Posted Nov 23. Compassion takes center stage at Thanksgiving time and we can’t think of a better way to express it than to support Syrian Refugees, who are at risk of being rejected like the Jews and left with nowhere to turn.
These links were passed on to me for your consideration:Hyde Park Refugee Project and Oak Park Temple Syrian Refugee Project
And here is a lovely prayer for Thanksgiving Day A Moment for Grace: A Prayer for Refugees
Democratic action you can take immediately!
Be the change you want to see in the world!
Circle the wagons
Put on your Oxygen Mask
My man on the street conversations today netted these two recommendations that I am passing on to you:
The New Yorker article that sums up Trumps first week as President-elect.
Mashable.com to help you triangulate the news on social media, best stuff bubbles up.
….So I am still striking up political conversations with people I don’t know, everyday since the election. I ask what they think about it all. Here is what they are saying…
With Trump supporters I share Trump’s bigotry, hate speech, propaganda. They seem a little surprised, sheepish, thoughtful. The IT, former Navy guy voted for Carson in the Primary but then, when it came to the general election he said, “well I have voted Republicans all my life”. He added, “I hope his business acumen will help”. Hope is like mere wishing about a guy whose business ventures led to multiple bankruptcies. And if he does have what it takes to be successful, that is worse because he will successfully set back gains in civil rights, income equality, and American ideals and moral authority.
Another IT guy did not admit to voting for Trump but said he could not get over Hillary’s email server. I agree, and posted previously that I believe she needed to have strengthened Department of State practices, not negotiated them for her convenience. I actually kind of ranted at him about Trump and he actually listened really well to my concerns. Ultimately he said this country is divided. So I did not win him over, but hopefully planted seeds.
My Iowa guy friend said “Trump voters are not racist,” that the media only “talked about personality, not issues.” And as to issues, he felt we should enforce laws when it comes to immigrants. I agreed that media and American commentators should have moved past personality quirks and focused on how the quirks aren’t quirks at all, but rather evidence of what kind of legal and policy issues the president would lead or enforce.
With Hillary voters I get folks who know they need to be politically active, but residing in a blue state stalls their thinking. Most are alarmed by unfolding news (like the Attorney General appointment today, more racists in power). A couple of them said, well at least he won fair and square, referring to the electoral college rules. But I say that someone who lied their way to the presidency did not win fair and square.
Ever since Donald Trump’s hate-filled RNC speech I have been on alert about his Hitler-like rhetorical style and strategy. His speech was hateful, divisive, and loaded with scapegoating. Sound familiar? He ramped up after the convention, branching out from hating Mexicans and Muslims, to hating media, American generals, Jews (banking conspiracy ads and linking Star of David with Hillary). Now that he was elected, Trump has appointed a White Nationalist as his Chief Strategist (yes, we are talking White Supremacists here).
So why am I surprised to have just learned that Trump kept Hitler’s speeches at his bedside for frequent reading?
What you can do:
A friend passed me this link which aired before the tail end of the election: Keith Olbermann’s 176 Reasons Donald Trump Should not be President. Listen. Quiver. Then get busy.
Tell at least two people you don’t know about how Trump projects his weakness as his opponents weakness, how he scapegoats, how he lies. Tell peopel how Trump has been studying Hitler for a long time, and how he is likely to abuse and exercise power accordingly.
Posted November 16. My son passed me these stick figure video links*, which are entertaining and instructive of how dictators and democratic leaders perpetuate power. Trump instinctively knows the Rules for Rulers* and thus is surrounding himself with people “dim but loyal“, and involving his children in the transition team to manage the issues of “Death and Dynasties.*
Consider where we are in the range between Democracy and Dictatorship as we have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (I love this simple illustration), making it harder for hard-working folks to spend time paying attention to politics. Also consider that if the Koch Brothers (biggest single contributor to the ruling party?) benefit from the Keystone Project, have we provided alternative sources of “treasure” (see the video) which make the interests and power of most citizens less necessary, thus leaning toward dictatorship model?
Today, as I was implementing portions of the family civics plan (first step: combat bigotry whenever you can) I spoke out loud on the train this morning: “Excuse me, does everyone know that Trump just appointed a White Nationalist as his Chief Strategist?” Many vigorous nods, some surprised faces, people of color were not even fazed (apparently this election did not come as a surprise to them). “Well we all need to know” I continue, “We can’t rely on people knowing through the internet or news. We must keep watch. Tell at least two people about it today.” I am rattled but, by saying it, I feel better all at once.
While I sit there marinating in the alarming notion that I may be devolving into a train-crazy (the other day I caught myself muttering under my breath audibly), suddenly the guy right next to me shares that his 75-year old mom has been busy every day since the election, and has him working hard too. She is an organizer. He shares a link he discovered for openlettertotrump.org and we swap contact info.
This weekend a friend mentioned the upcoming Women’s March on Washington Saturday, January 21, 2017 (please plan to join me and bring your friends!).
My husband passed me a link you will want to read: 5 Ways to Fight Against Trump (Did you know there is a Senate seat still up for election?)
By the weekend I will share more details about the family plan to hunker down for a Trump Presidency. Some of it might surprise you…Stay tuned.
What else have you thought of to get busy?! Please comment.
Trump has named a White Nationalist as his Chief Strategist, Stephen Bannon, confirming fears that he meant what he said against people of color, Mexicans, Muslims, and Jews. This is a significant appointment. Remember how powerful Karl Rove was in the George W. Bush administration at shaping what were ultimately harmful policies and directions for America?
What you can do now:
Day 1 post-election was probably the closest we will come to the Zombie Apocalypse: commuters with no smiles, coworkers dazed and confused, many outright weeping.
Day 2 was not much better and it was still difficult to get email responses from coworkers (were they still crying in bathrooms or nursing headaches and stomach aches?)
On Day 3 the nightmares started. The cockroach-like creatures were invading the tissues of our hearts, leaving a shiny tasty residue that would attract more creatures to lay their eggs and spawn millions more.
Promising note, however: I am talking to people, sales clerks, etc., and they want to talk about politics. They want to know more. Their eyes open like saucers when I share some basic facts that they were too busy to hear or learn before the election. I offer to stop talking and move along and they say things like, “it’s okay, I’ve got all day” or “”no worries, my coworker will handle the line”. We hard-working Americans are not always tuned in. We need to be. Now people want to be. I need to blog for real now, I guess.
By Day 4, I woke with a start when I realized that Trump was really elected and this was not just a dream. So today I actually wanted to stay in my dreams. I have a Bar Mitzvah to celebrate. I can’t think about Trump today. Tomorrow we will regroup and form a plan.
Out of the mouths of babes (or teenagers, same thing)…
My family just finished watching “Michael Moore in Trumpland“, a one-season, one episode iTunes TV event that my 15-year old calls Moore’s “best movie”. For context, my son has only seen “Where to Invade Next” (arguably Moore’s best film considering it is laced with optimism and maturity not often seen in his previous films) and “Fahrenheit 911” (which makes me cringe in too many places though it fairly shows Bush’s delayed response to a national emergency and reveals the Bush family relationship with Osama Bin Laden’s family).
What my movie critic son had to say about Michael Moore and his Trumpland film/episode: “He somehow managed to humanize Trump voters and still make me want to vote for Hillary more.”
And my son’s response to a 1998 video clip of Donald Trump saying positive things about the Clintons in Moore’s Trumpland: “He (Trump) was kind of adorable really”.
What cracks me up about his insights is that they came just an hour or so after our dinner conversation wherein he basically accepted without question the media swirl implicating Hillary (or at least her campaigners) for instigating riots at Trump rallies based on WikiLeaks: “Isn’t it kind of interesting,” he said, “how there is so much bad stuff happening around her and coming up in WikiLeaks?” My reply was probably inadequate, too much to say in one coherent thought (other than “political persecution”). I said, “Well let’s compare…you are concerned that people in or near the Hillary campaign may have encouraged people to stir the pot at Trump rallies. Meanwhile Trump himself has directly and on more than one occasion personally made a public appeal to his NRA gun supporters, “2nd Amendment people” to stop her, as well as inviting Russia to try to hack her (an offence which the CIA said would cause Trump and anyone else to be arrested next time they said it). I also suggested to my boys that it is amazing how so few emails, far less than 1 percent, have come into question and how lukewarm they are anyway. Which only proves to me that no systemic corruption exists, and may even be less of a dirty politics-as-usual environment. In fact, leaked emails show how Hillary tempered her staff members’ desires for more partisan or polarizing approaches.
The response from my boys was, “why do you always defend her?” and I replied,”I wasn’t defending her, I was trying to help you with critical thinking.” But it doesn’t matter what I say unless I say it on the internet (thus this blog) or use video like Michael Moore!
Truthfully, I recommend watching Moore’s video. It is comical but poetically appealing, inspiring and maybe even redeeming and healing. Is it possible that the partisan filmmaker is on his way to healing the nation as “uniter, not a divider”?
citizenstacy.com 