Balloon Juice - Organizing & Resistance Archives

(Insufficiently) Retro History: Rest in Power, Mr. Dick Gregory

by Anne Laurie| August 19, 202210:01 pm| 18 Comments

This post is in: Absent Friends, Don't Mourn, Organize, Post-racial America

And we love to dance, especially that new one called the Civil War Twist. The Northern part of you stands still while the Southern part tries to secede.

Dick Gregory, one of a kind, died five years ago today. I found a draft of this post while doing clean-up for the Great Blog Merge, and he’s still — sadly — all too relevant…

.. Most of his career was based on using humour to make fun of and combat racism. For this reason he upset a lot of racist people, who branded him as anti-white and a danger to society…

Gregory published an autobiography, N*gger, in 1964. Many people were offended by the title of his book, but he defended it by saying “Any time you hear that word, they selling my book.”

During the Vietnam War, Gregory was one of the people at the forefront of opposition to the war and opposition to racial injustices, particularly against African-Americans but also against Natives. He was arrested at multiple protests for both of these issues and went on several hunger strikes.

Gregory was an outspoken feminist, and in 1978 joined a group of American suffragists in their march to ensure that the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified by the United States Congress. The march got the deadline for the ERA extended, but it ultimately failed to pass…

"I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that." – Dick Gregory

Rest in Power!

— George M Johnson (@IamGMJohnson) August 20, 2017

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I waited at the counter of a white restaurant for eleven years. When they finally integrated, they didn't have what I wanted. – Dick Gregory

— George M Johnson (@IamGMJohnson) August 20, 2017

Wil Haygood, for the Washington Post — “One day with Dick Gregory made me know he was truly one of a kind”:

… It was in the summer of 2000 when I first met Gregory, having come to Washington from Boston to write about him. Many thought he was dying. He was down to 130 pounds. He had been diagnosed with lymphoma. When I entered the house where he was staying, it suddenly seemed as if I was meeting one of those people you imagine you’d never meet, someone who belonged to newsreel footage mostly. But there he stood, quite bony, eyes sparkling. The Abe Lincoln beard looked a little unkempt. You couldn’t help but feel sad for him. He was famous, and infamous, and dying.

He had given me an address, and told me to meet him there at 4:30 — “in the morning.” I thought the comedian was joking. He was not. He also told me to bring a pair of sneakers.

The next morning I found myself inside a house not far from Rock Creek Park. Gregory came bounding down the stairs. “Hey, baby.” That’s how he talked, like a Motown soul singer. He was crashing at this house. Through the years, people had liked putting him up. After all, he was Dick Gregory, the raconteur of the civil rights movement, the interpreter of modern-day American politics and a one-time presidential candidate. So he slept on sofas, in sleeping bags, on floors. On this particular visit, he explained to me, somebody in Marion Barry’s camp was putting him up. Before we got out the door, he was talking about radiation in cellphones and the danger of it. I was rubbing sleep from my damn eyes…

We kept moving. I wondered if the running had become a recent activity for him. He explained that he had been running since high school. He had been a cross-country runner. “The great thing about running the long distance,” he said, “is you run at your integrity. Running made me forget I was poor.”

Before the sun came up in Rock Creek Park, he had me laughing out loud. There were a good many stories about his peripatetic life. Funny stories about white people, black people, southern sheriffs and the CIA, whose agents he described as “spooks.”…

His political career was, well, interesting. He ran for mayor of Chicago against the big bad wolves of the Daley machine. He didn’t stand a chance, was crushed and decided he needed to set his goals higher. When he launched his run for the White House, he got fan mail — though there were also letters suggesting he check himself into Bellevue, a mental hospital. To boost his presidential ambitions, he printed fake American currency with his picture on it. Agents from the. Treasury Department didn’t think that was funny at all, and arrested him. The politically-inspired shenanigans of the official government — wiretapping civil rights leaders, for instance — had sparked Gregory’s mind so much he became, as the years rolled by, a champion conspiracy theorist. “I woke up with power,” he told me with a straight face, referring to the election in which Richard Nixon won in a landslide…

Dick Gregory, born in my hometown of St. Louis in 1932, actually ran for president in 1968 on the Peace and Freedom Party. pic.twitter.com/IWUpcQgosv

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 20, 2017

Monée Fields-White, for The Root:

… Born Oct. 12, 1932, in St. Louis, Gregory grew up in an impoverished community in that city. He helped to support his family from an early age. In high school he excelled in track and field, earning a scholarship to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He set school records in the 1/2-mile and 1-mile races. His college career was interrupted when the U.S. Army drafted him in 1954.

Gregory began to venture into comedy while in the Army, performing various routines in military shows. After briefly returning to Southern Illinois after being discharged in 1956, he moved to Chicago to join the national comedy circuit, without finishing his degree. He performed mostly in small, primarily black nightclubs while working at the U.S. Postal Service during the day. It was at one of those nightclubs that he met Lillian, the woman who became his wife in 1959. She and Gregory would have 10 children (as well as one child who died in infancy)…

Throughout his life, Gregory remained outspoken on many issues, including world hunger, capital punishment, women’s rights (he marched for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978), health care and drug abuse. In 2005, at a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, he called the U.S. “the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world’s population and consumes 96 percent of the world’s hard drugs.” As a protester, Gregory never stopped putting himself on the front lines: In 2004, at the age of 73, he was arrested while protesting against genocide outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C…

RIP #DickGregory. Thank you for the lacerating humor you used to cut through the same racism we're still fighting. https://t.co/z7D9gQ2ZIR

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) August 20, 2017

RIP Dick Gregory. With #MLK and James Meredith during March Against Fear, Mississippi, June 1966. pic.twitter.com/LDKStwTuwd

— The '60s at 50 (@the_60s_at_50) August 20, 2017

The Hollywood Reporter:

… Gregory’s big break came in 1961 when he was booked into the Playboy Club in downtown Chicago as a one-night replacement for Prof. Irwin Corey, a white comic who didn’t want to work seven nights a week.

“When I started, a black comic couldn’t work a white nightclub. You could sing, you could dance, but you couldn’t stand flat-footed and talk — then the system would know how brilliant black folks was,” Gregory recalled in a 2016 interview.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner had spotted Gregory performing for a black audience, and he was paid $50 for the Playboy Club show — a huge payday for him at the time. One of Gregory’s jokes: “Last time I was down South, I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said, ‘We don’t serve colored people here.’ I said, ‘That’s all right, I don’t eat colored people. Being me a whole fried chicken.’”

The crowd during that first show, mostly white executives from a frozen-food company, loved him. He stayed on at the Playboy Club for three weeks (the gig turned into three years), and the attention got him a profile in Time magazine — “Dick Gregory, 28, has become the first Negro comedian to make his way into the nightclub big time.”

He was invited to perform on The Tonight Show in 1962, but Gregory said he wouldn’t go unless he was able to sit down next to host Jack Paar after his routine and be interviewed. A black performer had never done that before.

“I went in, and as I sat on the couch, talking about my children, so many people called the switchboard at NBC in New York that the circuits blew out,” he said. “And thousands of letters came in and folks were saying, ‘I didn’t know black children and white children were the same.’”…

"The most difficult thing to get people to do is to accept the obvious." — Dick Gregory #RIP pic.twitter.com/DhaiyjhiRe

— Tribeca (@Tribeca) August 20, 2017

(Insufficiently) Retro History: Rest in Power, Mr. Dick GregoryPost + Comments (18)

Sunday Night Open Thread: Farewell, for Now, to the ‘People’s Convoy’

by Anne Laurie| August 7, 202210:28 pm| 42 Comments

This post is in: domestic terrorists, Enhanced Protest Techniques, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Protest Is the New Brunch

After covering versions of the People’s Convoy for six months: today was the end of it. In the end, they accomplished absolutely nothing besides looping the Beltway, fighting each other, spamming the emergency line, badgering DC residents, & wasting fuel.

— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 5, 2022

But the grift will never die…

The People’s Convoy left D.C., but these folks are still here – The Washington Post https://t.co/9NtxHT7IOf

— Truth Finder (@Truthfinder1235) August 7, 2022

… The response, instead, has been mostly indifference. As well as some heckling and trolling. And some criticism that the 1776 Restoration Movement is just another group using a narrowly defined patriotism to grift for dollars and social media clout.

The protesters deny all of that. They say their cause is pure. For the past few weeks in Washington, their morning ritual has been the same. The first-risers get coffee going. Someone puts out doughnuts and fruit and snacks. Ice-filled coolers are restocked with water bottles…

Their demands are both insistent and vague. When asked for specifics, the members will say that they want representatives to recognize that they work for the people and address their grievances.

What the protest boils down to for most is a belief that the federal government should have much less authority over state governments when it comes to deciding almost every issue.

Support for that position here has been hard to garner. Most visitors have ignored them. The majority of the people who have stopped to talk with them have been foreigners, Fisher said. “They want to know what we’re about,” he said…

“This is family,” says Ohio truck driver and evangelical minister David Riddell, 57, the group’s leader, who said he never joined a protest until he connected with the People’s Convoy earlier this year. His eyes brim with tears. “So far in this movement, I’ve baptized three of them in the Potomac, renewed the vows of another couple, celebrated the 57th wedding anniversary with another one. This is family.”

In the family, Riddell allows debate and input on the issues, but he makes the final decisions, he said. He is also a member of the Proud Boys, the far-right extremist group that has a number of its leaders facing federal charges of seditious conspiracy and “opposing the lawful transfer of presidential power by force” on Jan. 6, 2021.

Riddell says he was not at the Capitol that day and has told his followers that if they choose violence, then he will no longer take part in the protest…

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Many in the splinter group say they are anti-socialist and anti-big government and anti anything they think is anti-American. Their food and gas expenses are funded, they say, by other Americans who feel the same way they do. The group’s brochure solicits donations through Cash App, Venmo and Zelle. Riddell estimates the group has raised about $73,000 since forming.

They don’t believe mainstream news and get their information from far-right websites. They also follow each other’s live streams (there are lots of live streams). In their shared distrust of government and politicians and media, they found a community of like-minded souls…

If some of the group’s goals were philosophical and long-term, some of their needs were practical and immediate. When he first led his group into the District, Riddell said didn’t think he should need a permit to protest. “The Constitution is our permit,” he said defiantly. But protesters need port-a-potties. And port-a-potties need a permit. “The toilets is what broke me,” Riddell said, laughing.

For showers and to get a break from camping out in their cars, members occasionally headed to their base camp, a truck stop 83 miles away in Bunker Hill, W.Va., where their supplies of food, water, hygiene products, toilet paper and snacks are stored…

There have also been ongoing hostilities with members of another offshoot of the People’s Convoy who have accused the 1776 Restoration Movement of having members who are convicted sex offenders. Riddell said there was a former member of the group who had been convicted of child molestation in Indiana but that that person has left. That hasn’t stopped the bickering, online and in person, between the two groups.

On Monday, the group’s protest permit expires. By then, the last of the 1776 Restoration Movement protesters will have packed up their signs and flags and camp chairs and coolers and retreated to Bunker Hill, where they plan to regroup, reorganize, reread the Constitution and prepare to return in early September to seek redress of their grievances once more.

TBogg reportorial sighting:

These are some of the biggest losers in the entire universe. Complete idiots. Not even smart enough to be considered dumbasses. https://t.co/qC1hm0f0vf

— Jimmy Malone, Liberal & Ultra-Masker (@malonespeaking) August 7, 2022

The Canadian version was a lot more ‘successful’ in the short term, for reasons.

In Canada, the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests amplified anti-government sentiment among Canadians angry at COVID restrictions and, less visibly, offered a hook for anti-establishment and far-right voices to draw a bigger audience https://t.co/l7hMamevID

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 4, 2022

Making chicken salad from… well, you know:

… Extremists used the convoy “as a pulpit to get their ideas across and, in that sense, it was a success,” said David Hofmann, associate professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick, who has been researching extremism in Canada for about a decade.

They did that directly, with talk of deposing and prosecuting the heads of Canadian government during the protests, as the convoy’s organizers declared was their goal in a “Memorandum of Understanding” leading up to the blockade.

But they were also able to do that less directly, by talking up the merits of the convoy on social media and podcasts that also promoted more extremist rhetoric and conspiracy theories…

Around 30% of Canadians agreed with the convoy’s message in February at the height of the protests, a number that has since shrunk to 25% in July, according to polling research firm Ekos Research Associates.

[Can we compromise on 27%?]

Though most COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, wearing masks and vaccine requirements have been lifted in recent months, smaller anti-government protests have continued, with some held as recently as the national holiday on July 1…

With broad support for policies like universal healthcare and gun control, Canada has long been viewed as more moderate than its southern neighbor. But analysts say right-wing extremism has long had a home north of the U.S. border — and the “Freedom Convoy” movement and related anti-government protests against COVID-19 restrictions have given it new momentum.

A 2015 study identified about 100 far-right extremist groups. The number has tripled since then, Hofmann said.

Larger groups have splintered but the overall number of participants has also grown, Hofmann said.

He and his colleagues have identified about 1,200 visibly active participants who have either had contact with police or the media or have been active on social media, he said.

This is up from previous counts but changing methodologies make comparisons difficult, he said…

Sunday Night Open Thread: Farewell, for Now, to the ‘People’s Convoy’Post + Comments (42)

Late Night Open Thread: I’m Hoping Hakeem Jeffries Is Our Next Majority Leader

by Anne Laurie| July 25, 202211:33 pm| 57 Comments

This post is in: Enhanced Protest Techniques, Open Threads, Politics, Proud To Be A Democrat!, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

Since Rep. Jeffries is considered Not A Fan of Performative Outrage, I checked his twitter feed. He’s also too busy doing his job to waste time on time-wasters, I guess…

Senate Republicans stole two Supreme Court seats from Democratic Presidents.

Then express fake outrage when the legitimacy of the Court’s extreme majority is questioned.

Get lost.

— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) July 25, 2022

I’ve got my hopes for the future, though! (I am as big a Pelosi fangrrl as any, but when she’s ready to go, the lady deserves a long and happy retirement)

After Pelosi retires she’s going to be replaced with Hakeem Jeffries, and once you’re introduced to him you’re really going to miss Pelosi’s diplomacy and gentle touch when dealing with internal party divisions.

— Beast Physics Knower (@agraybee) July 2, 2022

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I truly believe that many don’t understand just how often Speaker Pelosi has willingly, and even cheerfully, taken the hits from both the left *and* the right to protect her caucus. Not to mention that she fundraises for the DCCC at something like twice the level of any Dem.??

— Alexandra?? (@nycbubbles) July 2, 2022

‘Brooklyn voter / podcaster’ stereotype:

(Konami code: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A. It’s called the Konami Code, and it often meant the difference between life and death in a video game back in the 1980s. Perform those button presses in the right sequence, and you’ll unlock cheats that help you win…. )

Sensible, upbeat closer:

Opinion by Paul Waldman: Don’t get mad at ‘weak’ Democrats. Instead, get organized.https://t.co/FIBk1zy4j6

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 28, 2022

… But now liberals and progressives have to ask themselves: What are we going to do with our anger?

There’s a lot they can do. But the worst response — one that is common in some quarters of the left — is to say that because congressional Democrats are feckless and weak, there’s no point in voting for them.

This is a moment when the left has to look at the success the right just achieved, and learn some lessons from it.

Here’s the first lesson: You know who never stopped voting? Those antiabortion activists who are now celebrating, and planning new legislation to make abortion illegal nationally, to ruthlessly punish any woman (or girl) who tries to get one, and anyone who helps her.

That’s not because they had faith in Republican officeholders. They didn’t. They knew they had to push them and prod them and threaten them. And a lot of the time, those politicians held their movement at arm’s length. Until Donald Trump, a succession of Republican presidents refused to appear in person at the annual March for Life in Washington, because they worried about the optics of seeming too close to the antiabortion cause…

Yet the antiabortion base never stopped voting. These activists and voters knew it was the minimum they had to do — absolutely necessary, but not nearly sufficient…

It’s because of all this that Republicans achieved this extraordinary victory even though they never succeeded in persuading the public to agree with them. While they would certainly like to have most Americans on their side, their strategy was constructed such that it isn’t actually necessary.

Liberals have to learn from this history. When you lose, you have to ask why and how it happened. And if you’re angry at weak Democrats, figure out how to make them stronger. If a Democrat says, “Give us two more Senate seats and we can pass a bill codifying abortion rights nationally,” they’re not wrong — so make them do it.

To repeat, voting is the absolute minimum liberals have to do, and they absolutely must. Not only that, a huge number of races up and down the ballot bear directly on abortion rights: governors, attorneys general, state representatives, prosecutors, judges, county councils, referendums — almost too many to mention.

So yes, you have to keep voting if you want to restore abortion rights. And if you don’t think Democratic leaders are getting the job done? Just remember, it’s not up to them alone. It’s up to you, too.

Late Night Open Thread: I’m Hoping Hakeem Jeffries Is Our Next Majority LeaderPost + Comments (57)

Staying Safe While Protesting Redux

by Adam L Silverman| July 1, 20222:32 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: Balloon Juice, Civil Rights, Commentary, Domestic Politics, Gay Rights Are human Rights, Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance, Our Failed Political Establishment, Politics, Silverman on Security, The War On Women, Women's Rights

I have been informed that a number of you all were asking if we could repost my suggestions for staying safe while protesting. Watergirl was good enough to proactively go and dig at least one of the versions/reposts of the original post from December 2018. We’ll resume our war updates tomorrow night.

I’ve made an addition or two to the original list, but if you’ve decided you need to go to a march or a rally, the list below is for you.

I want to remind everyone that we’ve seen a number of acts of violence, by both domestic right wing extremists like the Proud Boys or Patriot Front and from law enforcement, directed at people attending both Pride events and marches and rallies in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs. We have also seen at least one individual decide to drive around oncoming traffic in an attempt to murder marchers by driving over them in his truck. Given that a number of states have passed laws allowing drivers to treat marchers and rally goers in the street as threats and because they’re threats drive over them, please check your state laws to see whether that might be something you need to worry about.

(Originally posted on 18 December 2016)

Congress shall make no law… abridging…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. — Amendment 1, Bill of Rights, US Constitution

One of our readers/commenters emailed me about a week ago and asked if I would put up a post about personal security for those going to peaceably assemble to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. I put a list together and ran it past a select group of our Balloon Juice legal eagles (those I’ve corresponded with before/have corresponded with me, so if you didn’t get asked, don’t be insulted I didn’t want to just impose on you with a cold request) – thank you all for getting back to me. Here’s my list of what I think anyone going to peacefully assemble should do to enhance their personal security.

Go with a buddy, that way you have at least one person looking out for you/watching your back and vice versa.
Carry cash and make sure to carry a valid picture ID!
Bring a pocket flashlight.
Get and wear a go pro that is automatically updating to the cloud.
Bring a pocket charger for your cell phone and go pro regardless of whether it is supposed to be a long day.
I you’re bringing them with you, make sure your personal electronic devices – phones, tablets, and wearables like smart watches – all have sufficient password protection and encryption on them. And have them set to upload to the cloud at a regular interval.
Turn off fingerprint, face, or other biometric access to unlock your phone and delete your finger prints, face scans, and/or other biometris from the memory. Some jurisdictions allow law enforcement to compel you to unlock your phone if it has finger print or face scan based access. Or get a disposable phone just for this occasion.
Turn off your phone and other personal electronic devices option to connect to known WiFi as it can be used as a way to fail your encryption. Also, turn off the GPS locators and tracking on them as well!
Bring a bandana or neck gaiter and water so you can make a make shift gas mask in case things get out of hand and tear gas or pepper spray is deployed.
Bring a couple of bottles of saline eye rinse in case you need to rinse your eyes out if tear gas or pepper spray is deployed.
Bring plenty of water and some snacks to make sure you’re properly hydrated and you’ve got enough fuel in your system to get through the day.
Dress in layers so you are prepared for the weather and make sure you have good shoes/boots and a change of socks in case they should get wet. A set of silk base layer undersocks is a good idea regardless of the weather. They’ll help keep your feet warm or cool as needed and they’ll provide some protection in case your shoes/boots and socks get wet. And something to keep the back of your neck and your ears warm if you’re going to be someplace cold.
Bring/wear a hat to keep the sun off your head or to keep it warm depending on the weather.
Bring/wear eye protection. Specifically sunglasses that are impact rated. (You should be able to pick up military surplus ones pretty cheap).
Sunscreen, skin moisturizer, and lip balm. Even if its cold you’ll need these.
If you need to take regular/routine prescription medication: bring it in its original container, with the prescription details on the label. If its a gel based application and comes in a packet, make sure you’ve got a hard copy of the prescription with you.
Be aware of your surroundings at all times. You don’t have to be paranoid, but have a sufficient level of situational awareness. If something looks and/or feels hinky or the hair on the back of your neck stands up, head on home or go get a drink and something or go back to your hotel. Know who and what is around you, keep your valuables in front pockets or in secure/securable purses/bags, and keep those where they can’t be easily snatched or accessed.
Have a contact plan for both linking up and communicating in case one gets separated from anyone you’re with.
Have a contact plan to stay in touch with someone who isn’t at the march, but knows that you’re there and a regular set of contact times.
Have a lawyer you can contact if necessary and that your outside contact could contact if you don’t check in. Make sure you have all of your contact’s phone numbers memorized in case your phone is damaged or taken by law enforcement should the worst happen and you’re arrested. Write them on your arm in sharpie if you want double redundancy.
Bring a sharpie to take down badge numbers if necessary. And if necessary write them on your hand.
This is a new one: Put together a first aid kit and buy a velcro attaching red cross patch to place on it. The minimum basics should be: saline solution, at least two tourniquets, at least two Israeli bandages, and quick clot – both the gauze pads and the granule applicator system – in addition to the basics like band aids, regular gauze, both cloth coaches tape and paper tape, antibac gel, anti-burn/sunburn spray or gel, anti-itch gel, etc. We have unfortunately reached the point where everyone should have tourniquets and quickclot with them all the time.

Should the worst happen and you get caught up in a peaceable assembly that suddenly turns not so peaceable or that law enforcement decides to declare an unlawful assembly so they can brake things up:

Do not resist law enforcement. Just do what they say, let your arms go limp, and do what you can to avoid a reflex response to resist – that can get you charged with assault on a law enforcement officer.
Be respectful and polite when dealing with the authorities – law enforcement, the National Park Service, whoever.
If you are arrested, ask for a lawyer and then shut up. Do not say anything else or answer any other questions until your lawyer arrives. In fact let the lawyer do the talking.
And make sure you have the name and phone number of the attorney you want, if you have a preference, ready to go. Memorize it and write it on your arm in sharpie!

One last item: some of you probably carry a pocket knife or multi-tool everywhere. Or everywhere that you’re normally allowed. I would recommend not carrying anything on your possession that could be construed as a concealed weapon or even an openly carried one. Even if you’re in a state/jurisdiction that allows for concealed or open carry of knives and/or other weapons – don’t. Being part of a march or peaceful assembly that turns ugly is not a good time to attempt firearms (or knife) normalization.

Stay Frosty!

Open thread!

Staying Safe While Protesting ReduxPost + Comments (33)

We Shouldn’t Have To, But We Do

by WaterGirl| June 26, 20228:00 pm| 224 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance

Wise words from commenter Sally last night.

We shouldn’t have to organise. We shouldn’t have to donate untold billions to GOTV or the messaging. Registration and voting should be easy and universal. Alas we don’t live in that world, or that country. I have lived in countries where voting is so easy, and so inexpensive. As Zelenskyy says when you surrender ground, winning is back is much harder than holding it. The multiplier is, I believe, about 3:1, probably more in reality. We have lost a lot of ground because people didn’t vote. Now we have to combat gerrymandering, suppression on so many levels – closed, and moved voting stations, ID’s that are hard to access, limited machines, long lines, work day voting, etc.. R legislators that kneecap incoming D governors, judges, police bosses, school boards, on and on. All working against democracy because they can’t win unless they cheat. So that’s what they do.

Now we have an enormous uphill battle to claw back their massive gains. They put in the decades of cheating and lying to gain this ground, and now they have it, they are not going to relinquish it. We have decades of work ahead. I can’t go with the “we have to motivate people to vote”. We live in a complex, interconnected society where your well being depends on everything else. You want air and water that doesn’t contain toxins. You want schools to educate your kids or kids around you so you can live in a functional society (ie people who, at minimum, can read and write and work machines, save your life in a hospital), roads, safe food, air travel, defence, libraries, safety standards, on and on and on. Vote.

Voting is a hard fought for right. It was hard fought for because the powerful did not want to dilute their power. It is also an obligation. I am obligated to participate in the democracy in which I live. I am not a free loader. If you don’t vote, you are letting other people determine your life. If voting didn’t matter, didn’t change things, they wouldn’t be always trying to stop us. The motivation to vote is that you are obliged to help determine the management of the society in which you live. In a system such as the US, if you have to vote for the lesser of two evils, then that’s what you do. If you have to be bribed, against the overwhelming poisons of the other side, try living in a place where you can’t vote.

Voting emancipates us. Voting (not guns) frees us from tyranny. Voting should be easy, with universal adult franchise, and every citizen’s obligation.

Vote.

My mom used to say that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. If we don’t vote, we will surely lose the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing after that.

Voting is only a privilege if you fucking have privilege. For everyone else, it’s about survival.

So now we have a choice, in case it wasn’t already clear. Do we rise to the occasion and fight like hell? Like the people of Ukraine that we so admire? I surely hope so.

It’s time for us to get out of our comfort zones. And I’m not just talking about the women.

We Shouldn’t Have To, But We DoPost + Comments (224)

March for Our Lives on Saturday June 11, in Washington DC

by WaterGirl| June 12, 20225:30 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: Balloon Juice, Commentary, Gun Issues, Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance, Politics, This Fight Is for Everything

Saturday was the designated day the March for Our Lives. So far, I am only aware of one jackal attending. Did anyone else attained a march yesterday?

Commenter caphilldcne shared pictures from the DC March for Our Lives and was kind enough to tell us about the DC march.

The March for our lives took place this afternoon near the Washington Monument.

I got there as someone tried to disrupt it and sent a few people scattering although they stage speaker let people know it was ok.

Of course there’s always some pro gun nut hiding their face. I was happy about the family standing in front of him. I flipped him off on behalf of jackals everywhere.

Pretty cloudy and cool in DC today so the pics are a bit gloomy.

On my walk home (about two miles) I took a picture of the national archives. Home to the constitution and Bill of Rights that has been so radically reinterpreted by the Injustices. Also a very DC plastered poster of John Lewis urging folks to vote.

Anyway I think the photos just don’t really show the crowd size well. My best guess is maybe 20,000? Based on nothing except that’s a large space plus people were coming and going.

Update: March for Our Lives estimates seem to be more at the 40,000 or 50,000!

March for Our Lives on Saturday June 11, in Washington DCPost + Comments (58)

Notes on needing/supporting Abortions in the US, now and Post-Roe (Open Thread)

by MisterDancer| May 3, 20227:11 pm| 78 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Civil Rights, Contraception Clusterfuck, Fuck The Poor, GOP Death Cult, Healthcare, Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance, Politics, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Women's Rights, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It), Your Place Is In The Resistance

Everything below is from my prior awareness and information collected recently. Corrections welcome:

If you need assistance, or want to help the fight via donations and/or volunteering? This document focuses on local/state level support groups.
(Thanks to UncleEbeneezer for the hookup on this!)

A broader, if slightly older (just a couple years), set of guidance is the Handbook for a Post-Roe America by Robin Marty. I can recommend the author as someone I paid into the Patreon of, before she closed it. And that was due to the quality, and importance, of her work in this area.

I hear from some sources, including a Doula I know, that acquiring Plan B now is wise — if you can w/o impacting overall supply. For those unaware, Plan B is a “morning after” drug. However, you should be clear on it’s usage and esp. it’s weight restrictions. It’s not dangerous, just has key limitations.

In addition to http://reprocare.com, mentioned in 1st link above, someone here noted https://aidaccess.org/ as another site for Abortion via mail.

I’m providing a variety of approaches — different people will have different needs. Even today, Roe is a dead letter for poorer people, especially of Color, due to lack of Internet access and ability to take time off for the procedure, if needed — including for bullshit “waiting periods”.

Many of the agencies and advocates mentioned above have experience, and guidance, in these areas. It’s worth at least getting familiar with modern options now, even if you’re in a “safe” State.

We have a lot of threads on the Roe leak. This one’s Open.

Notes on needing/supporting Abortions in the US, now and Post-Roe (Open Thread)Post + Comments (78)

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

This really is a full service blog.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

T R E 4 5 O N

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

(Insufficiently) Retro History: Rest in Power, Mr. Dick Gregory

Sunday Night Open Thread: Farewell, for Now, to the ‘People’s Convoy’

Late Night Open Thread: I’m Hoping Hakeem Jeffries Is Our Next Majority Leader

Staying Safe While Protesting Redux

We Shouldn’t Have To, But We Do

March for Our Lives on Saturday June 11, in Washington DC

Notes on needing/supporting Abortions in the US, now and Post-Roe (Open Thread)