David Walsh at wsws.org this morning brings us:

Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation:

 “We are especially reminded on Thanksgiving of how the virtue of gratitude enables us to recognize, even in adverse situations, the love of God in every person, every creature, and throughout nature. Let us be mindful of the reasons we are grateful for our lives, for those around us, and for our communities. We also commit to treating all with charity and mutual respect, spreading the spirit of Thanksgiving throughout our country and across the world.”

— “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! AMERICA FIRST! …

“There are a lot of CRIMINALS in the [immigrant] Caravan. We will stop them. Catch and Detain! Judicial Activism, by people who know nothing about security and the safety of our citizens, is putting our country in great danger. Not good!” (Donald J. Trump’s tweets, November 21)”

Walsh writes at length of the insane levels of current wealth inequality in Amerika, and features heart-rending stories from the poor and homeless on the ground in various locations.  A Tale of Two Cities: ever-increasing needs, but empty food banks, while the Old Homestead restaurant in NYC is serving a Thanksgiving dinner priced at $150,000.

Friend of Café Babylon J of 9, homeless in Oly tells us the despicable things done to the homeless all over Washington, but most especially in Olympia, while noting that it’s all Capitalism 101.

From United American Indians of New England’s (unaine.org) National Day of Mourning:
“Since 1970, Native Americans and our supporters have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. Thanksgiving day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.” [snip]

“This year’s NDOM is dedicated to our thousands of relatives who are migrants and are being abused by ICE and other government agencies, including having their children stolen from them. We didn’t cross the border – The border crossed us! #NoJusticeOnStolenLand”

Stolen Lands – In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, “Songs for Leonard Peltier”

“Unthanksgiving Day, also known as the Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony, is an annual event that takes place on Alcatraz Island on the fourth Thursday in November, coinciding with Thanksgiving. It is designed to honor Native Americans and promote their rights. On November 20, 1969, a group of Native Americans, mostly college students, occupied the island of Alcatraz. They claimed the island according to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, also known as the Sioux Treaty of 1868.The occupation lasted for nineteen months. During the occupation, many indigenous Americans joined the civil rights movement and spoke out for their rights. The occupation was forcefully ended by the United States government on June 11, 1971.The first Unthanksgiving Day was held on November 27, 1975. It was established to commemorate the survival of the indigenous peoples of the Americas following European colonization. The organizers chose the fourth Thursday of November with intent. While most people in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving, Native Americans want to remind about the losses Indians had to suffer because the arrival of Europeans.The ceremony is organized by the International Indian Treaty Council and American Indian Contemporary Arts. The celebration takes place before sunrise and is open to public.”

John Trudell, AIM Leader

From Leonard Peltier, CP.org today:
“Well here it is, sorry to say, another year, and I’m still writing to you from a prison cell. I am still in pain from my illnesses with no knowledge of whether I will ever get treatments for them. But I’m alive and still breathing hoping, wishing, praying for not just my pains, but for all Native Nations and the People of the World who care and have positive feelings about what is happening to Mother Earth and against the evils committed by Wasi’chu in their greed for HER natural resources .

“It doesn’t seem as if any changes for the good or safety of Mother Earth will happen soon. But the good-hearted People are fighting back, and some good People are winning in the struggles to beat back some of this evil and to make THE Changes, the safety networks, we need for our grandchildren and great grandchildren so that they will be able to live happy successful lives, at least decent lives, that most of the poor underprivileged in my generation never got to experience or enjoy in our short lives.

So, I sit back and look at the world, and I wonder if I will ever get to see the outside world again, free from this prison cell? At 74 it is not looking too good for that to happen. But I keep my hopes alive and pray as hard as I can that it will happen. If not, when they bury me I want to be laid to rest face down and with a note pinned to my ass with the words in large bold letters, ‘KISS MY ASS!!’… just in case someone wants to study my bones years from now :)!!”  [snip]

“My thoughts are also with the youth such as the Water Protectors and all people young and old who are working to protect Mother Earth. I hope someday in the near future to be with you and part of this march and join you in the feast prepared by Native People and wonderful supporters who have joined together today to honor our Ancestors.

~In The Spirit of Crazy Horse.”

John Trudell (February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015) was a Native American author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes’ takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as Radio Free Alcatraz. During most of the 1970s, he served as the chairman of the American Indian Movement, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

From sott.net, Nov. 2016:

“The people who have created this system, and who perpetuate this system, they are out of balance. They have made us out of balance. They have come into our minds and they have come into our hearts and they’ve programmed us. Because we live in this society, and it has put us out of balance. And because we are out of balance we no longer have the power to deal with them…
We are a natural part of the creation, we were put here on the sacred mother Earth to serve a purpose. And somewhere in the history of people we’re forgetting what the purpose is. The purpose is to honor the earth, to protect the earth, to live in balance with the Earth. And we will never free ourselves until we address the issue of how we live in balance with the Earth. Because I don’t care who it is, any child who turns on their mother is living in a terrible, terrible confusion. The Earth is our mother, we must take care of the Earth.”

~ John Trudell, 1980

The following are excerpts from John Trudell’s Thanksgiving Day Address, made in 1980…  (it’s long and revolutionarily inspirational; he’d opened with):

“I’d like to thank all of you for coming here tonight and sharing this evening with us. And tonight I’d like to talk in honor of the water and the earth and our brother Leonard Peltier.
We’re faced with a very serious situation in this generation. There are insane people who wish to rule the world. They wish to continue to rule the world on violence and repression, and we are all the victims of that violence and repression.
We as the indigenous people of the western hemisphere have been resisting this oppression for 500 years. We know that the black people have been resisting it for at least that long. And we know that the white people have had to endure it thousands of years. And now it’s come full swing to this generation that we live in..
You see, this cannot be. We cannot allow this to go on. We cannot do it. We cannot expect that the pro-nuclear oppressor, that other side, we cannot expect that they’re going to change for us.”

 They are going to become more brutal. They are going to become more repressive because it’s a matter of dollars and their illusionary concepts of power.
We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions.
They tell us that it is power, but it is not power. They may have all the guns, and they may have all the racist laws and judges, and they may control all the money, but that is not power.”

the end.