The Resistance, are you part of the Solution or the Precipitate
h/t to Bill Nye, the Science Guy
I still admire all of the good works that Bernie Sanders supports and continues to strive for.
But some of his supporters, clutching their anger tightly since last summer has brought them all… what? A grim niche in the political arena, where their continued insistence on attempting to re-fight the Democratic Primary is shoving them into a smaller and smaller walled off area, around a corner from everyone who is fighting THE REPUBLICANS at public events across the nation.
So whenever you folks get done with your five stages of grief, come join the rest of us who are putting our energy into fighting our actual opponents and not a subset of our own side.
We didn’t have to wait long to begin
The ACLU’s Timeline of Trump’s first 100 days in Office
January 20th 2017 — Inauguration of 45th President of United States
January 21st 2017 — The Women’s March and the pink pussy hats
Teresa Shook and her outrage shook the entire nation the day after Trump was inaugurated, with the numbers from the amalgamated marches across the nation in various cities likely making this the largest protest event in American History:
"I went to bed the night of the election just discouraged and woke up feeling worse the next day thinking, 'How could this be?' I was just sad and dumbfounded,” Shook told a local TV station .
She decided to do something about it.
The next night, with some help from friends online, the retired attorney and grandmother living in Hawaii created a Facebook event page calling for a march on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. Before she went to bed, she had about 40 responses. When she woke up, she had more than 10,000.
10,000 responses overnight was just the beginning, and it was only Day Two.
Oh, right, it brought brand-spanking-new Twitter-addicted president, Trump, out at 4:47 AM to complain about the protesters. It was a pattern he would continue as the initial weeks of his term rolled on.
January 24th 2017 — Federal workers warned to restrict their external communications
The Trump Administration sent out what amounts to an internal gag order on all Federal Employees, and thus was born the Alt/Rogue movement of anonymous faux accounts for Federal Agencies of all sorts and types, mainly on Twitter, where they continue to post real information to the masses, sub rosa, like this Tweet on today’s #ScienceMarch on Washington (and across the nation):
January 25th 2017 — Loose lips sink ships
So, before the first week was done, the new Occupier in Chief was well aware that a whole slew of the career employees in his Federal Agencies had gone Rogue on him, because these tweets were some which were later deleted, helping drive the creation of those faux accounts:
and that all the women in America — even formerly staunch Republican supporters like Ana Navarro, here on Jan 27th — were NOT in his camp.
This song made some noise for a few days, and both of these versions of it, one recorded live at the D.C. location Women’s March, one with a 1,300 person chorus indoors, still give me a happy, shiny feeling of joy — I can’t keep quiet by MILCK
Live at Women’s March in D.C.
Indoors w/Choir — On February 6th, a sold-out crowd of 1300 singers at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto raised their voices to protest the current US administration’s threatening action on global liberty, women’s rights, healthcare etc. Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, co-founders of C!C!C!, taught their arrangement of “Quiet” to the pumped-up, all-ages crowd, and an hour later, MILCK joined them to sing lead and record a powerful show of peaceful, harmonic resistance, with proceeds going to support the American Civil Liberties Union.
The passion and vigor which you can hear in the voices of those women?
THAT is what stopped the AHCA; the craptastic Law written by Republicans with actual #DeathPools (high risk pools) built right into it; dead in it’s tracks.
Because they didn’t just show up for one March the day after The Pussy Grabber took the Oath of Office from Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the West Front of the United States Capitol Building.
They and all of the Indivisibles out there rose up off of their sofas and barcaloungers, put down their Playstation 4 controllers or text books or garden shears or whatever, and picked up their smart phones and started calling their Members of Congress (MoC) after the Team at the Indivisible Guide group on Twitter (@IndivisibleTeam) started passing around their guidebook on How to Protest Successfully.
Next, still following Indivisible’s advice, they took up their protest signs and set off for their local US House Rep’s office. Then they did it again the next Tuesday. And again and again...
To exercise their 1st Amendment Rights peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Until Speaker Paul Ryan, with egg all over his smug face, had to announce that not only would the scheduled vote on the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) not be taking place, there was no time he could say it would come back up for a vote.
What Paul Ryan did say about it was, "Obamacare is the Law of the land. It’s gonna remain the Law of the land until it’s repealed.” and “We're going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future” :
When was the last time the Democratic Party pushed back hard enough on the Republicans that it took the wind clear out of their sails?
Some time, right?
How about, when was the last time the Base of the Democratic Party pushed back hard enough on the Republicans that it took the wind clear out of their sails? That’s easy — the No H8 campaign in California clear back in 2009. It shifted the lever upon which the legislative changes turned in various states, which led to the Windsor SCOTUS decision in 2013, covered here by the SCOTUS Blog in some detail.
So the last time We the People stood up E Pluribus Unum for a group of someones whose Rights were being denied by actions or persons or even the government was eight long years ago.
There are grown adults in this nation who do not remember a significant people-powered event which had the entire nation (and parts around the world, too) up in arms and out in the public square telling their ‘duly instituted Government’ to stop what they are doing OR start doing something they had avoided so far.
So they’ve never witnessed the feeling you get when you are part of a movement like that. Where the power of individual Americans when they stand united together comes to life and fills your heart and strengthens your spine, just because you are out there standing side by side with a multitude of your family, friends and others from your Community, in Unity — seeking a single goal.
The Resistance has brought that feeling back to life, right when it’s been needed the most.
So please, look around you. Take a breath and open your eyes and really look around. Ask yourself, should I continue down this path of rehashing old battles, living in an immutable past and ignoring the very real actions going on around me, right now, this very day? Or not. It’s your choice. But the future is calling, loudly. It can’t wait any longer. Like Bill Nye says:
#Resist and #Unify
the fate of all of our futures is in our own hands now...
Look up your local Democratic US House candidate and start supporting them
Start by contacting your local county Democratic Party Chair, whom you WILL be able to locate on Facebook, if you use it. Just search
“My County & State” Democratic Party
example: Clark County, WA Democratic Party
the search result is: www.facebook.com/ClarkCountyDems/
which is my County Party page
If you avoid Mark Zuckerberg’s Titanic ship of involuntary distribution of your data like the plague, you can always do a Google search, but most likely the hits will almost always point to FB.
But you can go to the www.democrats.org page for State Parties, pick yours and find your county from your state page.
Find out who is running for your US House seat (the smart ones with good plans, backers, some staff and the ability to start fundraising now have already filed with the FEC and are out there beating the bushes for events to attend) and look them up. Then if they look and sound (READ their issues statements) reasonable, volunteer for them for a while and see if you really like what you see. Because that person could become your next Member of Congress with your help.
We need to seize this moment, when our Base and large sections of the Independent Middle are energized against this terrible President and Congress who are unruly, unprepared for the job at hand, and a clear and present danger to our Nation, our People and the world at large — see North Korea and Kim Jung Un.
Leave a link and info on YOUR US House candidate in the comments.
I’m taking back up my old series: Help Progressives WIN
and I need some current candidates for my next post, next weekend.
In the meanwhile, here’s the candidate I’ll be promoting the most this cycle because (disclaimer) I’m his campaign manager. The fellow running for the seat I went after in 2016, in my hometown District here in southwest Washington State in the 3rd Congressional District, Peter Harrison.
Peter Harrison WA-03
Campaign website: VotePeterHarrison.com
Seat: 3rd Congressional District, Washington State
The southwest corner of the state, geographically. Lots of rural folks, but 2/3rds of the population of the 7+ counties is in Clark County in the middle of the District, along the Columbia River.
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/peterh4Congress
What the District looks like:
Peter was on the NPR Science Fridays radio program on April 21st. Also on the show was current Congressman (D) Bill Foster from the Illinois 11th Congressional District, who is a physicist.
Congressman, do you have any advice for would be scientists running for congress?” — NPR Host
“Contact me, happy to encourage.” — US House Rep Bill Foster (IL-11)
@Foster4Congress
Peter talked about a current bill under consideration in the US House, HR 1431, the bill that destroys the function of EPA science advisory panels, and about how tough it is to start out a campaign against an entrenched (4 terms now) anti-science Congresswoman, like (R) Jaime Herrera Beutler.
You can listen to the show here: Science Friday/Listen and choose the April 21st episode, titled “Can Science Survive In A More Politicized Age?”
Please donate generously to help us unseat our horrible “No Town Halls for Me” current Republican occupier via Act Blue: Help send Peter Harrison to The Other Washington in 2018
The people in this District (WA03) are so engaged and energized that they held a “With her or without her Town Hall” on Thursday, April 20th in Vancouver, WA. (R) Beutler was invited and notified of the event by multiple parties well in advance and refused to attend. She changed her vote on the AHCA because of these very same people — but was apparently too afraid to meet them in person, face to face.
My plucky fellow citizens recorded the entire event which you can view on Youtube via this link to the Vancouver CAN playlist of the evening or to the Facebook hosted video via this Tweet.
Peter is in the image of the Tweet, left side, middle in a blue shirt. He spoke twice. The first time about Foreign Policy and the issue of naval aircraft carriers (the largest of them are called super-carriers, the largest floating warships ever built), national security and fiscal responsibility. His remarks were well received by the crowd.
This is a better image of Peter Harrison from a previous event:
If you live in southwest Washington, or are looking for a good candidate to support this cycle outside of your own District, please choose Peter Harrison.
In this year of Resistance, we have a fighting chance to unseat this Republican.
We need the help of volunteers and donors and endorsers to do it.
Please, become one.