Protesting the Present to Build a Future
Be Better Than Democratic Politicians
This weekend, people all over the world stood up for great change. The signs were different, the specific antagonisms varied, but all had in common opposition to the growing specter of things the way they are.
In Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine, Serbia and Hungary there were protests against Russian influence and corruption.
Young people in 80 countries worldwide answered a call from activist Greta Thunberg to raise their voices about climate change.
In Greenland, people came out to express opposition to the idea of being taken over by the United States.
San Diego saw two protests on Friday, one at the Federal Courthouse protesting cuts to education and the other at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park with veterans against cuts being enacted at the VA.
In the U.S., people in 80 cities picketed Tesla dealers nationwide on Saturday, including an energetic group at the Encinitas dealership location, organized by Swing Left/Take Action San Diego, The Democratic Club of Carlsbad and Oceanside, and Indivisible 49.
There were protests calling for the release of activist Mahmoud Kihlil in New York City, Boston, Ann Arbor, Phoenix, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Miami and Indianapolis on Saturday and Sunday. On Thursday, 65 people associated with Jewish Voice for Peace were arrested in the lobby of Trump Tower, calling for the release of Kahlil.
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On Friday, ten Senate Democrats conceded what little power the opposition party has left, citing the pipe dream of gaining concessions when the budget for the United States is considered next fall. It was a lose-lose situation, made worse by performative nonsense in recent weeks. The expectation, true or not, was that Democrats were about to “do something.”
My cynical view of this is that they were assuming people will be fed up with MAGA and ready to fix up guardrails come September. Sen. Chuck Schumer told the New York Times that getting Trump’s approval rating below 40% would prompt bi-partisan legislation.
The only world where this is possible would be a world where Donald J Trump is acting solely out of self-interest, like a petty thief stealing some candy bars. Our current president will be amply rewarded by his cronies with opportunities for self-enrichment, and while that should be immoral and illegal, the real crime in progress is the destruction of governmental institutions necessary as a precondition for a new type of governance.
Polling released last week shows that the public has soured on Democrats nationally, with a record low 29% of the general public saying they approve of the party.
Via CNN:
Democrats, who overwhelmingly consider Trump too extreme, have yet to consolidate around any one-party leader to serve as a counterpoint. Asked in an open-ended question to name the Democratic leader they feel “best reflects the core values” of the party, 10% of Democratic-aligned adults name New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 9% former vice president Kamala Harris, 8% Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 6% House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Another 4% each name former president Barack Obama and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, with Schumer joining a handful of others at 2%.
More than 30% didn’t offer a name in response. “No one,” one respondent answered. “That’s the problem.”
The heart and soul of leaders in the Democratic party continue to act as if they were the minority party in a democracy, not realizing the need for a viable opposition to forces seeking to impose an authoritarian regime based on the supremacy of corporate capitalism as a method of governance.
In six months when Schumer, et.al., think they’ll have leverage, critical government capabilities will likely be obliterated. Rule of law will be severely damaged through nullification of those forces who demand it. The administration will roll back the clock –as they have already attempted with nullification of the Biden pardon. And every act of acquiescence we’ve already seen will have been amplified many times over.
Economic challenges in people’s daily lives due to ignorant policies, widespread grifting, and job losses will be blunted by fear, law enforcement crackdowns, and networks of snitches. Things will suck, and we’ll be flooded with propaganda to distract us.
Did the Biden administration really require post birth abortions to be the norm? I can’t remember… Was COVID a globalist conspiracy?…yada yada…
Underlying Trump’s ascension to power is the end of the American consumerist dream. The possibilities of a better life promised in the post WWII era slowly disappeared over the past decades, and the only future for many people is struggling to stay where they were economically.
There is no going back now. The country is being run by racists and grifters, hiding behind the trope of persecution. The president is all-in to enact vengeance on his enemies and the institutions that enabled them, along with denying them the rights traditionally afforded Americans. Voter suppression and active interference in elections are being actively pursued.
The government’s role as a measuring stick through data collection and analysis will wither away as partisan gain becomes the underlying standard. Dissent is being criminalized, redefined as the actions of enemies of the people meriting the application of overwhelming force.
Most importantly, the individuals and institutions typically serving as part of the checks and balances in a democracy, are going to abdicate their responsibilities. The crackdown on law firms believed to have had a role in prior investigations and enforcement, has already scared big name legal organizations away from standing up for the right of representation.
Trump has already defied a court order aimed at halting the deportation of Venezuelans to a superprison in El Salvador. The president of El Salvador, asked for comment, snickered and said “oops.”
The odds are stacked against a minority party insisting that all the king's men can put together a shattered constitutional democracy.
The Democratic Party’s value to a real opposition movement will lie in the infrastructure of local networks, where such networks exist. Locally, it seems like phone banking and other GOTV activities are all the county party can muster. Some clubs, like the Democratic Woman’s, are doing more in terms of education and networking.
Increasing numbers of people will need to share their frustrations; sharing spaces with others so they know they're not alone. Providing even a minimal amount of structure could go a long way towards breaking down the cynicism and divisions endemic in our approach to oligarchy.
Hamilton Nolan in Seeing Things for What They Are:
Extreme things—things that sit completely outside of the mental framework that too many of our political leaders are still using to govern their decisions—are happening now. And they are going to happen more. And they are going to get more extreme. This does not mean that we are in a hopeless situation. It does, however, mean that we must adjust our interpretation of the world, or be left behind. We must see things not for what we wish they were, or for what they used to be, but for what they are. There is no way to see beyond the curve when you’re looking towards the past.
Acting as a political opposition means understanding the strategies and goals of those who we are up against. There are lots of parts to how this soft coup taking place has come about, but suffice it to say for this essay, the idea of government as business (not running government like a business) is the end goal. Efficiency rather than service would be the yardstick of success. Of course, some (wealthy) people are “better” than others, so they should run things.
Darwinian capitalism with the inequality and divisions that flow from it, has been the real threat to what was the “American way.” This economic evolution has corrupted our politics and corrupted the term democracy to the point where it lacks any practical meaning in this country.
Our wannabe authoritarians are seeking a reorganization leading to a “network state” whose purpose is defined as efficient distribution of resources aimed at preservation of wealth. The solution they’re selling is packaged as going backwards into a mythical society (based on the darkest chapters of western civilization’s history).
Saying we as the opposition want to return to the days of Clinton, Obama, and Biden is wrong in two ways. First of all, this is recent history and on a personal level people don’t remember it as being all that “great.”
Secondly, we should be advocating moving forward.
The sales pitch of Trump et al is wrapped in fear, because it’s a well-known fact that it will provoke action, in this case the actions needed to undermine democracy.
There is one simple thing that will move people and travel as far and as fast as fear; that’s inspiration.
Rather than move backward to assuage assorted fears (deftly exploited by MAGA), moving forward to a future beyond just a few tweaks can be a viable path.
Via David Rothkopf in There Is No Progress Without Sacrilege:
Most of the current leaders of the so-called opposition in this country do lack courage and a sense of urgency. But perhaps most worrisomely, they also lack imagination.
They can’t see that the crisis we are in flows from the vast majority of Americans in both parties being grossly dissatisfied with the status quo. And they don’t recognize that if one party’s solution to that is to go backwards…far backwards into dark chapters of our history…the natural role for the other party should be to seek to move forward.
Worse still, they don’t even dare discuss the changes that we are in dire and desperate need of discussing. They don’t even want us to discuss it. Raising such questions, is, after all, as we have established, sacrilege.
But then again, all progress, real progress, requires sacrilege.
How about starting with: Do we really need billionaires?
Okay, maybe that’s too much of a sacrilege, though it would be fun to watch the current class of knowitall pundits melt down over this. Even asshole Bill Maher would need a hit or two of oxygen to pull himself off the ground.
The more reasonable path could involve a progressive version of the Tea Party. Maybe if there’s anything left of the House of Representatives come 2026, an emboldened progressive caucus not willing to play nice would be a good start.
It could even arise from the speaking tours Bernie, AOC, and even Tim Walz are doing. Maybe even a labor leader or two could step outside their comfort zone.
It’d be nice if a local elected official or three let it be known in an up close and personal way that they actually hear the voices of their constituents….that they’re willing to voice support to grassroots actions expressing sentiment. (Don’t invoke past protests as suggested courses for action, say you’ll unreservedly be there as things develop. Stand up with constituents, not just for.)
BTW - Rep Mike Levin had a town hall this weekend in San Juan Capistrano, and the account in the U-T shows he wasn’t prepared for the public anger he faced.
The last participant to take the podium was Nicole Gambino, a 38-year-old Solana Beach resident. Her message took a detour from the majority of the participants’ tone, asking the politician if he stood alongside billionaires or the people.
Calling out Levin for taking money from political action committees — which the congressman denied in his response, despite record of contributions — she asked the politician to consider the younger generation.
“I am here to tell you this system is broken,” Gambino said. “And this isn’t just my voice; it is the voice of an entire generation that has been ignored, dismissed, and outright robbed of the future we were promised.”
I think people like Rep. Darrell Issa, or Assm. Carl DeMaio are especially worthy of public scorn. They are the faces of fascism in our community, and I’m thrilled to see North County activists demanding that Issa face his constituents.
The era of civility depending on societal and political guardrails no longer exists. This doesn’t mean being stupid or cruel; it means being honest. With yourself. With others. And not giving a flying F— about what those on the teats of the ruling class will say.
Onward! To a Star Trek future, maybe. Or whatever makes sense.
First we’ve got to rid ourselves of the time travelers from 1930s Germany.
Cell phone bans in schools don't work, new study finds by Taylor Lorenz at User Mag
“Do we want to prepare students for the world, or for the confines of the classroom?” a parent in Los Angeles wrote in response to calls for a ban. “A world without smartphones, and their facilitation of both on-demand information and their distraction, is not a world our children will live in. A nuanced approach to facilitating and managing smartphone use in educational settings might be difficult to figure out, but it does not pretend that we can simply close the Pandora’s box of technology in our daily lives.
To be clear: I don’t think that kids should be allowed to sit on their phones all day in class!! But banning all phones outright simply does not purport to solve the problems that people claim, and the coordinated, well-funded efforts to restrict kids access to the internet and technology (in school and out) are based in politics and feelings, not facts and reality.
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Gavin Newsom’s Podcast Is a Political Disaster by Gil Duran at FrameLab
We often hear it said that Democratic leaders must embrace Republican positions and move towards the mythical “middle” in politics. Now, thanks to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, we have more definitive proof that it doesn't work.
This month, Newsom tried to rebrand himself as a MAGA-friendly Democrat by launching a podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, in which he lavishes praise on extremist Republican figures like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. While some conservatives have praised Newsom’s podcast pivot as clever, the reality is that he may have dealt a fatal blow to his political ambitions.
There’s data to prove it. California political analyst Paul Mitchell conducted a poll and sentiment analysis to gauge Californians’ responses to Newsom’s podcast pivot. The results are brutal.
Main Takeaway: Newsom's podcast pivot was a political faceplant. His net favorability dropped by 10 points after the release of the podcast.
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'Audible enclaves' could enable private listening without headphones by Pennsylvania State University at Techxplore
It may someday be possible to listen to a favorite podcast or song without disturbing the people around you, even without wearing headphones. In a new advancement in audio engineering, a team of researchers led by Yun Jing, professor of acoustics in the Penn State College of Engineering, has precisely narrowed where sound is perceived by creating localized pockets of sound zones, called audible enclaves.
In an enclave, a listener can hear sound, while others standing nearby cannot, even if the people are in an enclosed space, like a vehicle, or standing directly in front of the audio source.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers explain how emitting two nonlinear ultrasonic beams creates audible enclaves, where sound can only be perceived at the precise intersection point of two ultrasonic beams.
