State of Emergency and Beyond “Indivisible"

WE MUST FIND ANY AND ALL EFFECTIVE WAYS TO EXERT ENOUGH PRESSURE TO DIMINISH THE HARM OF THE TRUMP/REPUBLICAN AGENDA.

With the Trump Administration past the initial inauguration stage, Americans will be negatively impacted by more and more actions and policies, either executive or Congressional, that harm our democracy, undermine hard won norms of respect in our multicultural society and, generally, further disadvantage the 99%.

Trump's strategic vision of chaos: Inventing a
non-existent crisis  so he can "solve" it
by Heather Digby Parton, Salon, February 22, 2017

In particular, given the ineptitude of the Trump Administration and the President's deception and emotional volatility, we are now at a vastly increased risk for many different kinds of crises, domestic and international. Also, the Trump Administration increases the real possibility of profound worldwide economic decline, heightened levels of international tensions, and increased, outright military conflicts. 

THIS IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND IF IT IS MADE TO SEEM NORMAL, 

IT IS DONE SO AT OUR PERIL.

What can we do to avoid a dark future under an incompetent, deceitful, mentally unstable President and Republican Congress? 

How do we deal with the “Donald” and his GOP supporters who are concerned with promoting the well-being of the economic elite and demonstrate an absence of sympathy/concern for the 99%? 

Our hope is an on-going and growing,
active and popular resistance movement.

The Resistance movement has to move beyond attempts to lobby/pressure the Republican Congress to be responsive to the MANDATE OF THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WHO VOTED AGAINST TRUMP -  AND THE EVEN LARGER MAJORITY OPPOSED TO TRUMP (as measured by all the National voter surveys before the election).

A permanent resistance is needed and this permanent resistance must use varied creative ways of mobilizing more voters to oppose the radically backward attack upon central American values and hard won gains!

• frequent, regular, (and spontaneous) protest demonstrations (including work stoppages, etc.)
• “ town hall meetings”
• community political education meetings
• teach-ins
• coordinate efforts with other like-minded groups - locally, statewide, nationwide

Please check out the article and video below.

"Studies show it takes just 3.5 percent of a population engaged in sustained nonviolent resistance to topple a dictatorship."  By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet February 8, 2017

WE MUST FIND ANY AND ALL EFFECTIVE WAYS TO EXERT ENOUGH PRESSURE TO DIMINISH THE HARM
OF THE TRUMP/REPUBLICAN AGENDA.

#TheResistance

Never give up. Never give in. We must WIN.

#resist Trump’s Assault on America’s Democracy

We need a CONTINUAL RESISTANCE to President Trump's BIGOTRY and his ASSAULT upon America's FUNDAMENTAL DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES!

"Donald Trump has changed his mind on these 7 campaign promises", by Amy Graff; The San Francisco Chronicle, November 15, 2016

NO objective observer can doubt that President Trump does not give the press basic adequate access to his policy positions and that he routinely purveys falsehoods as well as vague and frequently changeable versions of his beliefs and policy positions.

"Trump wages war against the media as demonstrators
protest his presidency" 

Moreover, President Trump shares this with other demagogic leaders that have attempted to undermine democratic governance (and too frequently succeeded in creating Authoritarian regimes) – that he ENGAGES IN A “WAR” AGAINST PRESS COVERAGE that results in the public not being adequately able to fully and accurately understand reality, e.g. the threat from human driven global warming.

            

"Media critic: Press needs to stop acting like Trump’s ‘botoxed Riefenstahls’ and realize he’s at war with them." by Tom Boggioni, Raw Story, Feb. 4, 2017

The most important issue in regard to President Trump's WAR AGAINST THE PRESS is not the lack of access, the falsehoods or the frequent flipping positions/meanings. It is the implicit and explicit bullying treatment and threats of punishment – familiar in authoritarian regimes (ideological – China, oligarchic – Russia, military - Egypt, nominally democratic – Turkey). Whether and how President Trump will cross the line by using the legal system for punishment, remains to be seen.

AN INFORMED, ACTIVELY ENGAGED CITIZENRY IS
THE GREAT BULWARK AGAINST AUTHORITARIANISM.

CONTINUAL RESISTANCE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP'S WAR ON A FREE PRESS IS FUNDAMENTAL TO PROTECTING AMERICA'S DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES.

#TheResistance

LEAD by EXAMPLE? Not a positive thing with Trump!

NEEDED: 

CONTINUAL RESISTANCE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP'S BIGOTRY AND HIS ATTEMPT TO DESTROY ALL OF AMERICA'S FUNDAMENTAL DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES

It is by now clear that President Trump is a demagogic leader having gained popular support in the primaries and the election by appealing to wide ranging prejudices and also showing complete ignorance of the consequences of his (generally vague) policy statements/positions. It is, at least, just as obvious that President Trump relies primarily upon bullying and threats to try to get what he wants.

One unmistakable consequence of President Trump's bigotry and bullying is that the President is modeling the acceptability of bigotry and demeaning behavior by his supporters- based on any and all of their prejudices. Bigotry and bullying are “normalized” among the President's supporters (and for many of the young).

Twitter user suspended for 'calling out bigotry (Jan. 9, 2017)

Another implication of the contemptuous ways in which President Trump has publicly exhibited his bigotry is to treat individuals and groups that he is prejudiced towards as well as opponents and critics of his practices and policies etc. as types of “objects” that are worthy of belittling with DEHUMANIZING words and, by implication, DEHUMANIZING treatment. WIDESPREAD DEMEANING BEHAVIOR UNDERMINES SOCIETAL UNITY AND THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUE OF INCLUSIVENESS AND RESPECT FOR ALL.

Furthermore, fundamentally disrespectful treatment by those in positions of greater power, in this case great power, has additional negative impacts upon the individuals and groups that are targets of bigotry – socially damaging (reducing opportunities, supportive resources etc.) and diminishing the power of social action/agency. 

Therefore, we must act together against this challenge to the multiculturalism that is synonymous with the American Democratic ideal around the world. 

RESISTANCE TO PRESIDENT'S TRUMP'S BIGOTRY MUST BE WIDELY BASED - AND CONTINUAL.

Don't give up. Don't give in. We MUST WIN.

#TheResistance

Highlights of the Trump/Republican Party Agenda 4 the Very Wealthy

Greed is the explanation!

#The Resistance
is the antidote!

Since the end of the 19^th century, the Republican agenda has, first and foremost, been to promote the economic interests of the very wealthy.

In the current 115^th Congress, the Republican  agenda is, unmistakably, indifferent to the well-being of the other 99+% of Americans.

The primary (economic) goal of the Trump Administration and Republican Congress is to reduce the share of tax revenue from the very wealthy and “their” large and powerful corporations. By a standard measure of income inequality, America currently ranks 45th out of 144 nations – the change in the tax structure by the Trump administration and Republican Congress will certainly markedly increase economic inequality in America. In 2008, America ranked 28^th among 33 developed nations for children in poverty households. Likewise, America is an outlier for elderly poverty and single parent families headed by females. We can expect increased rates of poverty and reduced benefits available to the poor.

In turn, such a change in the tax structure will be used to justify a reduction in all areas of discretionary (as opposed to mandated by existing law) spending, except military spending This will result in reductions in programs that promote the well-being of the other 99+% of Americans. Starting with Reagan, the Republican Party has used whatever leverage to reduce the effectiveness of regulatory law passed TO PROTECT THE WELL-BEING OF THE 99+%. For example, budgets have since been continually reduced for the FDA (overseeing the healthfulness of food and drugs), OSHA (protecting employees in their workplace) and the EPA (protecting harm to the environment – particularly that promotes harm the 99+% from a “poisoned” environment). 

Regulation TO PROTECT THE WELL-BEING OF THE 99+% will be under never before imagined attack in order TO INCREASE CORPORATE PROFITS. Reducing the active role of regulatory agencies or weakening regulations will expose Americans to greater health risks (and other risks) of all kinds – at work, as consumers, and through air/water/food/medications, etc. 

In particular, gutting the protections of Obamacare and throwing enrollees into a health insurance market that will be more expensive will leave many families (as much as 30 million over time) without coverage or “healthcare poor". Thus, making American health care even less effective than all other affluent nations – in 2015, the U.S. ranked 31st of 195 nations in life expectancy, 38th out of 175 nations in infant mortality, etc. It is almost unimaginable that the richest nation, with the highest material standard of living, stands alone among affluent nations without a system of national, universal coverage healthcare system (not based on affordability). 

GREED IS THE EXPLANATION!#The Resistance is the antidote!

Movement Towards Fascism

At stake is American democracy. Either we stand up in great numbers and in every way that we can or the likelihood of losing the heritage of democratic values is frighteningly real!

Demagogue: Does this sound like Trump? I think so.

A demagogic leader arises during some period of perceived “crisis” and gains substantial populist support by appealing to emotional passion by exploiting prejudice and ignorance   and not by offering rational deliberation. Closed rallies of supporters are typical, avoiding broader public participation. Demagogues typically claim a popular mandate in face of clear contradictory evidence.

Demagogic leaders often repeat lies/falsehoods until they are accepted as true by their audiences. They also may claim credit for things that they did not do. Free speech, generally, and free press norms, in particular, are not upheld. Demagogues typically attack critics or media that do not agree with them. With State power, they often punish critics with varying degrees of severity.

Demagogues in a democratic society may discredit many or all aspects of the democratic process and structure. They may may politicize or delegitimize an independent judicial system. Political opposition may be punished formally or informally.

Demagogic leaders in power may align with other authoritarian regimes.

Another Reason Trump Loves Putin

They swim together in the white nationalist fever swamps.
(by Jamelle Boule, Sept. 9, 2016, Slate)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was booed by a crowd full of Baltimore Ravens fans after mentioning Tom Brady at his campaign rally in Maryland. Here are some other instances of Trump's awkward pandering. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

"Like others I’ve discussed in “Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies,” Trump’s rise has been one of sheer hubris, overblown promises and an almost effortless seduction that can sweep up even the toughest critics. Consider the normally hard-nosed Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who reported “my legs are shaking” after talking Trump with focus group participants last August." (From  Here’s what demagogues like Trump do to their countries when they take power  by Michael Signer, February 29, 2016, The Washington Post)

At stake is American democracy. Either we stand up in great numbers and in every way that we can or the likelihood of losing the heritage of democratic values is frighteningly real!

#TheResistance

Biased Media: Resistance to an Illiberal, Anti-Democratic America

calling out the media

Resistance to an Illiberal, Anti-Democratic America=

Resistance to an MSM PROPAGANDA MACHINE!

NBC Is Building A Trump Normalization Machine

"After running a proto-fascist campaign, President-elect Donald Trump will bring his hate, misogyny, and bigotry to the White House at the end of the month. And when he does, NBC will have a machine ready to normalize him." (by John Whitehouse, Media Matters, January 4, 2017)

A uniquely powerful key to Trump's elevation to the Presidency and the damage he will do is the ability of the media to avoid the enabling role it played during the primaries and the campaign. The media has to give the public informed, critical substance on policy, not highlight every twitter remark as if the media were reduced to tabloids. So long as the news organizations act primarily as entertainment (to compete for viewer or reader ratings), the public will not get the appropriate crucial coverage of, for example, global warming, nor the appropriate analytical coverage of why the 99.99% have been losing ground (including the implications of changes in the personal income laws favoring the wealthy or changes in overall economy to a service economy or changes in technology requiring fewer industrial production jobs).

"What it really shows is just how craven,
self-serving and self-involved our media are."
by Neal Gabler, March 25, 2016, Moyers and Company

No question that consolidation in media ownership and sensitivity to advertiser influence are part of the long term decline of a substantive, critical journalism and a commitment to investigative journalism (meaning more than “fact checking”). However, Trump has used his celebrity status and media tabloid-like coverage to his advantage ($1.9 billion free media coverage) and, even more significantly, he has used the uncritical reportage to NORMALIZE HIS ILLIBERAL BEHAVIOR AND POLICY PROPOSALS.

"But when Trump lies, the Wall Street Journal—the second largest paper by circulation in the country—will not call it a lie, according to the its editor-in-chief Gerard Baker."

"Each time, by the time the truth came out, the news cycle had moved on — letting the lie stand in millions of people’s minds." (by Laurel Raymond, Think Progress, January 2, 2017)

Outside of the tabloids and highly partisan media, e.g. Hearst or Murdoch, journalists have generally regarded their work as in the Jeffersonian public interest. JOURNALISTS IN THAT TRADITION MUST STAND AGAINST uncritical reportage –  they should be extremely wary of equal time on two sides, (e.g. climate change), and they must debunk and contextualize fake news, call out lies/false claims in the strongest possible terms! 

Leonard Pitts, Jr.

"Baker’s is a mindset that has become all too common. With the obvious exception of certain partisan news outlets, some reporters, fearful of being tagged for “bias” on contentious issues, seek to safeguard themselves by ritually quoting a source from Side A and another from Side B while avoiding even painfully obvious conclusions. They call this “fair and balanced.” It’s actually gutless and dumb." Media Must Take A Moral Stand, by Leonard Pitts, Jr., Miami Herald, January 4, 2017

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article124444124.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article124444124.html#storylink=cpy

We are learning unwittingly how 
MEDIA CAN DESCEND INTO PROPAGANDA.

One key to resistance is

• for the majority public to become actively engaged in criticizing when media journalism fails its promise
• for the majority public to SUPPORT MEDIA JOURNALISM THAT RECLAIMS A STANDARD THAT CAN NOT NORMALIZE THE ILLIBERAL, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC, PROTO-FASCIST ELEMENTS OF THE NEW PRESIDENCY AND CONGRESS

The Republican Road to Fascism in America

WE ARE CONFRONTED WITH POSSIBLE AMERICAN FASCISM. WE MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 
MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A LIBERAL CULTURE OF BROAD TOLERANCE AND RESPECT FOR ALL 

MUST RESIST!

Salon article: Nixon was more like a proto-Trump

Backstory: Ever since Nixon's appeal to the backlash against greater racial equality, the Republican Party, the party of the wealthy/powerful elite, has increasingly appealed to hatred and anger against racial minorities, women, and now more than any time since the early 20^th century, immigrants – and thereby has divided America more and more, demolishing a center (e.g., Independents, ticket-splitting). 

Starting with Reagan, the Republican agenda to protect billionaires and the profit of powerful corporations has become more obvious – for example, by reforming the tax code thereby putting more burden on the bottom 99.99%, and attacking regulations (put in place to protect the lower 99.99%) by using the wealthy propaganda myth of the “free market”.          

To begin with, the Republicans captured the religious fundamentalist vote by flipping on cultural issues starting with a woman's right to an abortion (Reagan). But the fundamentalist vote and the economically Conservative vote was not enough in 2008.

As a result, the wealthy elite created the “virtual” Tea Party to build a larger angry white constituency – angry about a feeling of economic precariousness. And Americans should feel greater economic vulnerability – before the G.W. Bush “Great Recession” starting in 2008, median family income had been stagnant for more than three decades (even with more family members working more jobs) and job and retirement pension security was being progressively diminished for the almost all workers.

The Here & Now: Trump is not only illiberal but anti-democratic, questioning and challenging Constitutional constraints on the Executive and chilling any criticism by individuals or by the media (i.e. the 1^st Amendment right to free speech) by veiled and not so veiled threats of violence by his supporters or retaliation by himself (e.g. restricting the libel law). Twentieth century Americans do know something about how speech was chilled during the McCarthy era – Trump's threats during the primary campaign are consistent with his on-going twitters etc. and threaten to chill speech in a much more profound way - indeed, more similar to fascist regimes.

"In the interim, there are a slate of policies on his docket that would entrench not only his kleptocratic interests, but also allow him, together with the GOP, to create an internal empire less responsive to the plurality of voters and more responsive to wealthy and regressive special interests. "(From The warning signs of fascism that Americans should be watching for under president Donald Trump, by Casey Michel)

No surprise then that a lightning-rod-of-hate-and-anger demagogue like Trump could divide America as much as it was in the Civil War era. Trump's "MO" is:

• spouting a message that he could bring all the (better paying?) jobs back
• saying only he could fix things & “make America great again”
• bring back traditional values
• modeling illiberal behavior
• unapologetically demeaning women
• unapologetically demeaning ethnic, and national minorities
• unapologetically demeaning any critics 

But Trump is not only illiberal but anti-democratic, questioning/challenging Constitutional constraints on the Executive and chilling any criticism by individuals or by the media (i.e. the 1^st Amendment right to free speech). His challenges are by veiled and not so veiled threats of violence by his supporters or retaliation by himself (e.g. restricting the libel law). 

Twentieth century Americans do know something about how speech was chilled during the McCarthy era.Trump's threats during the primary campaign are consistent with his on-going, headline making tweets, etc., and threaten to chill speech in a much more profound way - indeed, more similar to fascist regimes.

The Republican Party and its elite economic backbone have paved the way for Trump's demagogic appeal to angry, hateful emotions (rejecting rational analysis entirely) and for his illiberalism and anti-democratic inclinations. 

WE ARE CONFRONTED WITH POSSIBLE AMERICAN FASCISM. WE MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A LIBERAL CULTURE OF BROAD TOLERANCE AND RESPECT FOR ALL 

MUST RESIST!

#TheResistance