Democracy
This. Well said.
Ben Werdmuller: “Reeeeeally wish there wasn’t a…” - Werd Social
Reeeeeally wish there wasn’t an American imperialism part to this speech. But it’s too much to ask for there not to be. She is still a universe better than Trump, and than most Democrats. I’d love for America to think of the world in a different way, where America is a participant rather than the enforcer of a Pax Americana.
I do appreciate the applause for the Palestinian people. And I am excited for this vision of the Presidency more than any other official candidate in my lifetime.
This seems important:
Major Union Backing Harris-Walz Joins Call for Palestinian American to Speak at DNC | Common Dreams
The United Auto Workers—a major union backer of the Harris-Walz presidential ticket—added its voice Thursday to the growing chorus demanding that a Palestinian American be invited to address the Democratic National Convention in Chicago over Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip.
“If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” the UAW said on social media.
Do the Democrats believe Palestinians are lesser humans? That seems to be true given the difference in who is being allowed to speak inside the DNC. Israel gets a voice. Palestine does not.
DNC Tells Uncommitted Delegates There Won’t Be Any Pro-Palestinian Speaker | Truthout
Democracy Now reports that during President Biden’s speech on the first night of the DNC, a few delegates were able to briefly unfurl a banner that read Stop Arming Israel.
Other delegates attempted to take the banner which was then taken away by convention staff. The delegates were then forced out.
So, that’s democracy in action huh? Only approved signs and cheerleading? No dissent, not even from delegates?
Got it.
We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden. He’s the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that.
A harrowing recounting of Antifa activists countering fascists and thoughts on the bigger picture of America pre-2024 election.
Seven years ago, anarchists and other anti-fascists converged in Charlottesville, Virginia to oppose the “Unite the Right” rally. The organizers of the rally intended to bring together Klansmen, neo-Nazis, far-right militias, and fascists from the so-called “alt-right” to build a unified white supremacist street movement.
Never. They won’t ever admit it. On micro.blog and elsewhere there were a few folks insisting Biden was totally fine. It was a very bizarre loyalty play we see with MAGA loyalists. Shut up and get in line, no time or space for disagreement.
They were wrong. It’s a problem of denial of reality that we still see on other issues like the genocide they want to pretend isn’t happening.
When Will the Biden Dead-Enders Admit They Were Wrong? | The Nation
Hey, can we circle back to when many supposedly intelligent people were making one of the most obviously ridiculous political arguments of all time?
Why is Aipac not required to register as an agent of a foreign government?
Cori Bush warns pro-Israel lobby ‘to be afraid’ after primary loss | The Guardian
“They’re about to see this other Cori, this other side. Aipac, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.”
Bush, who will continue to serve in Congress until January, added: “All they did was radicalise me, so now they need to be afraid.”
Excellent post by Ben Werd on the importance of news and quality journalism to a functioning democracy. It should be obvious that an informed citizenry is the foundation of democracy. But we live in a time when the responsibilities of citizenship are barely an afterthought in a culture largely dominated by the trivial.
Every so often, a post goes around in tech circles about how news is bad and we shouldn’t pay attention to it. I think that’s ludicrous.
Today’s was a post from 2022 called The News is Information Junk Food. I think it’s a bad argument that could have poor consequences.
I volunteered as an escort at a couple of abortion clinics in Memphis during the mid 1990s. Those anti-choice people didn’t like us much.
An excellent podcast described as is a “call to action for movement work and mutual aid efforts around the country.”
Radical Acts of Care: From Underground Abortions to Militant Clinic Defense | Truthout
In this episode, Hume and host Kelly Hayes discuss the work of abortion self-help activists who provided illegal abortions in the 1970s, as well as militant clinic defenders, who repelled right-wing efforts to blockade abortion clinics in the ’80s and ’90s.
Grassroots organizing kicked off a couple weeks ago by Black Women for Harris. There’s a Rural Folks for Harris online event set for 8/6 at 7pm CT.
…we aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully our neighbors and continue to let stereotypes that Trump and JD Vance perpetuate go unanswered or unchecked about our strong rural communities.
Freedom is a value we hold in our rural towns. We like to say what doesn’t bother the cattle doesn’t bother us, meaning mind your own business. We also don’t like big corporations with greedy shareholders who take advantage of our small towns.
Monday, July 29th, 8pm ET White Dudes For Harris Call Sign-Up Form
Over 10,000 white men from all across the country are expected to join the effort this week and will be on hand to welcome Vice President Harris to the presidential race and pledge to help get her elected.
Together, we aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology because we understand that under MAGA everyone loses.
Trump is totally unhinged.
Trump tells supporters they won’t have to vote in the future: ‘It’ll be fixed!’ | The Guardian. From his rally Friday night:
“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time – you won’t have to do it anymore…
“You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians…
I’m not Christian. I love you. Get out – you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
Given the recent circulation of a Hannah Arendt quote that may or may not be factual, here are a few sourced articles about her:
Lying in Politics: Hannah Arendt on Deception, Self-Deception and the Psychology of Defactualization
Disinformation and Democracy | Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities:
Seeing this quote on social media recently, attributed to Hannah Arendt. Can’t find a source though. Ironic that it may not be an actual quote. 😂
“This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”
The Kamala Harris Campaign launch video is so good:
The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body. We choose a future where no child lives in poverty, where we can all afford health care, where no one is above the law.
Electing Kamala Harris is essential but we can’t stop there. That’s just our job for the fall of 2024.
Like many I went to bed Sunday night with increased hope that we had a real chance to beat Trump and Project 2025. That hope has only grown each day this week. This looks like it will be a crushing wave. Good. Fantastic. Let’s get to work.
But.
But let’s remember, due to OUR negligence and OUR lack of effort we have many crises to deal with beyond the 2024 election. OUR WORK is only beginning. Our political system is fundamentally broken. Our society is deeply fractured. Our planet is burning and our economy rooted in ever-increasing, unnecessary over-consumption. Our foreign policy is based on violent interventions and conflict profiteering. Our domestic policing is out of control. We have a real oligarchy to bring down.
Electing Kamala Harris is just what we do next. But then it’s on us to keep going. We’ve got decades of neglect to deal with. We the People have not been doing our job in regards to our various governments. We’ve not been nearly as active as we should be. Citizenship is not just voting for representatives that we hope will fix our problems for us. Voting is only one part of our job. Real and meaningful citizenship is what we can do any day of the week in our communities, where we live.
YES. THIS. This is everything. We are the solution we need.
Joan Westenberg: Fuck Looking for the Helpers. Be One.
We distance ourselves from the problem. By focusing on identifying those swooping in to save the day, we subconsciously categorize ourselves as separate from the solution. We become observers rather than participants. It’s a subtle but insidious form of learned helplessness.
We absolve ourselves of responsibility. If our job is simply to notice and appreciate the helpers, we don’t have to grapple with our own potential role in addressing whatever clusterfuck is unfolding.
I’m not a Democrat but will vote for whatever Democrat is on the ticket. His stubbornness and insistence on remaining in the race is ridiculous at this point.
At This Rally, Everyone Loves Biden—and Wants Him to Drop Out – Mother Jones
“Young people have been shutting down streets, lobbying Congress, pressuring the White House, organizing for a chance to save our democracy, beat MAGA fascism, and win November’s presidential election with a new democratic presidential nominee,” said speaker Claudia Nachega, a 19-year-old college student and reproductive justice activist.