pat_k
pat_k's JournalCome on Dems! Draft articles of impeachment against 47, Vance, the cabinet, and the 6 black-robed traitors.
They are ALL violating the constitution and multiple laws in plain sight. Impeachment and removal is the remedy.
Draft the articles and make the case in the court of public opinion.
This is a moral imperative. To accuse them of crimes against both the spirit and the letter of the law WITHOUT seeking to impeach is a statement that the crimes do not rise to that level.
We need (1) Sweeping articles of impeachment and (2) A declaration stating the nature of the crimes in SIMPLE language that becomes the foundation for hammering them on their crimes and making the case that impeachment and removal of ALL the perpetrators is the ONLY remedy that meets the magnitude, depth, and breadth of the violations.
When it comes to high crimes, it is CONGRESS, not the courts that pass judgment.
And it starts in the people's house for a reason.
The high crimes are being committed against We the People. Our representatives have a DUTY to act.
The Epstein scandal could be the match that sparks unprecedented transformation
Epstein is SOOO much bigger than "who's on the list."
It is a decades long obscenity and corrupt, knee jerk protection of the rich and powerful over multiple administrations.
It is the embodiment of the corrosive effect the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many has on any society that allows it.
The blowback could transform the adoration of wealth and power so many have held onto into a recognition of the magnitude with which such power inevitably corrupts.
It could be the match that starts a firestorm that burns down resistance to reversing the current flow of dollars from the many to the few.
It could be the wake up call that we must end the obscene accumulation of wealth and its corruption of our society, and the beginning of transformational laws: minimum wage that reflects the increase of worker productivity over the last five decades, inheritance tax, wealth tax, progressive tax on income, higher tax on capital gains than earned income.
As we advocate for these things, we MUST do more than cite vague benefits, like strengthening safety nets, blah, blah. In addition to Universal Health Care, we need to be levying these taxes for something truly transformative -- something like Piketty-style "Inheritance for all"
I think Piketty's Inheritance for All is a tangible benefit that we need to start calling on our electeds to start the drumbeat for now. That would put us on the path to achieving it -- or something even better -- before the youth of today are our age.
We will never build the political will for such transformative change if no one is advocating for it.
Silence and surrendering in advance on anything the Democratic consultant class deems "unwinnable" helped bring us to this point.
I know many object to using AI summaries, but this one on inheritance for all does a better job of summarizing than I could:
What it is: A universal, one-time payment given to every citizen at age 25.
How it's funded: By significantly increasing wealth and inheritance taxes on the wealthiest individuals and estates.
How much: The amount is proposed to be around €120,000 or $150,000-$180,000 in other contexts.
The goal: To counteract the inequality created by inherited wealth by providing a "starter capital" for all young adults, thereby increasing their financial power and life choices.
Context: It is presented as one part of a broader "participatory socialism" plan, which also includes other reforms like higher income taxes and worker co-determination in corporations.
Where the hell are these headlines?!?
REPUBLICANS ALL LIED ABOUT THE ADMINISTRATION'S LEGAL OBLIGATION TO USE CONTINGENCY FUNDS FOR SNAP.
USDA SECTION 32 CURRENTLY HAS 23 BILLION AND WILL GET 30% OF THE TARIFFS COLLECTED THIS YEAR -- MANY TIMES THE NUMBER OF DOLLARS NEEDED TO FUND SNAP, WIC, AND ALL CHILDREN'S NUTRITION PROGRAMS DURING THE SHUTDOWN.
TRUMP'S LAWYERS CONTINUE TO LIE THAT USING SECTION 32 FUNDS FOR SNAP WOULD BE AN "UNACCEPTABLE RISK."
THE USDA HAS BEEN HOARDING SECTION 32 FUNDS INSTEAD OF USING THEM AS INTENDED, TO PURCHASE FOOD FROM FARMERS FOR FOOD BANKS, SCHOOL LUNCHES, AND OTHER PROGRAMS THAT FEED VULNERABLE AMERICANS.
------------------------------------------
The fact is, funding Food Nutrition Service (FNS) Child Nutrition Programs is a key purpose for the 23 billion in the Section 32 fund
39% of SNAP recipients are children. That makes it a child nutrition program as important as WIC and school lunch programs.
Furthermore, buying food for food banks and for FNS Child Nutrition Programs are KEY purposes to be served by Section 32 funds. WHY DID THE USDA STOP DOING THAT? WHY ARE THEY HOARDING FUNDS INSTEAD OF KEEPING FARMERS IN BUSINESS WHILE FEEDING VULNERABLE AMERICANS???
Furthermore, Section 32 is funded by 30% of customs duties from the prior year. Hasn't Trump been telling us that they've collected trillions in tariffs? Even if reality is closer to 100 billion, that means come 1/1/2025, the Section 32 fund is getting a deposit of about 30 billion that is COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF APPROPRIATIONS.
On one hand they say they can't use Section 32 funds for SNAP because they need it for Child Nutrition Programs. Clearly SNAP IS a Child Nutrition Program. On the other hand, they say they can't use the funds for SNAP because it would leave a shortfall in Child Nutrition Programs like WIC and school lunch programs.
Section 32 has 23 billion in it. And that is after transferring 300 million to WIC for Oct and 450 million to WIC in Nov. If they take the 6 billion dollar SNAP shortfall out of Section 32, they still have 17 billion, with another 30 billion arriving in two months.
They have told the courts that taking the 6 billion poses an "unacceptable risk."
Having 17 billion with a least 30 billion on the way sure doesn't sound like an unacceptable risk to me. And if we take Trump as his word about more than a trillion in tariffs, then...
I sure hope Judges Talwani and McConnell call BULLSHIT.
They are cruel lying liars who illegally withhold and redirect funds appropriated by Congress to exact vengeance and implement project 2025. But they REFUSE to feed people.
Scenes from Seattle's No Kings
It was difficult to get a shot of the overall crowd (everywhere with a good vantage was packed with people, which I count as a good thing!). FWIW, here is some of what I captured.
BTW, news outlets are estimating about 90,000 in Seattle (20,000 over the previous No Kings event).
Personally, I think the three venues that came together (Cal Anderson Park, Seattle Center, and the Ferry Terminal) numbered more than 100,000, but that's not based on much more than starting with a guesstimate of how many visual blocks of about 100 people went by in a minute of the march (about 10) and multiplying by the 2 hours it took to get from the beginning to the end.
Let Them Eat Cake
Trump is Putin's Bitch
On Edit:
Another nice collection of photos/signs from Seattle over on r/Seattle
https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1oac5v4/im_never_leaving_seattle
And some great overviews (that capture how lovely the city is too).
https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1oa635i/no_kings_seattle_center
Connect with others who are doing things locally.
That's the most effective way to keep hope alive.
As you get involved locally, you see up close good people doing good things, and you become aware that there is more going on, on the ground, then we ever hear about. It becomes less about them, and more about us.
There's much to connect with. Indivisible, your state or county Democratic party, or groups that are working to bridge divides, like Braver Angels or living room conversations, just to name a few. I think in-person work is more powerful, but you can also find things like the Card Campaign for Democracy.
As Tad Stoermer points out, Hope is the life's blood of resistance, as much as lies are the life's blood of authoritarians.
If we are going to turn the tide, we must not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by fear or fall victim to the lie that the MAGA forces are too powerful for us.
Finding ways to build our own virtuous cycle of hope and action is job one. Hope and action are contagious.
The only way we lose is by allowing ourselves to be immobilized by hopelessness and cynicism.
Don't mistake cynicism for realism. Hope that spurs action in the face of enormous challenges IS grounded in reality.
Ariella Elm's posts highlight some of what's happening and are a mainstay for me. You learn more about things people are doing. Some of which are great ideas to emulate.
"It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Republicans want to cut your healthcare so badly, they'll shut down the government to do it.
Suggestions on the messages to hammer from Tamara Massengale Miro @UnmuteAlabama
https://sez.us/l/4nt9r15k
The news makes it sound like a procedural fight in Washington. Meetings canceled. Deadlines looming. Continuing resolutions. Yawn.
Here’s what I’m saying: Republicans want to cut health care so badly, they’re willing to shut down the government to get it done.
This isn’t about Beltway squabbles. It’s about whether families can afford to see a doctor.
Medicaid is facing the biggest cuts in U.S. history.
ACA tax credits are expiring, which means premiums could jump by an average of 75%.
Medicare is on the chopping block for more than $500 billion in cuts.
Hospitals, rural clinics, even children’s cancer research could lose funding.
When you talk about the shutdown, don’t start with politics. Start with people.
This shutdown isn’t just “government dysfunction.” It’s a health care crisis manufactured on purpose.
👉 The “how” matters.
Say “Republicans want to cut your health care so badly…” instead of “Democrats and Republicans can’t agree.”
Say “millions of families will lose coverage” instead of “funding lapses.”
Say “research into children’s cancer will stop” instead of “budget line items.”
If we lead with the human cost, the politics takes care of itself.
And an additional suggestion from Anat Shenker Osario (Freedom Over Fascism toolkit):
Refuse to frame it as a government shutdown fight. Frame it as refusing to be an accomplice to turning the government into a weapon against the people.
I think that message can be pulled in by saying things like:
We refuse to be accomplices in the biggest cuts to Medicaid in U.S. history.
We refuse to be accomplices to increasing healthcare premiums for 75 million Americans by an average of 75%.
We will not be accomplices to the Republican Congress's cowardly refusal to demand that Trump stop breaking his oath of office and carry out the laws passed by Congress.
Why aren't we hearing this over, and over, and over?
The president promises to carry out the laws passed by Congress, whether they like them or not. If a president doesn't like a law, they work with congress to change it. It's a crime for a president or the people who work for him to single-handedly end a program Congress created. That's not how our government works.
Why aren't we hearing it said this simply?
Leave the erudite discussions of the balance of powers and how complicated the body of law that has evolved to deal with all sorts of grey areas has become for the experts. Within all that, the basic principles are sound and true.
I think perhaps the BIGGEST problem we have within the Democratic Party is a fear of making simple statements, either because we have in our heads a myriad of complicated exceptions or caveats and we lose track of the basic truth (or we fear there are little exceptions we don't know about).
Bottom line. Over and over, we lose people because we've lost sight of the forest for the trees.
We MUST stop making that mistake.
Looking for the right "message"? Just tell it simply. Assume no knowledge. Think about explaining to a 7 year old.
And if the message is challenged with "it's not that simple," great. Any exception they come up with always boils down to an attempt to deal with a grey area in a way that preserves the basic principle, so you've actually just been given the opportunity to bring it back to the basic principle.
Lobby Democrats in Congress to write a joint House/Senate "Letter to America"
The following is from a recent Hopium Chronicles entry from Simon Rosenberg. The entire post is, IMO, an absolute must read (link below), but I want to call out the part I think must be front and center of our efforts: Lobbying for a joint Democratic House/Senate Letter to America.
Excerpt from Simon's post:
This “letter to America” can become the rallying cry for all of our work together. It can become the amicus brief in every court challenge to Trump. It can become a clear statement to the world that American patriots are fighting this historical betrayal of our democracy but also of freedom loving people throughout the world. The people of America and the world need to hear from Democrats and other leaders of this pro-democracy movement that they understand the stakes of the fight we are in and are willing to leave it all on the line for the most important force for freedom humanity has ever seen. The absence of this clear, simple statement from our Congressional leaders is unacceptable and dangerous, and it is why I believe this “Letter to America” remains our very first ask of all of Congressional representatives.
In additional to your own Democratic members of the House and Senate (if you have any) lobby the Democratic Leadership in FAXes (if they accept faxes), emails, calls, and snail mail specifically directed at their title role. Not just asking them to do this but asking if specific steps are being taken and if so, what steps. And follow up, and follow up....
And if you have the wherewithal, work with groups you are involved with to get petitions going and pull together a few people, contact the elected's scheduler and try to set up a meeting. Ask to meet with the member. If not that, chief of staff or communications. If not that, take whoever the hell they are willing to give you a meeting with. And if you can't travel to an office, ask about doing a Zoom meeting.
If you don't have others to band with, try to set up a meeting on your own as a representative of yourself, or to deliver a petition, or to deliver letters you have collected from others. The kind of back and forth dialog that is only really possible face-to-face, where you can ask pointed questions about why this isn't in the works, or if it is in the works, why does there seem to be no sense of urgency, is incredibly powerful.
House
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (Dem Leader)
Rep. Joe Neguse (Dem Assistant Leader)
Rep. Katherine Clark (Dem Whip)
Rep. Pete Aguilar (Caucus Chair)
Senate
Sen. Chuck Schumer (Dem Leader)
Sen. Richard Durbin (Dem. Whip)
Sen. Cory Booker (Chair of Strategic Communications Committee)
Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Dem. Vice Chairs)
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/old-dogs-and-new-tricks-a-letter
On "the radical difference of mental habit between the good character and the bad." (Schopenhauer )
People connected to our basic common humanity and compassion will always be the counterweight to those of "bad character." Compassion is a mighty force. Hold on to it.
Uncle Joe's post Human Empathy & Interconnectedness - Joseph Campbell - 1986, in which Joseph Campbell quotes Schopenhauer prompted me to go back and review bits of his writings.
The following from The Basis of Morality on the "radical difference of mental habit between the good character and the bad" really struck me.
Page 277
The latter feels everywhere that a thick wall of partition hedges him off from all others. For him the world is an absolute non-ego, and his relation to it an essentially hostile one; consequently, the key-note of his disposition is hatred, suspicion, envy, and pleasure in seeing distress.
The good character, on the other hand, lives in an external world homogeneous with his own being; the rest of mankind is not in his eyes a non-ego; he thinks of it rather as "myself once more." He therefore stands on an essentially amicable footing with every one: he is conscious of being, in his inmost nature, akin to the whole human race, takes direct interest in their weal and woe, and confidently assumes in their case the same interest in him. This is the source of his deep inward peace, and of that happy, calm, contented manner, which goes out on those around him, and is as the "presence of a good diffused."
Whereas the bad character in time of trouble has no trust in the help of his fellow-creatures. If he invokes aid, he does so without confidence: obtained, he feels no real gratitude for it; because he can hardly discern therein anything but the effect of others' folly. For he is simply incapable of recognising his own self in some one else; and this, even after it has furnished the most incontestible signs of existence in that other person: on which fact the repulsive nature of all unthankfulness in reality depends. The moral isolation, which thus naturally and inevitably encompasses the bad man, is often the cause of his becoming the victim of despair.
The good man, on the contrary, will appeal to his neighbours for assistance, with an assurance equal to the consciousness he has of being ready himself to help them. As I have said: to the one type, humanity is a non-ego; to the other, "myself once more." The magnanimous character, who forgives his enemy, and returns good for evil, rises to the sublime, and receives the highest meed of praise; because he recognises his real self even there where it is most conspicuously disowned.
As I read the following bit, DT's "suckers and losers" echoed in my head:
"he feels no real gratitude for it; because he can hardly discern therein anything but the effect of others' folly. "
Page 214
40 years of Fox News brainwashing accelerated by. . .
. . . algorithm created social media information bubbles that just keep getting more bizarre, and you have a serious social problem.
This isn't a political partisan divide of decades past. We are in a whole new place. Far right brainwashing is a serious social problem tearing apart communities and families and we need to figure out some sort of national "recovery program." Something like Exit Deutschland on a big scale. Showcase recovering MAGA folk. More attention to the heartbreak of losing loved ones to the brainwashing.
We need to move from the current us vs. them-ism where we write "them" off as evil people that deserve nothing but our condemnation, to a serious examination of the snowballing social problems the the multibillion dollar far right noise machine kicked off, which is being accelerated at an unbelievable pace by social media algorithms fomenting anger and hatred that are sending an unbelievable number of Americans into rabbit holes that just keep getting more and more and more bizarre.
We need to take on Christianism Nationalism, while being very, very, clear that we are not condemning Christian faith.
We need more documentaries like the 2016 Brainwashing of My Dad
More people from progressive faith communities speaking out on the cancer that is Christian Nationalism.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Seattle, WA
Member since: Tue Nov 23, 2004, 10:22 PM
Number of posts: 12,612