Wednesday, January 4, 2017

2017 will be a year of resistance

Alabama NAACP leaders arrested after sit-in at Session's office. 
After months of suffering in despair and taking badly-needed recovery time from Trump shock and awe, many left and progressive activists, including education activists, are awakening, finding their bearings and hitting the ground running in the days leading up to the inauguration. A new resistance movement is building and gathering momentum.

Signs of the awakening this morning...

Full-page ad in today's Times
A full-page ad in the Times this morning reads: "In The Name of Humanity, We Refuse To Accept A Fascist America". The call to action is signed by activists and celebs like Ed Asner, Cornel West, Thurston Moore to Debra Messing, Saul Williams, Henry Giroux, Bill Ayers, John Landis and hundreds more. I signed it, as I hope you will, without any hesitation or concern over which "left" faction or sectarian group initiated it. When it comes to resistance, let a hundred flowers bloom.

In Alabama, six NAACP activists, including President and CEO Cornell William Brooks have been arrested during a sit-in staged at the Mobile office of Sen. Jeff Sessions, protesting his appointment as Trump's Attorney General.

Sessions's appointment is also opposed by more than 1,100 law school professors nationwide who sent a letter to Congress urging rejection. Signatories include: Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School, Geoffrey R. Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, Pamela S. Karlan of Stanford Law School and Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California at Irvine School of Law.

Organizers of the Women’s March on Washington estimate 200,000 people will participate in its inauguration weekend protest, according to a National Park Service's list of First Amendment permit applications. Same deal here. I have no idea who these march organizers are. I'm told they are mainly young women of color who are working on this for no pay. Dazzling!

Big protests are also being planned around Betsy DeVos' scheduled confirmation hearing which begins on Jan.11 at 10 a.m. in 430 Dirksen.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling for rallies all across this country on January 15th, in opposition to the Republican budget which calls for throwing 30 million people off of healthcare during their insurance away our part privatizing Medicare making massive cuts in Medicaid and at the same time giving you tax breaks to the wealthy.

Sanders also praised new Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) for spearheading leadership in the Democratic party.

The biggest impediment to the resistance movement is still the capitulation by many in the current leadership of the Democratic Party. Most notably, Bill and Hillary Clinton, who announced yesterday, that they will be attending Trump's inauguration. This show of class solidarity, even while countless performers, artists and celebrities have refused invitations and while hundreds of thousands are protesting outside, should make clear to most Democrats, the need for change at the top of the DNC.




5 comments:

  1. You are all such scumbags. Why don't you just grow up and try to CONTRIBUTE to our society for a change instead of constantly trying to destroy it? Do you really think you know so much more than everyone else? Show it with what you have actually accomplished that is not destructive.

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    1. ...and happy New Year to you, Jim. Hope you and the family are doing well.

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  2. This blog post today made me feel allot better. did you know that there will be a fundraiser for Keith Ellison this Sunday in Chicago
    Keith for DNC | IL Rally/Fundraiser
    When
    Sun, January 8, 3pm
    Where
    2610 N Halsted St, Chicago, Illinois 60614map

    i will be marching with my kids at the Million Womens' March in Washington DC. feels good to act as you blog points out so well. thanks Mike

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  3. This is such a powerful and energizing post! Thanks, Mike!

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  4. Silly! Surely there are some open minds in education that blog. I fear for our young students. Are they only ever receiving instruction from one side of the political spectrum?

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