Eastern Band of Cherokee Rebel Against NC Governor, Foreign Government Hacks U.S. Treasury, Cleveland Indians Name Change (The Five For 12/14/20)

Hey,

Welcome to The Five.

But first,

The Largest Colony of a Forgotten Atlantic Nation is Smack Dab in the Middle of Illinois Farmland

Check out my latest in the Folks of Forgottonia series, which I’m writing over at Medium.

This one has Romans, Vikings and a Lord of the Rings esque symbol for the Island nation.

Read it here.

[one]

Well, this is interesting.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are the descendants of the Cherokee who avoided the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma by livings as renegades and refugees in the wilds of Western North Carolina. So pershaps it should come as no suprise that they’re refusing to comply with the state’s lockdown orders.

After considerable research and consideration the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will not be adopting the measures included in the newest Executive Order issued by Governor Roy Cooper. As Principal Chief of the EBCI I have worked with EBCI public health officials to enact social distancing measures that protect our tribal citizens and guests while balancing the financial position of our community. I will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in our community and will update our community if further measures are warranted.

We haven’t had a good Indian rebellion in my lifetime, so I’m curious to see how this goes. The optics are going to be VERY bad if North Carolina governor Roy Cooper tries to stop this using police force.

The last American leader to declare a sweeping order against the Cherokee was Andrew Jackson, and he caused the deaths of 1/4 of their entire population.

[two]

To continue on with that theme, the baseball team in Cleveland are the Indians no more. CBS Sports reports:

It's unclear how Cleveland will refer to itself during the upcoming season. Per the Times, Cleveland "could keep the Indians names and uniforms for the 2021 season" before changing names in 2022. Another option is going the route of the National Football League's Washington franchise, which dropped its own offensive nickname in July. The club has since been known as the Washington Football Team. Cleveland would, presumably, be called the Cleveland Baseball Team until a new nickname could be settled upon.

Cleveland's decision comes more than two years after it started to distance itself from the "Chief Wahoo" logo. Back in July, when the Washington Football Team announced its altered identity, Cleveland announced it would investigate the "best path forward" with regards to the team name. Subsequently, our Dayn Perry offered several replacement options, including the ever-popular "Spiders," as well as the "Rockers," the "Crows," and "Dobys," named after Hall of Famer Larry Doby, who was the American League's first Black player.

Cleveland's franchise has had three other identities during its existence: the Naps (after Nap Lajoie), the Bronchos, and the Blues. Of those, the Naps is the only name that lasted beyond a single season.

Although the Indians seem to be more offensive than the former Washington Redskins, that team name had roots in honoring the starting lineup of the 1933 season, which featured five Native Americans. In 1971, the Redskins consulted the Pine Ridge Indian fund during their logo redesign.

Cleveland also claims a similar story about their mascot, although it seems less credible.

[three]

Matt Taibbi, one of my favorite writers, has an excellent piece on the Robinhood App, a stock trading app that Taibbi claims functions more like an addictive slot machine than a legitimate way to invest money for the future.

The numbers were staggering. Robinhood’s average daily trading volume tripled in the first quarter of this year, compared with the last quarter of 2019, and saw a tenfold increase in net deposits as millions were losing their jobs. The New York Times reported that the firm in the first quarter traded nine times as many shares as E-Trade, and an incredible 40 times as many as Schwab. It added 3 million new customer accounts, and by June was doing 4.3 million daily average revenue trades, or DARTS, more than any other online firm and more than Schwab and E-Trade combined.

Backed by a string of venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Sequoia, Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Google’s VC arm, GV, the firm received four major cash injections. Investors poured $200 million into the firm in April, $320 million more in July, another $200 million in August, and finally in November, another $460 million. Through this brief time, the company’s valuation jumped from $8.2 billion to $11.7 billion, by which time word leaked out that the firm had “asked banks to pitch for roles” for a possible IPO next year.

Reckless “investment” in the app has caused an untold number of young people and low information “investors” to lose money, and an error on the app led one young man to commit suicide.

It’s a good read to the end if you have time.

[four]

How is this not a bigger story?

Hackers hit the U.S. treasury, and may have broken into databases for other government agencies. Reuters reports:

Hackers backed by a foreign government have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury Department and an agency that decides internet and telecommunications policy, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The United States government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation,” said National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot.

There is concern within the U.S. intelligence community that the hackers who targeted the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration used a similar tool to break into other government agencies, according to three people briefed on the matter. The people did not say which other agencies.

[five]

Huh. Relevant Magazine is re-running my article Four Christmas Movies that Actually Have Something to Say if you want to check that out.

I wrote it maybe 3 years ago…but Christmas movies don’t change that much…so maybe you’ll find something to watch.

Until the next one,

-sth