Are YOU Willing to Be Part of a 3.5 percent Solution?

Let's turn up the volume

Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor

On Tuesday, President Trump began his working day (at 4:30am) by sending out a threat via his money-losing social media platform. To wit:

• All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Obviously he’s starting to notice the growing numbers of protests around the country.

Specifically, he must have seen a Fox News account about students at Barnard College occupying a building at the school’s Manhattan campus.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Barnard & Columbia are affiliated) claimed credit for a sit-in at Barnard’s Milbank Hall. They were demanding reinstatement of two students expelled for disrupting an Israeli history course in February, amnesty for students disciplined for “pro-Palestine action or thought,” a public meeting with Barnard President Laura Rosenbury and Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage, and full transparency in disciplinary proceedings.

Physical confrontations between protesters and college staff have renewed disputes over campus safety and academic institutions’ response to Israel’s war on Gaza. Some media coverage characterized the protest as “violent,” others noted the college's claim that $30,000 in damage was done to the facility.

What got the students national publicity was their attire. Videos posted to social media by protest organizers showed masked students wearing keffiyehs, a traditional Middle Eastern scarf often symbolizing Palestinian identity, sitting inside a hallway chanting, clapping and beating drums

Via CNN:

• Barnard leadership “made multiple good-faith efforts to de-escalate” the demonstration and “offered to meet with the protesters – just as we meet with all members of our community – on one simple condition: remove their masks. They refused. We have also offered mediation,” Levine said.

• “When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act,” Rosenbury said. “Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience.”

• CUAD said that unmasking exposes them “to greater risk of doxxing, violence, and disciplinary action.” They added, “This move by President Rosenbury and Dean Grinage violates the previously agreed upon terms and betrays the spirit of good faith negotiation.”

Dissent stemming from the Middle East war, no matter what position is proffered, is triggering to people passionate about the conflict. And the wearing of keffiyehs conjures up visions of violence, no matter what the situation, making for sensational imagery guaranteed to get attention. (I’m not anti-keffiyeh)

President Trump has seized that imagery to carry forth his threats to punish student demonstrators. It’s going to be tough to cut through the reverberations coming from the past month’s wall of shit, so sounding the alarm is a useful propaganda tool.

A problem for the administration is that escalating protests against its actions and policies aren’t being organized by students at this point. The sense that an emergency is about to occur is a good excuse for announcing authoritarian measures and motivating the MAGA base.

Some talking heads have played the Antifa card to gin up fear; others are involving boogie man George Soros. However, spring is coming, and that’s traditionally when social consciousness awakens on college campuses, so maybe the Trumpettes are trying to get ahead of the curve.

The people who would bring Robert's Rules of Order as pushback against administration policies will no doubt be reminding would-be protesters to be afraid. It should be obvious by now that Chuck Shumer and Hakeem Jeffries aren’t going to be resistance leaders. Let them have their letters of protest and other futile gestures (the noise might help) and ignore them otherwise.

Hamilton Nolan’s column on responses to the state of the destruction of the state speech given before a joint session of Congress is some of the most brilliant and hard hitting writing I’ve seen in recent times. He has the sort of “edginess” needed for getting us beyond the entity that amounts to “a pale jumble of consulting firms trying to sell unflavored broth at the Gumbo Festival.”

• I should not say that the Democrats offer nothing. One attendee last night sent me a picture of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee-branded cookies that were being handed out last night. The facts show that the Democrats are, in fact, taking action. And that action is delicious.

• “The power of the people is stronger than the people in power,” read one sign at the protest last night. This sentiment is true. It offers little salvation, however, until we have the people. The people in the streets must outnumber the people watching the TV show called America’s Colorful Journey to Hell, and then, the show will be over. The protests must swell until they rise up to the top floor of the Hay-Adams and wash away the people with money who are sipping drinks in comfort and waiting patiently for all of this to settle down. They can wait for a long, long time. The wave of the people isn’t even getting their shoes wet yet.

Protests against administration policies are coming from many sectors and increasing in frequency. Their organic nature serves as a protective barrier against traditional forms of state harassment, and the emphasis on being “peaceful” encourages more participation.

The concept of advocating for collective action aimed at doing better can be difficult, but given that MAGAts have operational and political control of the federal government, its emergence should shape the leadership of the future.

The media and traditional institutionalists will be pushing for “leaders” to emerge or arise from their cocoons, and I hope that is something to be avoided at this point. The messages and desire for change are more important than any personality. People should focus on organizing, organizing, organizing. There is no room for a “made for streaming” leader.

So here’s a little secret about how we can “win”….

At FrameLab, an outlet I look to for guidance on effective messaging, Gil Duran did a great job of describing a winning strategy. It’s so good, that I’m just going to repost more than my normal snippets here:

The 3.5% Rule: The Power of Small but Mighty Movements

Political scientist Erica Chenoweth studied over 300 uprisings across history and found something remarkable: When just 3.5% of the population actively joins a movement, she says, change becomes inevitable. From the BBC:

• Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

• “There weren’t any campaigns that had failed after they had achieved 3.5% participation during a peak event,” Chenoweth said.

That's not a huge majority. That's not waiting for "everyone else" to wake up. That's a small, determined group of people who decide enough is enough.

And here's what matters: In Chenoweth's extensive data set, every nonviolent movement that reached that 3.5% threshold succeeded – whether toppling dictators, dismantling apartheid, or securing fundamental rights.

When you look at organizing to achieve a passionate 3.5% of the populace, it’s very achievable.

What are you waiting for?

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Via the folks with Change Begins With Me, here are some upcoming events that may be of interest. I’ll be doing my best to alert readers to events as fast as I learn of them.

3/07 – WE RISE FOR JUSTICE with Leah Greenberg & Susan Crawford
3/07 – Stand Up For Science Rally -UCSD Geisel Library, Noon
3/07 - 50501 Stand Up for Science Rally & March - City Hall 2pm to Waterfront Park
3/07 - 3/14 – Amazon Blackout

• Amazon.com – No Prime orders, no impulse buys.

• Kindle & Audible – No eBook or audiobook purchases.

• Whole Foods & Amazon Fresh – Buy groceries elsewhere.

• Twitch, Ring, MGM, and all Amazon-owned brands – No support.

3/07 - Issa Hold A Town Hall Rally, 10:30-11:30am WEEKLY, 221 W Crest St #110, Escondido
3/08 - International Women's Day,
Playground Edition & Rally- 9:30-11am Waterfront Park Playground, Pacific Highway
3/08 – International Women's Day,
11am, Unite & Resist County Administration Bldg, 1600 Pacific Hwy
3/09 - Stand With Ukraine Rally - 2-4pm, Balboa Park at El Cid Statue,
3/10 - SD350 Climate March and Rally - 11am, US District Court, 333 West Broadway
3/10 – Public Power Meeting - RSVP by sending an email to info@publicpowersd.org
3/15 – Tesla Take Down Encinitas, 1PM
3/21-3/28 – Nestle Blackout, details tba
4/07-4/14 – Walmart Blackout, details tba
4/18 – Total Blackout 2, details tba

Click HERE for more upcoming events.

Beware Trump’s Talk of Coming “Emergencies” by Katherine Stewart at the New Republic

• You might think that the disruption of government services and risk of serious harm to the public would be a disadvantage. But you might be wrong about that. A little pandemic that slips through the cracks of a downsized Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a terrorist attack that gets past a weakened intelligence and law enforcement community; a peaceful protest that gets out of hand and provokes a violent response; an international conflict resulting from broken alliances, broken promises, or just plain lunatic adventurism—these self-inflicted wounds might prompt just the emergency that America’s authoritarians need.

• When it comes to communicating the threat, let’s bear in mind that the rhetoric of doom can be part of the problem. Trump’s tireless trash-talking of the country should be understood as priming the public for emergency action. He keeps telling his base that America is a hellhole because he understands instinctively that the more hellish people think it is, the more likely they are to give him license to do as he pleases. The message those of us who believe in democracy and its institutions, including a functioning government, might seek to convey is something much closer to the truth: Most Americans would prefer to live in a democracy than a kleptocracy with authoritarian and theocratic features. A new “state of emergency” might be nothing more than an excuse for Trump and his allies to further the con.

***

A Speech Trump Will Come to Regret by Dan Pfieffer at The Message Box

• However, these speeches are a window into a President’s strategic thinking. They are a test of whether the President understands the politics of the moment and has a plan for success.

• And despite all of the plaudits from the pundits, Trump failed this test miserably. This speech was a waste. Trump won the presidency because of inflation. He talked about it incessantly on the campaign trail. It was a focus of his campaign ads.

• None of that populism was present last night. Trump thumbed his nose at voters’ biggest concern. In the longest joint address to Congress in history, Trump spent about two minutes on inflation.

• That’s a decision that he will come to regret.

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People Are Paying Millions to Dine With Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago at Wired

• Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for $5 million, according to sources with direct knowledge of the meetings. At a so-called candlelight dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective Mar-a-Lago guests were asked to spend $1 million to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by WIRED.

• “You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump,” the invitation reads, under a “MAGA INC.” header. MAGA Inc., or Make America Great Again Inc., is a super PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. “Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.”

• “You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump,” the invitation reads, under a “MAGA INC.” header. MAGA Inc., or Make America Great Again Inc., is a super PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. “Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.”