Top Posts RSSFri, 10 Apr 2020 19:11:43 GMTFollowing Sanders' announcement of campaign suspension, it took less than a day before Biden's camp set on Bernie Sanders supporters across the social media landscape. All manner of slander was hurled at people championing universal healthcare during the pandemic, claims that people refusing to vote for a credibly accused rapist "did not care about marginalized people", "just want to throw a tantrum because their guy lost" or "just want Trump to win". Throughout all the mudslinging, no one was convinced of anything, because that's not a thing Facebook arguments can do. If a person is voting for Biden and wondering why so many Bernie supporters, who they know reject Trump and all he stands for, won't follow along, perhaps this article presented in a calmer setting can provide some insight.Establishment Democrats Deliberately Fail Every Marginalized Group They Claim to ChampionCustoms and Border Patrol facility in Tucson, Arizona, 2015. Photo credit: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/19/490624225/surveillance-stills-from-border-patrol-facilities-show-crowded-trash-filled-cell The Obama/Biden administration was responsible for over 3 million deportations during their eight years in power. They committed all the same acts of family separation, caging children, and creating torturous conditions for their captives. It's the major reason Movimiento Cosecha stole the show at the Democratic Debates in Michigan on July 31st, to hold him accountable for that atrocity. Given that Biden has expressed zero interest in abolishing the Department of Homeland Security, the entity responsible for these acts of genocide, and was the architect of these conditions in the first place, there isn't anything to be gained for immigrant rights by voting for him. Is "we'll lock your child in a more polite cooler" really a selling point? The immigrant community comprises the majority of our workers farming food right now, they're right up there with healthcare and service workers a... Read more

]]>Fri, 10 Apr 2020 19:11:43 GMTA number of well-meaning people are trying to square their rage with racist violence that continues unabated week after week in this country. Folks find themselves  conflicted by the property damage, and in some areas looting, occurring as a protest to the deaths of George Floyd and so many African Americans at the hand of police.  I'm one of them.  I have a tough time squaring peaceful protest and property damage.  And while I don't think its a tactic I would likely pursue, I seek to understand what's happening in the context of the well-justified anger and rage.  First, there are opportunists that have been well-documented at a number of protests around the country.  This article documents a numbers of these incidents including one in Detroit where our friend Meeko Williams is seen in one of the videos in this article asking outsiders to stand down with police provocation (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/protesters-violence-george-floyd). (Hoping we see a report out from Metro-Detroit Political Action Network on what's been happening.) The mayor of Saint Paul noted that all or most of the arrests were folks from out of state.  There are a number of examples of peaceful protesters stopping or attempting to stop behaviors like looting.  The truth is there are left wing anarchists and right wing white supremacists itching for a much broader fight.  I’ve been to a number of protests over the years (though none this week), and I try to keep my distance from the anarchists who show up.  I don’t understand their ideology and I’m not a big fan of their tactics, especially latching on to otherwise peaceful protests.  Movement building requires dealing with these kinds of tensions where allies or potential allies don't share all of your values or change making strategies.   Life is most certainly a Higher Order Concern than PropertyI wouldn’t discount the fact that there are a lot of f... Read more

]]>Sun, 31 May 2020 21:53:38 GMTIn times of great emotional duress, I normally find myself writing.  To this point in our current crisis, the impulse went missing, like so much of our lives over the last four weeks.  The intellectual processing loses its struggle with the reptilian brain that could only communicate at work or on social media to shout from the rooftops that the "Sky is Falling!"  It was.  It is.  Silver linings can be found for sure, but we should first allow ourselves to grieve for what has been lost, both big and small.  The graduations, the sports seasons, the shared experiences of social beings evolved to build community with each other are all missing and will be for a lot longer than we thought they might when we were ordered to stay home.   The biggest losses are the lives lost.  We must acknowledge the sheer terror of mass graves and morgues in our cities, of seeing the front lines and stress of the heroes trying to heal as best they can while putting themselves in harm's way.   There is horror in the death and illness and fear for what it means for me, for our family, for our community, for our country, for our world.   I don't want to see that day of intubation...would my heart and panic even allow me to get that point?  Do I invite such a fate by even talking about it?  This cough I've had for 6 weeks goes away and comes back, each time bringing with it the fundamental questions of life and death.   Jesus himself was scared about the reality of death before him.  We all have been there.   It is Good Friday after all and as my 7 year old son asks. "Why do the call it 'Good' Friday? Shouldn't it be bad?  Of all the bad Good Fridays, this has got to be one of the worst.  Good Friday always seems to be dreary, no matter where I have been in the world, as if nature accedes to the Christian traditions for one day to allow us to dwell in our lamentations for the loss of the soul we be... Read more

]]>Fri, 10 Apr 2020 20:38:17 GMTI don't think any of us have any doubt that peaceful protests lead by BIPOC communities are treated differently.  We saw this in the uprising this summer. Can you imagine if there was a violent storming of the Capitol? There's just no way there would be such a light law enforcement, no way there would have been a small number of arrests, no way it wouldn't have been met with law enforcement violence, no way folks would have been casually walking in and out of the Capitol. I'm glad the media are using appropriate terms like insurrection, mob violence, and domestic terrorism, and accountability is now required.#impeach and #convict#25thamendment

]]>Thu, 07 Jan 2021 15:28:51 GMTIt's late, I'll be brief, kinda:I'm listening to the Dodgers vs the Rockies on my iPos Touch, as I write  :- ) First, basically, I was surprised how well it went, flaws, but mostly in the wabi sabi spirit? For the most part, I loved it. My take away was that Trump was accurately on display as a man who has petered out .... the air went out of the Baby Trump balloon?But! let me stop there. The time for complacency is NEVER.It is not just the Democrats that Trump hates with all his bottomless bile, it is Democracy itself!\.There was a lot to love though:     * The roll call was amazing - so wonderful to jump from state to state that way     * It was great to see and hear the Obamas, right? So stern, so alert to the danger that is Trump           Michelle: Empathy: that's something I've been thinking a lot about lately.                         Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation. A nation that's underperforming not simply on matters of policy but on matters of character. And                                that's not just disappointing; it's downright infuriating, because I know the goodness and the grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across                                       this nation.         Barack: So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come.We were all, of course, wondering when Joe came up to bat. Then he, for the most part, hit it out of the park. It was a triple anyway. I sat back as it went on, relaxed, and enjoyed it.Jill made me think "what the hell are we doing, wasting our time, hanging around with Melania?"I thought they handled the people from the streets: the woman who's Dad's only pre-existing condition was that he trusted Trump: the lovable stuttering kid: ...The topic of course sprawls, calls for a pre-or-post-COVID bar, and a 4 hour conversation .... My take-away: I'm optimist... Read more

]]>Sat, 22 Aug 2020 04:10:48 GMTSenator Kamala Harris makes herstory as the first African American and Asian American woman on a major party ticket.  #kamalaharris #election2020 #democrats #politics #vote 

]]>Thu, 20 Aug 2020 01:30:55 GMTHeader: Secret Service agents deployed for a Trump rally in a pole barn off MI-53 in Washington Twp. on April 28th, 2018.While the kidnapping by Federal agents at 7 mile and Greenfield today was the work of ATF agents, the disturbing part of the NDAA is that these agents can just as easily switch their patches to be deployed under Trump's orders, just like in Portland. Since the US has gone Full Gestapo, we'd like to share these tips for organizers and protesters alike to limit their opportunities to black bag us.1. End the march where it starts, disperse all at once so they can't pick people off walking back from a second location.2. Make sure someone who knows your legal name and DOB is aware of where you're protesting, when you should be back, and who is organizing. Organizers, we need to make post-action inboxes a top priority to monitor.3. National Lawyers Guild Detroit & Michigan Chapter is your friend, if you see someone taken, make sure to inform the brave folks in the lime hats, and if we're following #2, they'll be in a position to coordinate with protest organizers and emergency contacts.4. This may be controversial, but we'd recommend pausing the intentional arrest strategy. We still expect arrests to happen with militant action, but submitting to cuffs in mass numbers now creates the terrifying question "where will they be sent"? NDAA is a vicious law.5. If you volunteer for action roles such as crowd safety or medic, make sure you can stay at least an hour past the listed action end time to allow for large group escorts back to demonstrators cars.6. Bring a change of clothes to every action, make sure you have different articles of clothing that can cover up the physical attributes listed on your driver's license (hair color, eye color, etc.) DPD's facial recog matches people to licenses, so the emphasis must be there.7. Cover your tats, with tape if needed. One bold anti-fascist that painted "Fuck ICE" on their Detroit HQ was only identified becau... Read more

]]>Wed, 22 Jul 2020 00:01:21 GMTYou pro-Trump pro-military folks have a choice to make:  Continue support for Trump or Back up your pro-military talk and denounce Cadet Bone Spurs and his division and support leaders who actually fought for this nation.  General James Mattis said “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of the Constitution.”#trump #resigntrump #promilitary #cadetbonespurs #bunkerboy #maddofmattis #makeachoice 

]]>Sun, 07 Jun 2020 21:43:20 GMTThis is a petition that addresses the lack of compensation to Haiti for the cholera outbreak introduced by the United Nations years ago. The appeal is especially timely now that the number of Haitians infected by COVID-19 is rising. Please sign and share with your networks. The petition will have true impact only with your support. On April 30, 2020, 14 United Nations-appointed human rights experts sharply admonished the UN for denying compensation to Haiti after UN peacekeepers introduced cholera into the country in 2010. Cholera broke out in Haiti for the first time in the country's history because the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) deployed peacekeepers from Nepal - a country then experiencing an active cholera outbreak - without adequately screening for infection. Peacekeepers recklessly disposed of contaminated faecal waste into Haiti's largest river. The official death toll from cholera stands at 9,789, though studies suggest the true toll may be three to 10 times higher. Nearly one million Haitians have been infected - a per capita toll that exceeds any nation impacted by COVID-19 so far.   In 2016, then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon issued a long overdue apology for the agency's role in introducing the disease into the country.  He also launched a $400M initiative to eliminate cholera and provide material assistance to those most affected by the epidemic. Since then, the UN's follow through has been pitiful and deeply disappointing, as the world body has raised only five percent of the amount needed to render Haiti whole again.  It did so opting to rely on charitable contributions over funding efforts through its budget.Compensation for victims is legally required.  It would also save lives. Without remedies for the impacts of cholera, the COVID-19 pandemic now threatens to deal a double blow to Haiti as citizens are left without critical means to protect themselves from the new disease or the ability to absorb yet another economic shock.Fin... Read more

]]>Sat, 30 May 2020 23:10:41 GMThttps://sign.moveon.org/petitions/this-pandemic-demands-a-systemic-response-an-urgent-message-from-the-poor-people-s-campaign The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us into an unprecedented national emergency. This emergency, however, results from a deeper and much longer-term crisis - that of poverty and inequality and of a society that ignores the needs of 140 million people who are poor or a $400 emergency away from being poor.These millions of people are in dire need of critical attention immediately. We call on you to fulfill your moral and Constitutional responsibilities: expand the COVID-19 emergency provisions to care for us all and enact our Moral Agenda immediately.Why is this important?We cannot return to normal. Addressing the depth of the crises that have been revealed in this pandemic means enacting universal health care, expanding social welfare programs, ensuring access to water and sanitation, cash assistance to poor and low income families, good jobs, living wages and an annual income and protecting our democracy. It means ensuring that our abundant national resources are used for the general welfare, instead of war, walls, and the wealthy.We also call on you to immediately enact the demands of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to fully address the COVID-19 outbreak and the underlying crises of poverty and inequality that made so many vulnerable right now. Read them here: bit.ly/PPCDemandsWE DEMAND THAT YOU INCLUDE:1. Immediate, comprehensive and permanent paid sick leave for 100% of employees for this pandemic. Paid sick leave must become standard across all sectors of the labor market.2. Immediate health care for all, including 100% free COVID-19 testing, treatment and quality care to all, regardless of income, age, disability, citizenship or any other factor, and including the uninsured.3. A guaranteed and adequate annual income/universal income, including rapid, direct payments to all low-wage and temporary workers fo... Read more

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