Category: politics

All things political, great and small.

Orlando Massacre: Thanks, NRA

Civil rights and racial justice are gun safety issues

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One of my many brilliant MomsRising colleagues wrote this piece which ties together the threads of surging racism and gun violence in this Trumpist era. She makes it clear why an intersectional approach that encompasses multiple issues at once is required for gun safety advocates to effectively fight the NRA, who works for gun manufacturers and now for the President.

 

By advocating not only for gun safety but civil rights and racial justice, the GVP community will find the voice it needs to engage immigrants and let them know that smarter gun laws would help make their communities safer, and it will finally show the Black and Brown communities that GVP truly is about saving lives and not just about controlling firearms. The Trump Presidency is an opportunity to build these bridges and finally achieve the broad, diverse coalition gun safety advocates need when the balance of power in Washington finally changes and the chance arrives for true gun policy reform.
– Civil Rights Is Now a Gun Safety Issue: Hate and Guns in Trump’s America, by Gloria Pan 3/03/2017

Lakoff's Taxonomy of Trump Tweets

Stop allowing a greedy, childish, narcissistic loser’s pathological lies to control the news cycle

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The media is still continuing the same behavior that normalized Trump and allowed him to walk right into office with less qualifications than a 9th grade class president. They are helping Trump block out rational conversation about real issues by treating his insane tweets as real news. Yesterday they spent all day talking about his crazy “wire tapping” story! (It’s either totally invented or proof that a court found reasonable suspicion of him last year. If the latter, let’s talk about the many suspicious ties to Russia.)

Stop reading his tweets. Stop sharing his tweets, even to criticize them. Stop treating them like they matter or like he matters. He is an unhinged loser and a complete puppet of the White supremacist Steve Bannon. Stop acting like his childish rants are the most important news of the day.

Great reminder from my favorite cognitive linguist George Lakoff:

Remember: @realDonaldTrump’s use of Twitter is strategic.

Trump Tweets

Republicans hate democracy, part eleventy million and one

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They have tried criminalizing dissent in several other states, and now this “economic terrorism” bill filed today in North Carolina shows once again that Republicans value money and power more than civil rights, the Constitution, or democracy itself.

What would the founders say? What would Martin Luther King say?

AN ACT TO CREATE THE CRIMINAL OFFENSE OF ECONOMIC TERRORISM, TO ESTABLISH CIVIL LIABILITY FOR ECONOMIC TERRORISM, TO CREATE A DUTY FOR A RESPONSIBLE PUBLIC OFFICIAL TO TAKE ACTION TO CLEAR TRAFFIC OBSTRUCTIONS RESULTING FROM UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES, TO INCREASE CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR OBSTRUCTING TRAFFIC WHILE PARTICIPATING IN UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES, AND TO PROVIDE CIVIL LIABILITY FOR THE COSTS OF RESPONDING TO TRAFFIC OBSTRUCTIONS AND CERTAIN OTHER UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES.

Read it at http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2017/Bills/House/PDF/H249v0.pdf

Don’t Get Played

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"We need a little PT Barnum..."Last night, US president Donald Trump gave what was, by the eroded current standards of American political discourse, a very good speech. It was a very good speech full of very big lies and very cruel policies disguised as empathy.

Read: Donald Trump’s joint session address played nice for a night in front of Congress—and used a technique straight out of the autocrat’s playbook by Sarah Kenzdior on Quartz

Image credit: http://globalslant.com/2016/12/jack-dorsey-donald-trump-bad-for-americer/

Remember the future

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Autocracy: Rules for Survival by Masha Gessen is an absolute must-read. I’ve been coming back to it every few weeks to regain my bearing.

In the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. This will lead people to call you unreasonable and hysterical, and to accuse you of overreacting. It is no fun to be the only hysterical person in the room. Prepare yourself.

No more innocent liberal surprise.

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Friends, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that Trump’s seemingly random and ill-informed actions are not part of President Bannon’s strategy.

They’ll bleed the public of money, culture, education, health, and community. They’ll sow chaos and violence. And they’ll beef up institutions that can enforce their coup: police & military.

This is truly disturbing to contemplate but do not look away! Turn toward the fear (as Pema Chodron would say), open your eyes and your heart. Batten down your hatches however you can and prepare for the worst. Then mobilize, speak out, tuck your body into places so the wheels of fascism don’t turn.

Stop being surprised that Trump is doing everything he said he would. He may well be the greediest man alive. History will remember how we responded.

Pema Chodron quotation

On the willful ignorance of religious right voters

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“The real problem is that rural Americans don’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of the choices they’ve made and the horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.”

This is a long read but a good one: An Insider’s View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America on Alternet. For me it still reinforces the need for the clear articulation of patriotic progressive values to communicate with these voters. They may be willfully ignorant, but they are human beings who love their friends and families and most of whom do not actually wish suffering on other people.

Image source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/27/politics/donald-trump-voters-2016-election/

We-Commit-To-Resist

Beautiful posters for resisting racism and bigotry

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Thanks to the American Friends Service Committee for publishing these two wonderful posters for resisting racism and bigotry. AFSC is a great organization. I collaborated with them when I worked at the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

We-All-Belong-Here

 

Driven by a desire to provide tools for schools and the larger community to create space for discussion and declare solidarity, artists Micah Bazant and Kate DeCiccio partnered with AFSC, Forward Together, Jewish Voice for Peace, Center for New Community, and Showing Up for Racial Justice to produce these beautiful images.

– https://www.afsc.org/resource/posters-resisting-racism-and-bigotry

RESIST

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Bayard Rustin’s call for civil disobedience and direct action tells us that “the only weapon we have is our bodies and we have to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn.” Even if it that’s not your jam, everyone has a role in creating a society where we divest from things that punish and invest in real community-based measures that keep us safe. It will take community organizers, cultural workers, farmers, caretakers and builders. Now is the time to go big; we have everything to gain.

– Charlene Carruthers, 31, the national director of Black Youth Project in The New York Times: ‘Resist’ Is a Battle Cry, but What Does It Mean?, 2/14/17.

 

Bayard Rustin on resistance

 

Image: New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer – Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c18982, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1305647