,
Bunny

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Posted by Kim: Bunny, I think I understand most of what you're saying but isn't "the system" also made up of individual people? Isn't President Obama also just "one person"?

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Posted by Bunny: Cult of personality-types require minions. Institutions need functionaries. Corporations need worker slaves and consumption slaves and an elite class to dictate. Nations are the same way. So yes, the words and actions of individual people do matter, but any way you look at it, people-in-bunches matter more. Which is why POLITICS is so important. Which is also why UNDERSTANDING politics is largely absent in state-sanctioned educational curricula.

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Posted by Kim: I still don't get it.

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Posted by Bunny: The President of the United States is not just a person. It's an office within a system. I'm not saying it's irrelevant which individual person occupies that office - obviously there are some differences between one occupant and the next - but when Barack Obama leaves office he will be replaced with another person who will also uphold the foundational ideologies of U.S. Empire: American exceptionalism, military interventionism, corporate supremacism, and so on and so on. That's not a "personal" knock against Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, or anybody else - that's just America.

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Posted by Kim: Okay, got it now, thanks.

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Posted by Bunny: Update: Jan. 12 @ 12:49pm PST. A reader's e-mail to Bunny: "I find your reading of American politics grim and depressing..."

My reply: "Hi Lynn, I'm sorry you feel depressed. My intention is only to provide a clear description of how believe things are. But here's some good news: as messed up as the system is, it can also be changed by ordinary people. You guys maintain it, you can also change it if you want. Collectively though, not individually. I don't believe "individual actions" have nearly as much effect, unless you occupy some position that’s already invested with lots of power. Thank you for your e-mail, Bunny"​

Louise Reiss, Rest In Peace.

Posted by Pinky.

Do you recognize this woman?​

​[ source ]

Probably not. She doesn't look like a superhero but I hope someone will read this tiny diary entry and be inspired, as I was when I came across her obituary in the New York Times today.

Her name is Louise Reiss and she was a doctor who was instrumental in conducting research (the "Baby Tooth Survey, 1959~1970) that provided evidence that atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons increased harmful radioactivity in people's bodies. She established this by collecting and analyzing the amount of Strontium-90 in childrens' decidous teeth (a.k.a. "baby teeth"):

The teeth were sent to the laboratory at Washington University, which tested them for strontium 90, one of more than 100 chemicals created in nuclear explosions and reactors. Strontium 90 is chemically similar to calcium and, when ingested in food and water, attaches to bones and teeth. It is radioactive and known to cause cancer.

The study ultimately found that children born in St. Louis in 1963 had 50 times as much strontium 90 in their teeth as children born in 1950 — before most of the atomic tests. Its initial findings were published in the journal Science in 1961 and came to the attention of President John F. Kennedy as he negotiated with the Soviet Union for a ban on atmospheric nuclear testing.

From 1945 to 1963, the United States tested 206 nuclear weapons in the atmosphere — 100 in Nevada and 106 in the South Pacific — while the Soviet Union conducted 216 such tests. Fallout was swept away by prevailing winds and returned through precipitation, some of it falling on farms and dairies.

In June 1963, Dr. Reiss’s husband presented the findings in testimony before a Senate committee in support of a treaty. Two months later, the Partial Test Ban Treaty between the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain was signed.

Dr. Reiss was proud that the project achieved its aims through science rather than politics. "I continue to be moved by the knowledge that a group of organized people can effectively pressure government if they come up with data instead of rhetoric," she wrote in a letter to a colleague in the study in 1996. (from the NYT obituary)

I also found this photo of Dr. Reiss as a young, brand-new doctor in 1945. Do you think she knew that in just a few short years she would be engaged in doing work that would help change human history in such a positive way?​

[ ​source ]

Can you imagine how radically different this world would be if all of us ordinary nobodies were to live our lives with the intention to change history?

Take care,
pinky

Staying for now; 2011 summarized.

Posted by Bunny.

After talking it over with Pinky I finally decided that I'm going to stay and keep working on the Pinky Show for at least another year. I'm still not totally convinced that writing stuff and making art is the best way to change our stupid society but she made a fairly convincing argument that probably this is the best way that I can personally make a contribution. Okay, maybe true - time will tell.

Last year was mostly about traveling to talk to people face-to-face. We went to Canada several times (Winnipeg, Toronto 2x, Sherbrooke), Europe twice (Berlin, Warsaw), Hawaii, and of course we walked around a lot here in the United States. We walked so much I think that's why my knee hurts now. But meeting everybody was extremely important for us. We learned a lot about how people are understanding or not understanding our work, which is often difficult to get a feel for because we do so much of our communications via the internet. Maybe we should do this every fifth year.

Using what we learned last year, this coming year will be mostly comprised of:

1) Posting the documentation of what we experienced last year on our travels.
2) Posting all the scripts & illustrations of all the unproduced videos we weren't able to fund.
3) We have several small-scale art projects planned. I think you will like these.
4) Continue making Pinky Show comics.
5) Publish another small book. (We ran out of I Want To Punch Your Face.)
6) Continue work on the PINKY SHOW book.
7) Host our first-ever Human in Residence.

Number 7 should be very interesting. Pinky and I decided that it would be good to have some kind of program where we'd be able to talk with a non-threatening human being for an extended period of time. We're not sure if this is going to be a recurring thing or not, but it seemed like an idea we wanted to try. We invited test-human Giordano Nanni (historian, writer, multimedia producer; studies colonialism, etc.) to come visit us. He's half of the duo that produces Rap News and will be joining us for 20 days of talking, sharing information & experiences, plotting, meditation training, and we don't know what else yet. He is scheduled to arrive January 21 and Pinky or I will post updates here in this blog thing.

~Bunny.

Bunny mailbag: Is the Pinky Show really "radical far left-wing"?

Posted by Bunny.

Letter (excerpt) from Thomas from Virginia:

I have a question! On Wikipedia, your show is characterized as having a "radical far left-wing point of view", but..... I don't understand this. Your views are based on logic and research, and you support all of your arguments with real life material, or experts' input! Although this process may not be perfect, wouldn't this nevertheless be closer to the "middle" or "truth" than some "fringe" view? Do you see yourself as being "radical left"? I'm a little perplexed.....

Reply:

Hi Thomas. This is my first e-mail of the new year.

Thomas, I like your question. The truth is we don't care much for the labels. Left / Center / Right are categories that are widely used in newspapers, books, tv news, and so on, so people do have a vague shared understanding of them, which I suppose gives them a small degree of utility. Unfortunately, these labels are also so fluid and are used so arbitrarily that they often create more confusion than clarity.

When we say "left", we're using the term historically, to place ourselves more or less in alignment with so-called "progressive-left" politics, as opposed to its 'opposite', which I suppose would be the "reactionary right". In general, "Left" references the desire to move towards more social and economic egalitarianism, democracy for EVERYBODY (instead of just maximizing freedoms, privileges, and power for the elites), etc, etc. We (lefty cats) don't always fit all the criteria (Is there such a thing as a Leftist Orthodoxy?) but that's the way it goes. And, in a society built on the logic of violence and now dominated by punitive, socially reactionary policies, we've come to expect that the suggestive labeling (the Pinky Show is "radical far-left wing", etc.) is going to be done to us whether we object to it or not. So basically it's a good idea to be suspicious of labels. And also many adjectives.

As for the word "radical", we like Angela Davis' definition: "Radical simply means grasping a problem by its root." For example, when we say "radical education", we usually just mean we favor a critical re-examination of education's foundational assumptions, histories, and practices, with an eye to making big, structural changes. This is contrary to "reformist" approaches in which you just tinker with the details (they might be significant details, but they are not fundamental, structural elements), leaving the basic structure (with all of it's problems) intact. Here in the U.S. the term "radical" has so many negative connotations that it's often simply used as a slur. We're aware of this but since we think about the meaning differently we still use it to self-identify sometimes.

Regarding the Pinky Show entry at Wikipedia, I don't pay much attention to what's written there because 1) most people don't have a basic understanding of what our project is about; and 2) Wikipedia pages are easy to "vandalize" with stupid and incorrect information. In the past we've been labeled as communists or socialists or Maoists or terrorists or [insert scary adjective here]. It's ridiculous, we're none of those things. On the internet, when someone disagrees with you, you're almost guaranteed to be attacked on Wikipedia or any one of those other anyone-can-post/edit websites. That's why I think stuff like Wikipedia is better for describing the life cycle of ants, rather than trying to describe contested social phenomena or explore counter-hegemonic ideas.

Sorry for the long reply. I hope I did not bore you too much. I wish you a happy new year.

Bunny

Happy Birthday Bunny!

Posted by Pinky.

Today is the first day of a new calendar year, which also means that it is also Bunny's birthday! Happy Birthday Bunny!

As always, from all of us here at The Pinky Show - Bunny, Kim, Mimi, Daisy, Ants, and myself - we wish all of our friends out there in Internetland a year of more peace, awareness, and justice!

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Posted by Kim: Yeah Happy Birthday grumpy face! lol

What are the consequences for those who kill lions?

Posted by Bunny.

I'm a (mostly) peaceful cat. But when I see videos like this my heart goes up in flames and I want to shoot these people. Same with smugglers who cut beautiful tigers in half. Or anyone who'd kill a Snow Leopard to make a fancy rug. Regardless of how fierce they are, these cats are essentially defenseless against guns - these people must be stopped. What am I doing making art and videos to increase understanding when I could be hunting cat killers?​

Posted by Kim: Bunny do you think your computer stopped working because it wanted us to go and fight people who kill big cats?

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Posted by Pinky: Kim, Bunny - You can't stop all the bad people who want to kill cats by killing them with guns. You just can't. You might be able to kill some of them but there will always be more and eventually one of them will kill you too. What about trying to dismantle the system that produces lion-killing as a desirable and available commodity?

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Posted by Bunny: Pinky - if someone showed up here and was aiming to shoot you, wouldn't you want me to shoot them first?

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Posted by Pinky: I don't want to die, but the answer is still no.

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Posted by Bunny: Well that's where you and I are different then.

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Posted by Kim: I agree with Bunny. Because she is defending you who doesn't have a way to defend yourself.

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Posted by Bunny: So. Are we going?​?

Pinky Show named Most Awesome On Planet

Posted by Bunny.

It has been brought to our attention that The Pinky Show was named one of "9 Amazing Political Art Projects of 2010" by ArtThreat. Obviously those guys at ArtThreat are smarter than the clueless editors at Artforum, ARTnews, Art in America, etc., who still haven't identified us as the best artists in the world.

Doesn't matter, we'll keep making things.

Here's what culture+politics writer Michael Lithgow had to say about us in the top 9 list:

"The Pinky Show received a lot of attention in 2010 and for good reason. Using unstoppably cute animation, the creative duo behind The Pinky Show is presenting unflinching critical analysis of some of the most difficult political issues of the day. Up for consideration: the relationship between colonialism and the construction of memory through museums and world’s fairs, the Hawaii indigenous sovereignty movement, the role of public education in producing conformity and subjugation, academic freedom, creepy children’s toys...

What makes this project so noteworthy is the way complex and abstract meditations on power and oppression are rendered in entirely accessible ways — a rendering of discourse to match the simplicity and yet charm of the animation. There are resources galore here for teaching, if addressing the obscured consequences and marginalized experiences under the current global regime — whatever it is: colonial, capitalist, democratic, fascist — is your goal."

Nice write-up, Thank You Michael Lithgow!

Another nice thing about being included on lists like this is that we get to find out about other amazing (their adjective, not mine) artists/artist collectives without having to do any research of our own. Which is so convenient because I don't follow the art world and wouldn't know where to start looking. If anybody out there knows about other super-fabulous art projects out there, please let us know. I wouldn't mind learning more about art-n-stuff.

~Bunny.​

Bunny mailbag: Do you celebrate Christmas?

Posted by Bunny.

Today's "Christmas e-mail", from Cecile:

Dear Bunny, I hope you answer this email in your mailbag. Do you and Pinky celebrate Christmas? Are either of you religious or at least a member of a religion?

Reply:

Dear Cecile, No. No. Best wishes, Bunny

Big Macintosh computer, R.I.P.

Posted by Bunny.

I feel a little sad. After Pinky and I drank morning coffee I went to turn on our computer like I do everyday. I pressed the "on" button but then nothing happened. It was dead. I almost couldn't believe it because day in, day out, it always works fine. I tried everything I could think of but it is still dead, so I guess it’s dead permanently. I was surprised how sad I felt because actually Pinky and I don't own a lot of things so I never thought I’d become attached to an object. But when I realized our computer wasn't going to wake up anymore I felt a little like I lost a metal friend or something.

I was using this computer even before Pinky & I launched the Pinky Show in December 2005. We planned out our whole project on it and used it to make every single script, video, sound recording, cat drawing and every other Pinky Show thing we've ever done. It worked 18 hour days every single day and quite a few 24 hour days too. It was seven years old. Good computer!​

R.I.P. computer, I'm going to miss working with you. And welcome to your new job: nightstand.

~Bunny.

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Posted by Kim: Hey Bunny, Did you see this? Were you planning on replacing dead Pinky Show computer with another Apple computer?

"On December 21, Apple pulled a WikiLeaks application from its iTunes store, banning it forever. When reporters queried the company about why it did so, the response was: "We removed WikiLeaks because it violated developer guidelines. An app must comply with all local laws. It may not put an individual or target group in harm's way."

And so Apple has joined capital's war on WikiLeaks; adding its power to that of the credit card company's online retailers and even Swiss banks who refuse to do any business with the grassroots whistleblowing organisation that has done more to bring the malfeasance of governments and corporations to the light of public scrutiny than any other organisation in at least two generations...

...And Apple has also banned apps with political cartoons and gay travel guides, leading the Guardian to declare in May that "many magazine publishers developing 'apps' for the new iPad... have had to self-censor."" [ complete Mark Levine article here ]

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Posted by Bunny: Yeah I saw that. When we've saved enough money to buy a replacement I actually don't know what to do (yet). I don't like the way computer & software corporations operate and I don't feel like supporting ANY of them. If anyone out there knows of computer and software makers who function according to more ethical principles, please let me know. ~B.

Bunny Recommends: Rap News 6 - Wikileaks' Cablegate

Posted by Bunny.

Our friends at RapNews (http://thejuicemedia.com/) have another new video and as usual their take on the whole Wikileaks "Cablegate" story is more right-on than 99% of the stuff we've been encountering in the mainstream newspapers. Nuff said.​

As always, make sure you read the lyrics [posted here], because the writing for all the RapNews episodes are always excellent. Wikileaks website currently accessible [here]. 

~Bunny.

Bunny mailbag: Yes, we like Wikileaks

Posted by Bunny.

Today's e-mail:

Dear Bunny, My name is Laurie and this is the first time I've ever written to a program before. I love the Pinky Show a lot. Thank you for making your work because I've learned so much from reading and thinking about things from your different perspective! I'm currently a freshman at [x] High School in Texas, and I do pretty well in school but I'm worried that I'm not getting a well-rounded education. I appreciate especially how you always explain complicated things in such a clear way and not only that but how important it is to be ready to speak the truth even if it may not be the most popular position to take. But I'm embarrassed to admit that the last blog post about Wikileaks you wrote (11/30 entry) left me confused. Sometimes I think I'm not too bright! I read it several times but still don't understand if you think Wikileaks is wrong to do what it did or if actually you think what they're doing is right in some way. I apologize for not getting it! Could you please explain what you meant to me? Also, what do you think about Julian Assange? Do you think he really raped those two women? Thank you, Laurie

Reply:

Dear Laurie, Thank you for writing. There's no need to be embarrassed whenever you don't immediately understand something. Pinky and I frequently (every day!) come across material that we think is hard to understand. When that happens we usually try to find a bunch of related materials to see if we're missing some background information. Other times something may be hard to understand simply because it's just presented poorly, or maybe it's being presented in an unfamiliar style. Like my last post - I probably shouldn't have written it using cat sarcasm, which I think many people find weird or confusing. So today I'll try to restate my comments from the other day more clearly. Thank you for your patience.

1) This thing called "international diplomacy" is not a wholesome activity. It is, as the released U.S. diplomatic cables illustrate, frequently vicious business, where the fates and lives of millions of ordinary people are traded like currency. We, Pinky Show nobodies, have frequently noted that government representatives who do their work beyond the view of the people they supposedly serve often abuse their positions and privilege. They make deals that benefit the elite classes of their respective nations while ignoring the needs of the majority. Our position is that EVERYONE needs to know what their governmental representatives are saying and doing. Today, however, only the deal-makers and their pals have the 'inside-scoop' on that kind of information. If EVERYONE were to have access to this kind of information, that would be an extremely important first step towards eventually achieving things like a fair or democratic world-society. If governments are not going to be open about their dealings, and the media can't or won't report what's really going on, then things like Wikileaks are necessary. When governmental representatives start speaking honestly about what they are doing and journalists also start doing their jobs, then perhaps Wikileaks will be considered obsolete. Of course all this is hard to achieve but important or valuable things are rarely easy to do.

2) The way the world is currently organized, "International diplomacy" is something that happens between the elite class (governmental, corporate, military, etc.) of one nation with the elite class of another nation. [Side note: Of course, more powerful nations are often able to apply pressure to less powerful nations in order to get what they want. So when I say international diplomacy is a game between international elites, I don't mean that makes anything fair or equal. I just wanted to point out that the interests of ordinary people are usually considered irrelevant when diplomats sit down at the negotiation table.] This is the reason why no one should be surprised that there's currently worldwide criticism of Wikileaks for this latest round of leaked information. It's not just the U.S. leadership that's upset; this time it's also all their counterparts from other countries as well. This is a nice example of how political elites from different countries usually have more in common with each other than they have with ordinary people from their own countries (and they definitely know how to show it, too!). And now they're all mad because the leaks has allowed everyone a peek at how corrupt the whole system is - it illustrates how the entire diplomatic corps, regardless of what country you're actually from, conduct business. It offers insight (if the public is willing to look) into what kind of values dominate nation-to-nation relations. None of these guys want ordinary people to know what they're up to. They know that if more people caught onto their way of doing business they'd be in greater danger of losing credibility or being pushed out of office.

3) World leaders (and their many journalist minions) currently condemning and/or attacking Wikileaks have good reason to do so. Their collective neck is on the line. Ordinary individuals, on the other hand, who are only members of the elite class in their dreams, condemn Wikileaks at the risk of being delusional or stupid. Practically everyone who get all their news and information from the dominant coercive instruments of society (schools, the media, the various governmental bodies such as the State Department, the White House, etc.) have uncritically accepted arguments and logic (a.k.a. propaganda) that's been carefully prepared for their consumption. Which is all very good for the rich and powerful - life's easy when you have a gullible mob to fight your battles for you.

4) Please don't forget to go read the actual cables! There's nothing wrong with reading New York Times/Guardian UK/Al Jazeera/CommonDreams/DemocracyNow!/etc commentary, but it's always good to read 'the thing itself' whenever possible (better hurry - who knows how long Wikileaks will still be around? [search for new links here]). Also, there are thousands of writers and thinkers out there who have spent their whole lives carefully mapping out the larger global political context from a counter-hegemonic perspective: Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Derrick Jensen, etc. - the usual suspects - are a good place to start. Pinky and I often find that these are the guys who are providing the analyses that have the most explanatory power for the questions we have relating to big, inter-national structural stuff. The leaked cables are themselves only the fragmentary residue from a gigantic system, so it's important to always keep the structure of that system in mind while reading and thinking about the small fragments.

Okay, this is getting way too long so I guess that's enough from me for now.

Oh wait, regarding your final questions about Mr. Assange - I don't know if he did did those sex crimes or not. But here's something to think about: Did you know that out of more than 7500 Red Notices issued by Interpol, not a single person from the USA is wanted for war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity? Considering the history of U.S. military interventionism, covert operations, and decades-long campaigns of state violence against indigenous peoples throughout the 20th century, don't you think that's pretty..., um, "astounding"? Kinda makes me wonder what it takes to get on (or be exempted from) these important 'Wanted' lists.

Okay, Laurie, I will end here. Our best wishes for your continued studies.

Take care,
Bunny 

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Posted by Kim: Hey Bunny, this video is very related to what you're saying and it's really good. It's from  Democracy Now, Nov. 30, 2010, Noam Chomsky: "[the cables] reveal a profound hatred for Democracy on the part of our political leadership...")

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/30/noam_chomsky_wikileaks_cables_reveal_profound

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12/8 Another post by Kim: Okay, every day there are new important Wikileaks developments. Now hackers are fighting back! Here is the link to the page where Democracy Now is keeping their excellent Wikileaks coverage:

http://www.democracynow.org/tags/wikileaks_collateral_murder_video

Constitutional attorney Glenn Greenwald on the arrest of Mr. Assange and the US war on Wikileaks:

"Whatever you think of WikiLeaks, they have not been charged with a crime, let alone indicted or convicted. Yet look what has happened to them. They have been removed from Internet … their funds have been frozen … media figures and politicians have called for their assassination and to be labeled a terrorist organization. What is really going on here is a war over control of the Internet, and whether or not the Internet can actually serve its ultimate purpose—which is to allow citizens to band together and democratize the checks on the world’s most powerful factions."

Also, information-in-general about civil liberties & the internet at the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

http://www.eff.org/

Bye!​

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12/8 Posted by Pinky: Excerpt from John Naughton's (London Observer, UK) article The Wikileaks Wake Up Call:

There is a delicious irony in the fact that it is now the so-called 'liberal' democracies that are desperate to shut WikiLeaks down.  Consider, for example, how the views of the US administration have changed in just a year.  On January 21 last year,  Hilary Clinton, US secretary of state, made a landmark speech about Internet freedom in Washington DC which many observers interpreted as a rebuke to China for its alleged cyberattack on Google. 

"Information has never been so free", declared Mrs Clinton. "Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable."

She went on to relate how, during his visit to China in November 2009, Barack Obama had "defended the right of people to freely access information, and said that the more freely information flows, the stronger societies become. He spoke about how access to information helps citizens to hold their governments accountable, generates new ideas, and encourages creativity. The United States' belief in that truth is what brings me here today."

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12/8/2010 Posted by Bunny: I'm not a member of the Founding Fathers Fan Club but those guys sure generated lots of quotes that I can get behind!

“[W]ere it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” - Thomas Jefferson

(I'm assuming he meant to say "a free internet" instead of "newspapers".) ~B.

I fixed the famous snake drawing.

Posted by Kim.

I saw this drawing by Benjamin Franklin a while back and it really bugged me that the snake's head looks so much like a bird head.​

​Finally this morning I couldn't stand it any more so I finally fixed it. And while I was doing that I figured I might as well fix the whole snake while I'm at it. So there it is.

I hope you like it.

~kim

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Posted by Bunny: Hey Kim, don't you think the tongue on your snake looks weird? Don't snakes have a skinny, forked tongue?​

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Posted by Kim: Uh oh, I think you're right.

Bunny mailbag: So I herd u leik Cablegate?

Posted by Bunny.

Today's featured e-mail, from "Efren":

Hey there fools. I am dropping by to give you a friendly reminder that this time you and your so-called allies are outnumbered by absolutely everyone smart enough to read a newspaper regarding the Wikileaks of U.S. cables. Even the most liberals are condemning this unauthorized release of government secret. I'm sure you still can find some lame reason to support treasonous acts such as selling out your own country and endangering the lives of countless allies around the world. I expect nothing less from infoterrorists such as yourselves. So tell me how do you call it this time around? Ready to apologize for supporting Wikileaks? or still sticking to your loyalties against a montain of evidence. I will appreciate an answer but don't embarrass yourself too much

Reply:

Dear Efren,

I think you are mistaken. Like you, I am also deeply troubled by the most recent leaks by Wikileaks. I am worried that international diplomacy will no longer be able to function as it always has in the past - with dignity, compassion, transparency, and democracy as its guiding principles. I happen to have a few friends in the (cat) diplomatic corps and they are currently FREAKING OUT that their game has been very publicly spilled all over the interwebs for everyone to see and understand (please don't tell anyone, this is a secret between you and me). The important question for now is: How will we (God-fearing citizens) hold Wikileaks (jerks) responsible for their very naughty troublemaking? This is serious! Because of Wikileaks, the mutual respect and cooperation which now characterizes relations between nations may potentially become imperiled. No one other than Wikileaks is to blame if governments were to suddenly begin treating ordinary people as mere cannon fodder or gambling bits. I, like you, shudder to imagine a world like this.

Efren, perhaps you can help me with a certain analytical puzzle I am working on. Pinky and I took several well-circulated quotes from Monday's and yesterday's news reports and tried to decipher them, from professional politician-speak into something that we can more easily understand. To guide our translation we followed the logic and interests exhibited in the cables themselves - not a problem, I assume, as I've yet to hear anyone challenge the authenticity or veracity of the cables or their contents. The real problem, unfortunately, is that Pinky and I are only on the first quote and are already hopelessly stuck - perhaps we could borrow some intellectual horsepower to help us along? (*hint hint*) For some reason we simply cannot reconcile the disturbing implications of the translated comments with the honorable intentions of the sample politician (judging by her comments, I'm sure she's highly qualified to remark on the subject of honor). So, if you would be so kind, please reply with all significant elements from the quote below ideologically sorted and mapped with respect to whatever aspect(s) of this most recent Wikileaks disaster you find most alarming. (As soon as possible please, we would like to move on to Sample B!) Thank you.

Your friend,
Bunny

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[ Sample A: Hillary Clinton: from the Guardian UK; translations by Pinky & Bunny in red ]

Clinton told reporters corporate media functionaries at the US state department: "It is an attack exposé on of the international community of governmental, corporate, and military elites, the alliances and partnerships which allow us to maintain our dominance over the world citizenry-at-large, the conversations and negotiations secret back-room deal-making between us, that safeguard extracts maximum use-value from the universally accepted narrative of global security and advance economic prosperity while intensifying our exploitation of labor, resources, and strategic potential all across the planet." ...[Clinton] predicted: "I am confident that the any "mutually beneficial" business partnerships on one hand, or arm-twisting on the other, that the Obama or previous administrations has have worked so hard to build impose, will withstand these challenges in the end amount to offers very few will dare to refuse."

Pinky & Bunny recommends: The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book

Posted by Bunny.

I can't remember the last time I made a blog entry to draw attention to a particular book, but we just got our copy of The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book in the mail yesterday and it is so good that we felt like we had to tell everybody about it. I like to judge books by covers (not exclusively, but still...) so I knew I was going to like this one as soon as I pulled it out of the box:

Wow! This Gord Hill guy is NOT messing around! And the inside is even better. I like it because 1) everything is unambiguously presented from a Native warrior's perspective; and 2) the information is both factually correct and meticulously distilled down to its skeletal minimum to help the reader (that would be you) focus attention on the basic moral and ethical questions that lie at the heart of each historical example. Some people might think this book is only about death and devastation, but to me this book is more about living and surviving.

Pinky and I read the entire comic book last night, it took us only a few hours. Now Kim is reading it. After Kim & Mimi are done, we'll be passing it along to someone else. I think that's what it was designed for. It's not big - just long enough to present a very basic outline of colonization and genocide in the Americas (more emphasis on North America) - but it's also short enough that people who can't or won't do fat books will feel encouraged to pick it up and start reading it right away. Plus it's a comic book - this is a teaching tool with amazing possibilities!

Who should read this book? I'll say "everybody", although it's predicable that a lot of indoctrinated citizens of the settler state ('serious' teachers, students, and activists included) will feel more turned off than enlightened by it. (Nothing new there, these are the same people that think Ward Churchill got fired for committing academic indiscretions or that there's good kinds and bad kinds of resistance in the face of genocide.) What excites me most about material like this is that it has the potential to throw open a whole universe of histories and wisdom already recorded by hundreds and thousands of Indigenous writers and warriors, to practically anyone with a hunger for truth and justice, Native or settler. I know these people are out there.

So here is a book that also happens to be powerful medicine. What will be done with it?

[ Link to: 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill, 2010. ]

~B.

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Posted by Pinky: I wanted to mention that the book also includes a powerful introduction and five pages of "recommended readings" by Ward Churchill, which will probably turn into my reading list for the next three or five years! ~pinky

Bunny mailbag: Here comes Thanksgiving

Posted by Bunny.

Since the Thanksgiving holiday (November 25-28) is right around the corner, I thought I'd post this very short e-mail we received tonight:

To Pinky et al., Please consider doing a story on the "real" Thanksgiving. It's not the turkey or stuffing we should be giving thanks to - how about Tisquantum and the Native Americans? - Kawahine

My reply:

Dear Kawahine,

We're not making any videos right now, but I agree with you that Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity for Americans to re-examine the historical origins of the United States. Personally I am thankful that so many scholars have made the effort to write so many useful books on the subject, so that the rest of us don't have to spend our lives believing racist misinformation and fake creation myths. I will post some of my favorites in our blog. Thank you for the reminder.

Bunny 

So, for those of you who prefer reading to watching football, here's my list, as promised. I guarantee that spending your day with any one of these books + a cup of hot chocolate will dramatically reduce the amount of bullshit in your “Thanksgiving”.

500 Years of Indigenous Resistance (Gord Hill)

Basic Call to Consciousness (edited by Akwesasne Notes)

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present
(Ward Churchill)

American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (David Stannard)

Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide (Andrea Smith)

Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (Vine Deloria Jr.)

Facing West: The Metaphysics Of Indian-Hating And Empire-Building (Richard Drinnon)

In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided (Walter R. Echo-Hawk)

And, since Hawaii is also claimed by the United States and lots of turkeys get eaten over there too, I'll add in this one:

Islands In Captivity: The International Tribunal On The Rights Of Indigenous Hawaiians (Sharon Venne and Ward Churchill, editors)

"Enjoy". ~Bunny.​

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Posted by Kim: Hey Bunny, you should mention that Gord Hill's book is now available in a comic book version!​

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Posted by Bunny: That’s right. Thanks Kim.

WTF??? Zizek steals my ideas again!

Posted by Bunny.

I have no idea how he's doing it but somehow Slavoj Zizek has found a way to infiltrate my brain, perhaps while I sleep, and steal my ideas. I offer the interview below as proof - amazingly, there are NO LESS THAN SIX (6) of my ideas in there! This is not the first time he's done it but THIS BETTER BE THE LAST, OR ELSE.

ZIZEK!!! YOU SEE THIS? I SHAKE MY TINY FIST AT YOU! NOW BOTH OF THEM!! STOP STEALING MY THOUGHTS!!!

Posted by a very angry Bunny.

P.S. Good interview though, I admit that much. ~B.​

Test Buttons

Posted by Pinky.

For a few years now, Bunny and I have been dreaming about how neat it would be to be able to make our own buttons. We think buttons are fun because they're a great way to start up conversations with people about topics that might otherwise be difficult to initiate. For example:​

Person: Hey cat, who's that guy on your button?

Me: Oh, this is Agostinho Neto, one of the main leaders of the struggle to force Portugal out of Angola...

Person: OMG, Agostinho Neto! I read a great poem about him by Chinua Achebe but I never knew what he looks like! Awesome, you want to go eat ice cream with me and talk about decolonization?

Me: Yes. Yes I do.

Okay, I admit this may be an unlikely scenario. But Bunny and I have been coming up with so many button-related ideas lately that finally, a few weeks ago, we just decided to take a leap of faith and just go ahead and buy a button machine already. It was expensive - $450 for the machine and start-up button supplies - so of course Mimi (bookkeeper cat) was not happy about that. But we are going to try to work really hard with that machine and hopefully we can pay it off over the course of the next year.

First button experiment: I am kind of a history nerd and sometimes I like to poke around libraries or the internet searching for old revolutionary poster or button designs or whatever. Well last month I stumbled across the African Activist Archive website, which for me was kind of like winning a million dollars in a lottery. Well, while I looking through the old button designs with all these great activist graphics on them, I realized wow, nobody really throws away buttons. Which is probably why they tend to survive and become these great little reminders of important political movements, campaigns, and projects from the past. I got the idea that it might be a nice little experiment to make some buttons that reference specific historical events, and then leave them for people to find at certain, related sites. So the buttons would be like a starting point that could send people on this little journey of discovery (if they are the curious type). Anyway, it is a little hard to explain, we will post the results as soon as we have some material to share.

By the way, I re-drew some of my favorite button designs from the above-mentioned archive and Bunny made them into buttons, kind of like a test-run. They came out like this:​

AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS • SOUTH AFRICA

I DON'T BUY SOUTH AFRICAN GOODS

Agostinho Neto

support rebuilding ZIMBABWE

La Luta Continua

Women Make History / Fight for Peace

​We only made 18 (3 of each, though I'm keeping a Neto button for my backpack) but if you want one just send me an e-mail telling me which one you like and also your address and I'll send you a button. "First come, first served", as they like to say in the restaurant industry.

If African Activism buttons aren't your thing, we do have Pinky Show buttons for sale in our store. They are really cute and they help pay for the button machine!

Take care,
pinky​

Rap News 5: Wikileaks and the War on Journalism

Posted by Pinky.

The Rap News has a new video out and I hope everybody watches it. It is, as usual, amazing. I've watched it a few times, there's a lot in there that rewards multiple viewing!

After you've watched the fun video, please follow up with some not-fun information, which is the point of the fun video.

[ read the actual reports at Wikileaks.org ]

[ The Guardian UK had better coverage than any mainstream U.S. paper I could find ]

[ Al Jazeera's summary video about the leak ]

[ Democracy Now! video with Daniel Ellsberg & Glenn Greenwald ]

[ Julian Assange @ TED ]

[ English/Arabic Commentary at Meedan.net ]

Of course there's mountains more on the internet, this is just meant to be a convenient starting point! Thank you for reading!

Take care,
pinky​

Newsflash: Slightly Different Individuals To Fill D.C. Openings

Posted by Bunny.

So after my last blog entry we got a few e-mails asking me if I was upset that the Republicans won so many seats in the House of Representatives, etc. Short answer is I'm always upset. What would have made me happier? Well, in the realm of the politically possible, nothing. All the important stuff that I wish would happen in U.S. politics are not going to happen at this moment. The Green Party can't even get on TV. People still use Kucinich as the punch-line to jokes. Most U.S. Americans don't know what anarchism is. Or socialism. Or capitalism for that matter.

I hate it when people just throw their hands up in the air and say "We're doomed". Even if we are doomed, that's no reason to go down without a fight. What do you think your teeth and claws and mouth are for?

~Bunny.​

Today is Election Day in the U.S.

Posted by Bunny.

Hi. Today is "Election Day" here in the U.S., also known as "Choose Your Leaders From a Pre/Self-Selected Group of People Who Are Better Than You Day". And if today is like other recent election days, about half the eligible people in the U.S. will not vote. Why not? Some possible reasons:

• "hate all the candidates"
• "don't HATE them per se but still sickened by idea of actually voting for any of them"
• "they're all the same/crooks/liars/etc."
• "won't make a difference"
• "don't care"
• "too busy"
•  lazy
•  sleepy
•  ominous gloomy feeling
• "life already seems good enough so it's not worth the effort"
•  "voting is just a tool to distract you from real democracy, man!"
•  can't find car keys
•  doughnuts

Cats are barred from voting in U.S. elections in all 50 states. Prisoners aren't allowed to vote in almost every state. Ex-felons aren't allowed to vote in most states. Children, all 50 states. "Undocumented" people same. Certain crazy people, et cetera. All of which, in my opinion, sucks. But the biggest bunch of people who aren't allowed to vote are everybody else in the world. Which is ridiculous, considering this is the United States of America. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I should be allowed to vote in Iraq's elections. But I think they should be allowed to vote in ours. Actually I've been saying this is a good idea for years and then recently I saw that guy Zizek stole my idea, saying it on TV like it was his idea. Oh yeah, another good idea would be to link voting to knowing-and-doing, although that probably wouldn't work in a country like the U.S. since hardly anybody knows or does anything.

Here is a thing I got in my e-mail this morning from the Common Dreams people, with the subject heading "It's Okay to be Impossible! Vote!" It's an excerpt of an interesting speech given by Bill Moyers this past Saturday:

"But let's be clear: Even with most Americans on our side, the odds are long. Money fights hard, and it fights dirty. Think Rove. The Chamber. The Kochs. We may lose. It all may be impossible. But it's OK if it's impossible. You heard me right. I've learned something about this from the former farmworker and labor organizer Baldemar Velasquez. The members of his Farm Labor Organizing Committee are a long way from the world of K Street lobbyists. But they took on the Campbell Soup Company - and won. They took on North Carolina growers - and won, using transnational organizing tactics that helped win Velasquez a "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation. And now they're taking on no less than R. J. Reynolds Tobacco and one of its principle financial sponsors, JPMorgan-Chase. Some people question the wisdom of taking on such powerful interests, but here's what Velasquez says: "It's OK if it's impossible; it's OK! Now I'm going to speak to you as organizers. Listen carefully. The object is not to win. That's not the objective. The object is to do the right and good thing. If you decide not to do anything, because it's too hard or too impossible, then nothing will be done, and when you're on your death bed, you're gonna say, ‘I wish I had done something.' But if you go and do the right thing NOW, and you do it long enough good things will happen - something's gonna happen..."

There's a few things about this that bug me, but I agree with Mr. Velasquez 100% about doing the right thing even if it seems impossible. That's a good idea too. Essential.

Okay, today's blog entry was very disorganized but sometimes I think it's okay to just rant for a few minutes.

CATS = NO VOTE = UNFAIR.

~Bunny.