Do YOU Imagine Yourself Morally Evolved While Still Afflicted With The Latent Illness Of Privilege That Resists The Messiness Of Loud, Aggressive, Angry Justice?

People don't go around saying "Happy Martin Luther King Day" to each other, right? It's not that kind of a holiday. More, though, should do what John Pavlovitz did on his blog this morning, a powerful and compelling meditation on how Martin Luther King's message resonates in him today. He wishes he'd have written it soon but it's taken him this long to figure out there are words to say what he knows he had to say. For much of his life, he explained, he had imagined he was fighting the good fight of equality because he believed in it philosophically, because intellectually he agreed with it. "I’d frequently recited your words and loudly amen-ed your sermons and easily claimed affinity in your declarations of the worth of every human being. I’d have said that I was trying to live as a man after your own courageous heart-- but at best I was really play-acting.

Looking back at the path of journey, for far too many of those years I’d actually been one of the white moderates you castigated from a cell in a Birmingham jail: people imagining themselves morally evolved but still afflicted with the latent illness of privilege that resists the messiness of justice-- especially when it rattles your blind prejudices and brings turbulence to your places of comfort. As often as I raised my voice to uplift the oppressed, I scolded them when they spoke in ways I deemed too loud, too aggressive, too angry.

In the wake of passionate protests and falling monuments and desperate pleas for equality that spilled over into violence, I too often took a posture of correction, defending some “right way” of protesting, that only reflected the fact that the law and the system never required me to scream to be heard or fight to be considered. I’ve never known that kind of desperation and often mischaracterized it as recklessness, unintentionally quieting the turbulence necessary for justice to come.

Dr. King, I’ve always known you deserved my respect, but it’s only recently that I realized that I owe you an apology.

I’m sorry for the times I stayed silence in the presence of my white friends while they perpetuated caricatures of people of color: when they made the lazy joke or wielded the most dehumanizing stereotypes-- and for the times I myself generated the ignorant laughter of my peers, never considering the collateral damage of making human beings into punchlines.

I’m sorry that I assumed myself progressive, while never talking ownership of my privilege or facing my culpability in the systemic racism of this nation; the times I wanted to see myself as one of the good guys, yet wasn’t able or willing to see or confront the ways I have profited from my whiteness since birth.

I’m sorry that I was such a lousy student of History; never stopping to realize that it had largely been written by people who needed to be the heroes even as they perpetuated the villainy.

I’m sorry that I so often spoke in the cause of vulnerable and marginalized people, instead of actually first listening to them-- because the former was much easier and the latter more potentially uncomfortable.

I’m sorry that I wanted to proudly wear the bleeding heart badge of being for equality, but didn’t want to enter the jagged, bloody trenches of the white anti-racist; that I wasn’t willing to get my hands dirty and draw the bruises and broken bones that come when bigotry is confronted by its direct counterpoint.

I’m sorry that as a Christian minister, I once participated in a conservative Church that has been an agent of inequity and harborer of white supremacy since its inception-- and later in a progressive Christian Church that has grown shamefully silent in days when it should be a visible, vocal prophetic voice condemning the present supremacy.

I’m sorry for assuming that simply because a man of color finally occupied the seat of greatest power in this nation, that we could be less vigilant or passionate in the cause of equality, or that the malignant cancer of racism wasn’t as metastatic as it had ever been. I regret the way I and so many of my peers fell asleep.

I’m sorry for not being brave enough in my church gatherings or family conversations or neighborhood interactions or social media exchanges, to speak explicitly when bigotry reared its head; choosing to avoid conflict rather than share the full contents of my heart, relational fractures be damned.

I’m sorry for the hubris that was always so hesitant to look inward, for fear that I might not be as evolved as I was in the story I told myself.

I make this repentance knowing full well that I have many more sins that go undiagnosed and confessed; grievous errors that I’m unable to see but that will be revealed in time. I share these words because those particular scales have fallen from my eyes, but am not too arrogant to know that there is much I still have not seen.

The only thing I am certain of, is that the dream you told us you held within your furiously beating heart is still not a reality; that that glorious mountaintop summit is still a ways above us.

And while this is true, I will need to keep learning and listening, and keep shining the brilliant light of truth into the dark corners of both who we are and of who I am.

I will need to be in two wars simultaneously: the battle outside to condemn racism as a white human being living in a nation where privilege still bends the arc of the moral universe away from justice—and the equally brutal, relentless internal battle to expose the parts of me still acting as a conscientious objector in the fight for the value of every human being.

I pray I fight in a way that honors you.

Ilhan Omar (D-MN): "In the last months of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in which he warned of three evils in our world: the evil of racism, the evil of poverty, and the evil of war. Dr. King was not one to sit down when faced with injustice. He launched the Poor People’s Campaign to build a multiracial working-class coalition to end these evils in the United States of America. Because Dr. King was taken from this world entirely too soon, activist and minister Ralph Abernathy carried out the Poor People's March, bringing tens of thousands of demonstrators to D.C. to advocate for better employment and housing conditions for those in poverty. Dr. King believed in this vision because the people had been ignored by politicians in Washington for too long. In his words:

"People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, 'We are here; we are poor; we don't have any money; you have made us this way... and we've come to stay until you do something about it.'"

The Poor People’s Campaign led to more funding for free and reduced lunch programs and the expansion of food stamps. It was a monumental step in showing Americans how the destinies of all working people are linked. In Congress and in my daily life, I will carry on with Dr. King’s vision of radical love. I won’t stop fighting to make sure every person’s most basic needs are met. Each and every one of us deserves the wages and housing we need to have a real chance at not just surviving, but thriving, in this country. May we never forget Dr. King's legacy."

One thing I know for certain, there will never be a Donald J Trump Day. Although thousands of ugly, white, male gun nuts in Richmond are celebrating his fascist approach today. "Gov. Ralph Northam declared a temporary state of emergency days ahead of the rally, banning all weapons, including guns, from the event on Capitol Square. The expected participation of fringe militia groups and white supremacists raised fears the state could again see the type of violence that exploded at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

This morning Judd Legum published a piece in his Popular Information newsletter on how the Virginia extremists are using Facebook to spread their hatred and organize their rally:

For years, supporters and opponents of gun control have squared off in Virginia’s capital, Richmond, on the third Monday in January. With Democrats in charge of the state legislature for the first time in decades-- elected in part on promises to enact gun-control measures in response to a mass shooting-- a call went out over national pro-gun and right-wing networks to converge today.

This increased attention has brought threats from white supremacist and anti-government extremists. Federal agents say at least one white supremacist group was caught planning a massacre with hopes of provoking a civil war. Virginia’s Democratic Governor Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency.

Many of the pro-gun groups are trying to distance themselves from the white nationalists in advance, stressing their intention for a peaceful demonstration. But other groups have been using Facebook to broadcast couched threats and promote violence.

On December 13, the leader of American Warrior Revolution, a paramilitary organization allied with the militia movement, posted a video to its Facebook page, which has more than 540,000 followers. Joshua Shoaff, a popular right-wing personality who goes by the pseudonym Ace Baker, went on an extended rant threatening Virginia state representative Donald McEachin.

Shoaff was incensed by a quote, published by the Washington Examiner, in which McEachin suggested that Virgina could mobilize the National Guard to enforce new gun laws if local law enforcement refused to do so. McEachin’s comments came in response to a Republican-backed “sanctuary counties” movement, in which sheriffs have pledged not to enforce new laws such as expanded background checks.

Shoaff declared that McEachin's statement amounted to treason and McEachin, who is African American, should be lynched:

This message is directly to you. We're coming to your state. I live in Tennessee. My name is Ace Baker. I'm coming to the state of Virginia on January 20th and I hope to see you personally on Lobby Day. Because I would love nothing more than to tell you to your face, you are a coward. You are a tyrant, committing treason. And as a good friend of mine said a few minutes ago, treason is punishable by death. I'm not telling you that I'm going to kill you. I'm telling you that your acts constitute treason and the punishment for treason is hanging in the middle of the street ... You should be pulled out of office by the hair on your head, walked down the streets of the capital, walked up to the steps of a swinging rope that's placed around your neck.

Popular Information contacted Facebook on Friday and asked whether this video violated their rules. Facebook responded by taking down the video and removing Shoaff's personal profile.

"We have removed this individual and these videos from Facebook. We are monitoring the rally and actively reviewing content against our Community Standards so that we can take action accordingly," a Facebook spokesperson told Popular Information.

But Facebook did not take any action against the American Warrior Revolution page itself. Shoaff used the page on Friday to post another video, in which he said he stood by his previous video, and reiterated his belief “that tyrants should be hung in the streets to be made an example of.”

I would recommend you read the rest of Judd's essay at Popular Information here and I'll leave you with something more uplifting and inspiring... from Michigan state Rep. Jon Hoadley, the progressive candidate running to replace Trump ass-kisser Fred Upton in southwest Michigan. "Today," he wrote, "we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King. It's hard to find words that can adequately capture the gravity of his mission or paint a full picture of the forces he faced. Dr. King's message embodied the soul of our nation. He showed us how to build the more perfect union we had always hoped to become. Through protest, determination and tenacity, Dr. King organized a movement capable of speaking truth to power. I have strived to follow his example, working to codify his lessons in government. In the age of Trump, it can seem as if Dr. King's lessons and spirit are being forgotten by those in power. It can feel as if corruption and division are consuming us beyond repair. However, Dr. King's legacy is far too powerful to be reduced by any event or any political moment. Our commitment to democracy, practice of tolerance and compassion, our dedication to enrich the lives of our neighbors and ensure equality for all, are all based on his blueprints. It's up to all of us to carry Dr. King’s message forward and work to build another cultural reformation. It is up to all of us to make government serve people and community. And as was the theme of the Kalamazoo Women’s March, we must build power together. I hope you'll join us."

Status Quo Joe vs Martin Luther King, Jr.

Biden was a natural-born Republican. He didn’t switch his party registration until he felt the need to suck up to his boss at the law firm he got a job at. And when he ran for office in Delaware he was, basically, a one-issue politician-- “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” in the words of another “Democrat” in Biden’s day. Biden always preferred working with Republicans than Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, who he always feared and hated. He used to brag how he was a conservative on almost everything-- and you could see that clearly in his long and putrid record. It was just a terrible Republican-oriented voting record for decades in the Senate, it was also his record of leadership and what he chose to push: wars (like Iraq), bad trade deals (like NAFTA), Wall Street legislation (from putative bankruptcy bills to bills that put millions of Americans into unsustainable college debt) and, of course, extreme social injustice, one of Biden's life-long specialties. Biden has always had an easier time working with Republicans-- and embracing their agenda-- than working with progressives, whose agenda he has always generally abhorred and mocked and worked to derail. He's always been that kind of Democrat. Obama didn't pick him as a running mate for any other reason than to balance the ticket-- basically, a black man and a publicly calmed-down racist.

So it should have come as no surprise on Monday when ole Status Quo Joe told Democratic primary voters in Exeter, New Hampshire that he’s open to picking a Republican as a running mate.

Remember, we’re talking about a 77 year old man who only appears healthy because of thousands of dollars in plastic surgery that he has deployed to deceive voters, someone who is clearly senile and getting worse by the week and someone who would be a not very healthy 78 when he occupied the White House. He wants a Republican ready to step in? Which one? He refused to say. A more moderate Ivanka Trump? Or a more fascist-leaning Don, Jr.? Moscow Mitch? Pence? Who’s he got in mind? Someone as anti-Choice and anti-gay and anti-Black as he always was until he found it politically expedient to claim otherwise? Of course!! I know exactly who he has in mind-- the perfect Biden Republican-- Paul Ryan... the two of them could gut Social Security together and live happily ever after, heroes of the one percent!

The New York Times noted Monday that ”Biden has emphasized the need for a future Democratic president to work with Republicans, stressing the importance of consensus in order to get things done. That viewpoint has been criticized by some liberals who see it as an unacceptable embrace of the status quo and think Mr. Biden is naïve about trying to work with Republicans. But choosing a Republican to be his running mate would be a far more grievous act in the eyes of many Democrats, something many party officials and both liberal and moderate activists would oppose.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., the kind of transformational leader Biden has never even aspired to be, had something to say about his kind of grubby, failed politics, which has never accomplished anything for people but has always keep the transpartisan donor class happy as pigs in shit. America will never celebrate a “Status Quo Joe Day, the way we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. One of King’s best known quotes is “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” Dan Oswald explained that to mean “that if we want to be leaders, we need to lead-- that is, we need to develop ideas and convince others of their merit. A leader doesn’t figure out where everyone is going and then jump to the front of the line. A leader chooses a destination, convinces others of the merits of taking the trip, shows them how they can get there, and then leads them on the journey.”

As a manager, it’s your job to have a vision and share it with those with whom you work. And as a leader, you must build consensus for that vision. If you stand around waiting to find consensus, then you’re not leading anyone. The leader is out in front of the pack determining the proper path. At times you’ll head the wrong way and need to reverse course. Other times, as the leader of the pack, you’ll be the first to step into danger. But as a leader, you must be willing to take calculated risks. That’s part of the job description.

Still plenty of time to vote over at Twitter, but we seem to have an early consensus

Sanders-- not Biden, not Buttigieg, not Bloomberg! We've had enough of the B-team from Democrats. It's time for a real super-star A Team kind of guy, a modern day FDR. And I don't even want to guess what an hideous concoction a Biden cabinet would look like-- not to mention his judicial nominations!

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

The sooner we recognize that these red Republican MAGA hats like the one being worn by the critter above are the new white KKK hood, the better. The rodent may be cute, but there is nothing cute about today's Republicans.

Trump has an idiot savant's gift for marketing and he knew from the time he glided down his Trump Tower escalator to launch his campaign on a platform of xenophobia and racism that he couldn't be so overt as to wear the pointy white hood that he probably inherited from his father. No, instead he needed a new symbol for the same old racist attitudes, but he needed one that could be worn out in the open. Hence, the MAGA hat, the hat that has become an essential part of any Republican wardrobe.

For the hat, Trump even pointedly chose a slogan that has echoes of the Klan slogans of the 1920's, the Klan's peak years when tens of thousand of Klan members marched through the streets of Washington. The slogan Trump chose has even word for word echoes at that. To drive his sick bigotry essence home, he tied it to an even more infamous and popular KKK slogan, "America First!" In a May 2016 tweet, he said:

In trade, military and everything else, it will be AMERICA FIRST! This will quickly lead to our ultimate goal: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Trump isn't the first politician of either party to use either slogan. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton occasionally uttered the phrase "Make America Great Again" in speeches, but neither man used "Make America Great Again" as a slogan or buzz phrase so heavily, so effectively, or with such deliberate anti-immigrant, white supremacy meaning. Trump, in fact, trademarked "Male America Great Again" in 2012. In 2008, Clinton hypocritically, yet correctly, pointed out-

If you're a white southerner, you know exactly what it means, don't you?

The choice of the word 'Again' dredges up feelings of grievance and longing for a world long gone. The Teabagger political element is often heard saying they want "their country" back, often when addressing the topics of immigration or race, or even just tangentially related to them.The choice of the word 'Great' is also key when it comes to reaching Trump's targeted demographic, regardless of where they live. Today's Confederates live in every state as we continue to fight the Civil War. It's just that now the Civil War is, ironically, a war without borders. 'Great' is vague enough that it means whatever the beholder wants it to mean, which is usually, when it comes to Republicans, 'white' of course. "Great" can pointedly ignore many of those who think America has been great for them. Such people have already decided their voting preferences one way of the other. But, 'Great' also eliminates those who, have, in their personal experience, felt the sting of being ostracized through bigotry and kept from the opportunities and benefits of living in America. They know that a Trump-style America not only dashes what dreams of 'Great' they may still have, they know it will never hold even a glimmer of a dream of 'Great' for them. Trump isn't really trying to reach them either. He is only interested in manipulating those with specific grievances; grievances embraced by those looking to place blame for their misfortunes on "others" and those who have a bigoted axe to grind about them.

Tonight's meme tells a story. If you do think that mice or rats might be cute, think again. They are great carriers of disease, especially if they're wearing that little red republican hat. The FOX "News" logo? Think of it as the new national flag of Confederacy. The last one, from from 1863, featured what most people consider to be the Confederate flag (but is actually the Confederacy's battle flag) set against a field of symbolic solid white. See below. The flag's designer, Savannah newspaperman William Tappan Thompson, pushing and promoting his design, proudly declared-

As a people, we are fighting to maintain the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race: a white flag would thus be emblematic of our cause.

In Thompson's day, it was a Republican president who freed the slaves. Most of the Democrats, at least those known as Dixiecrats, were the racist bad guys for the next 100 years, until John Kennedy started speaking out against racial discrimination in 1960 and Nixon put together his infamous "southern strategy" in 1968. I'm sure that would confuse William Tappan Thompson but I have no doubt that he would love Donald Trump and today's Republican Party.

Happy Martin Luther King Day, to all.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Previously, although my contempt for such people has been more than clear, I have refrained from using the 's' word when it came to Trump's brainwashed minions. I have refrained from calling Trump supporters stupid, but there comes a point where you just have to say enough is enough. Those who call for civility in discourse on the subject of Trump with his supporters and apologists are just inviting for more if not begging for more manifestations of stupidity and the disaster that tolerance and enabling of Trump will inevitably bring. The sign in today's meme is a sign of the times if there ever was one. To not call out this sign for what it reflects is asking for an escalation of more of the same and worse.

I've encountered enough Trumpies to know that Trump supporters don't make their claims and embrace the meanings of their statements because they are trying to be outrageous, mean-spirited, or bigoted. They make their statements because they actually believe them to be true. That they often can't form coherent sentences to express their mental chaos is a symptom of how they got to the sad little worlds they live in. Hence, the sign.

I've had this meme on file for some time. It sat in computer storage until Friday morning when a friend sent it it to me along with the quote from Martin Luther King Jr's 1963 "Strength To Love" book. The quote was the missing piece that I needed to use the meme as a Midnight Meme Of The Day. It's not only perfect for the times but it demonstrates what a prophet MLK was. The fact that I'm using the quote of an African-American to describe Trump supporters is a little extra side bonus in that it will irritate them all the more. King, himself said he didn't consider himself "inextricably bound to either party" but he made his feelings about the Republican Party's 1964 racist "Goldwater" convention very clear. He minced no words. Also, he grew up in the hood-wearing Dixiecrat south before they took Nixon's invitation and joined up with today's Republican Party, so, there was no love there either. By the time King was murdered, both parties were in the process of choosing their futures. Trump was inevitable.

Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune.
- Plato

Violence... Non-Violence... What About When It Comes To Nazis?

That's American Nazi leader Richard Spencer pretending to be Dave Gahan a couple months ago in front of a crowd of drunken fascists who appear to have left their tiki torches at home that night. As a longtime, devoted Depeche Mode fan, that doesn't give me the right to kill him-- even if I'm going to be haunted for weeks after I watching him mincing around the stage like that. Even punching him in the face is... well, just something to laugh about. I've been a non-violent kind of guy for my whole life (except once).



The video's funny. I wish it went on longer. But I don't mean to advocate violence-- just Depeche Mode's music (mostly). Ryan Clayton is the president of Americans Take Action, a populist network formed to restore free and fair elections in America, create a purpose driven economy, and save the free and open internet-- but not to advocate violent action. Definitely not, in fact. Yesterday, on a provate e-mail listserv, Ryan wrote that since Charlottesville he's been seeing "a radical uptick in the number of people on the left calling for us to reciprocate the violence, the most notable example being a new t-shirt campaign called Punch More Nazis. Here's how the argument generally proceeds: 'Practice love and non-violence, except where Nazis are concerned. You must punch Nazis, as they don't speak any other language than violence. Therefore, we much be violent towards them so they understand we mean serious bizness. Yeah, bruh.'" Tempting, right? Ryan says NO-- and you know he's right.

"Punch More Nazis" = Promotion of Violence.  Period.  Full stop.

The Young Turks showed a video of Ryan being attacked by some neo-Nazis a few months ago. Watch:



Ryan:

Honestly, going into this action, I thought they might get violent, but the most I imagined they may was punch us in the face once or twice-- that was the upper limit of what I considered a room full of conservatives might do. But this is a different breed of political animal, folks, these people are straight up right-wing white nationalist fascists, and they heartily embrace violence as a means to an end. Red hats are the new brown-shirts. "Alt-right" just means new nazis, same as the old nazis. I get it. So later on, when having a conversation with a political ally on the left who's a friend, they asked me what it would take to commit violence? I responded simply, "Nothing." After giving me a few scenarios that evoked the same response, he delivered his final salvo, "Yeah, but what about self-defense. What if you thought someone was going to kill you, what would you do then?" I responded, I've actually been in that situation recently, where I thought people were going to kill me, and I held on to my camera; I didn't strike back. The temptation was there that day to ram the person restraining me into the window and free myself from their grip (it ended up being a woman holding me from behind, imagine the delight that O'Keefe would have in flaunting that violent reaction to the world).  When I was being choked, the temptation was there to use training I've received to free myself from such a choke-hold, but that could have been interpreted as an attempt to strike back and escalated the violence. The temptation was definitely there to fight back as I was being thrown down a stairwell, where the thought crossed my mind in that instant that I could end up paralyzed for life from what was about to happen.

I did not resist, I did not strike back, the only violence in that room was in their hands. I allowed them to monopolize the violence, and I called the police instead... The police have failed to pursue any serious charges (even though it's plain as day on the video), and frankly, the community that should be supportive in punishing O'Keefe and his minions haven't really stepped up to the plate to make them pay for their assault on the two of us, including some of the people who got us into the midst of this fracas in the first place. The compendium of these factors had me revisit the wisdom of nonviolence, I've spent time recently re-litigating the debate over and over again in my mind. I say this to relate to those who are softening in your stance toward a commitment to nonviolence, I understand how you feel, I've been there. You're angry, you feel threatened, you feel responsible, you feel duty bound to do something to protect yourself and others. I get it.

But let me ask you something, do you believe in science? Like, there's science that says the world is warming and the climate is changing, 99% of scientists agree, it's a fact backed up by reams of data. I believe in science, so when a scientist investigates the last 100 years of conflicts on planet Earth and discovers that nonviolent conflicts are 3x more effective than violent conflicts, I listen. When she shows us data demonstrating that violent conflicts are becoming less common and less effective, and opposition movements that gain power through violence usually end up more violent against their own people once in power, I listen. When she shows that violence is effectively a barrier to entry for all but males between the ages of 18-45 who are willing to harm other people, it means a revolution grounded in violence will leave out (most) women, artists, intellectuals, civic servants, religious leaders, young people, etc (i.e. all the people who make a movement). When she says that every movement, violent or nonviolent, that achieved the active and sustained participation of 3.5% of the population has succeeded in the last 100 years, I am filled with great hope (btw, no violent campaign has achieved that percentage of active participation). So listen, the science of nonviolence is here, you can read it, analyze it, and you can even disagree, but your gut feeling that violence is still an effective tool for political conflict is the exact same thing as those people denying the scientific consensus surrounding the reality of global climate change.

Put plainly, violence is not more effective than a movement commitment to nonviolence. It's settled science. There's this great saying I've heard in trainings, "In God we trust, all others bring data." So I've shown you mine, now you show me yours. Also, I'll give you the follow up argument too: "But King had Malcolm. Mandela had the Spear of the Nation. They were armed Indians fighting for what Ghandi wanted too. You need both to win." Yeah, I used to make this argument too, before I read the science surrounding this. Thankfully, even a few of the examples mentioned here are addressed and/or debunked in the book of Why Civil Resistance Works (referenced above). The authors even did a follow up study on this line of argument, since so many bruhs were like, "But c'mon, there must be empirical validation of my gut feeling that violence is useful in some way and it always works better cause that makes me feel so good and manly, bruh." Actually, that's completely wrong, their follow up study showed that nonviolent movements that had simultaneous violent movements were prolonged and less successful over time, and I believe that this is increasingly true in the later half of the century. Their scientific data and analysis trumps your gut feeling, bruh.

Coming back to the topic of the day, my partner in progressive pranks was also in the crowd that got rammed by the car in Charlottesville (while I was on the phone with him). Much of his political involvement prior to me hiring him was doing work with anti-fascists in DC. He still knows some of them and attends rallies/protests occasionally, which is why he was there that day, but since working for me, he has accepted and adhered to a strict code of nonviolence-- part of a requirement for the job, but he's also genuinely come around on the issue. Personally, he will tell you how he now believes that violent responses in the streets are counterproductive and how he's seen how powerful nonviolent actions can be, such as dropping Russian flags with Trumps name on them into CPAC. He has been successfully making the argument in some of those networks that violence is really just a testosterone fueled explosion of emotional release (mostly by men), rather than an actual strategic tactic employed to achieve actual political goals. The main problem I personally have with black bloc violence is that they're usually doing it around the corner from a nonviolent protest. When they break windows on one corner of the street, the police start cracking skulls on the next street over. The violence, once associated with a small group of protesters, can be used to paint all protesters and justify violence against them. It takes a lot of conversations and a lot of listening to bring the younger generation of activists around to seeing the virtue and strategic value of nonviolence, and we all pay a price when protesters are subjected to increasing volumes of violence from police as well as our political opponents, so if you're doing anything that is undermining the former and promoting the latter, then you're doing it wrong.

So, let's bring it all together now... When Donald Trump tweets out that there is violence on many sides, he's watching and waiting for you. He wants you to fuck up the response to this. He didn't mess up his response. He was planting a seed, and you're playing directly into Donald Trump's tiny hands. When someone on the left encourages violence, they can point and make the false equivalence, "See, both sides are doing it. Both sides are guilty. Both sides are violent." Then it's a competition to see who can be more violent to win. And make no mistake, they want a violent conflict-- conservatives believe that violence is a perfectly acceptable way to solve political disputes. They have guns and they want to use them (btw, per capita gun ownership has declined while gun sales have increased, so less and less people are owning more and more guns... and it ain't progressives locking and loading up). You're the key to them changing the terms of the debate from words into violent actions and unlocking all those gun safes to head down to the local protest. They know both sides will lose, but we will lose more-- not as many of us are willing to be violent, our active and passive supporters mostly reject violence, the uncommitted in the middle will throw their hands up because "both sides are doing it" robbing us of any moral high-ground, it will embolden their supporters and swell their ranks with people who believe in violence as a means to an end, it will sap our enthusiasm and our people's will to resist. So, when you say, "Punch More Nazis," you are a recruitment mechanism for alt-right neo-nazi fascists and delivering psychological death blows to the new ranks of the resistance.  You are becoming the handmaiden of the oppressor. So, congratulations, I hope you sell some shirts, because you're going to get us all fucking killed.

Lastly, some will also say, "Yeah, I normally am against violence, but it's okay as a last resort."  Isaac Asimov once said, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."  If the use of violence is morally justifiable in your book and you reject the science of nonviolence, then you are as Mr. Asimov says.  

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?" (MLK Jr.)

This week The Center has been featuring quotations from pioneering activists, writers and political leaders on social media that speak to the cause of social justice and equity. As we enter a period of uncertainty, one in which the signs of a hardening culture are already apparent, I find myself thinking of another.

Writing from a Birmingham jail cell in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asked the following:

Will we be extremists for hate or for love?
Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice
or for the extension of justice?

-- from an e-mail sent out this morning by Glennda Testone, executive director of New York's LGBT Center (known as The Center)

by Ken

I have my day pretty well blocked out activity-wise so that I won't have to deal directly with, you know, that stuff going on today. Naturally I recognize that this doesn't change the reality of, you know, that stuff the least little bit. Still, it's my way of coping, at least for a day.

In this morning's e-mail, though, I found and actually clicked through to the letter sent out by Glennda Testone, executive director of The Center, from which I've lifted the above Martin Luther King Jr. quote, which indeed seems mightily appropriate to the day.

I think it's an extraordinary letter, and I'm passing it along, not particularly because of its concern for issues of LGBT justice over the coming years, but because of the way it frames the issue of justice generally, which is obviously of concern to many other groups -- and individuals -- who find ourselves likely targets of the ugliness that the 2016 presidential campaign brought out, or maybe just reflected. So while the specifics, so smartly set out by Ms. Testone for the LGBT community, will vary for other at-risk groups and individuals, the general theme and of course the need to band together to fight the threat seem to me to have widespread application.

The only note I want to add is that while the letter is clearly, in a general sense, a fund-raising letter, with its repeated references like "the support of thousands of people like you," it approaches the day in the spirit of a dedication, a mission statement, a call for solidarity. The closest it comes to a direct appeal for, you know, money is that little tan button, "Support Our Work," in the header box. And since what you see here is a screen-shot graphic, with no live link, I do want to include that link, for anyone who may be inclined to follow it: gaycenter.org. (And the small-type links at the end of the letter should be live.)

Dear Center Friends & Supporters,

A few hours from now, a new President will take the oath of office. The transition will usher in an administration with more than a few officials whose careers have featured discriminatory policies and rhetoric aimed at the LGBT community. As the heart and the home for our community in New York City, we must be prepared for a fight in which LGBT equality is at stake.

By now, the catalogue of proposals that target or disproportionately affect the LGBT community may be sadly familiar. To name but a few: a sanctioning of anti-LGBT discrimination under the guise of the First Amendment; a repeal of the Affordable Care Act that extends essential protections to the transgender community and coverage to so many in the LGBT community; an attack on our parental rights in states across the country; talk of so-called conversion therapy for LGBT youth and tepid enforcement of protections ensuring their safety within schools; and, finally, an agenda that will leave LGBT immigrants at greater risk.

Because of you we're ready to meet any challenge.

The Center will double down on its commitment to serving some of the most vulnerable LGBT New Yorkers through our transgender livelihood program, immigrant opportunities initiative and youth development continuum. We'll continue enrolling community members in health care and linking them to affirming care while providing substance use treatment and HIV/AIDS prevention and support.

And, in the months ahead, with the support of thousands of people like you, we will continue to care for one another and to provide a home for a community dedicated to justice for all.

This has always been The Center story. It has its origins in our founding when brave women and men came together out of a commitment to one another and to future generations.

Thank you for all that you do to ensure opportunity and equality for our community.

This week The Center has been featuring quotations from pioneering activists, writers and political leaders on social media that speak to the cause of social justice and equity. As we enter a period of uncertainty, one in which the signs of a hardening culture are already apparent, I find myself thinking of another.

Writing from a Birmingham jail cell in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asked the following:

Will we be extremists for hate or for love?
Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice
or for the extension of justice?

The commitment carried out here every day at The Center, and made possible by you, is and always will be squarely on the side of love, and in service of justice.

Yours in love and service,


Glennda Testone
Executive Director

Become a Member | Donate | Subscribe | MyCenter

gaycenter.org

This message was sent by
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 W 13 St, New York, NY 10011 | 212.620.7310

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The Results-- Iowa Republicans Pick Right Wing Lunatic Ted Cruz; Democrats Tied

TRUMP = LOSER

Yesterday Dave Weigel tweeted that far right racist Congressman Steve King told him the polls may be wrong about Trump. "You can't say 'Two Corinthians' and be winning evangelicals." Well... looks like King knew his state's Republican voters better than most of the pollsters did. I wonder if Herr Trumpf laying some greasy bills on a silver communion plate at a church he was using as a prop for his campaign yesterday was the last straw. It looks like the Our Principles PAC-funded voters guide that tens of thousands of homes got in the mail warning them that Herr Trumpf isn't a real conservative-- three decades of Trump’s apostasies from the conservative movement-- may have worked. Trump voters-- in Iowa and beyond-- are angry, frustrated, paranoid, xenophobic, bigoted, prone to crave authoritarianism, intellectually low-functioning... but not really ideological or even aware of what the "conservative movement" is all about or who Grover Norquiest is. But they didn't show up to vote in big enough numbers. By the way, the Des Moines Register had predicted the GOP voter turnout would be 368,000; only 187,000 bothered to come out for the Deep Bench. Anyway, expect a gun fight in Cleveland on the floor of the Republican convention in July.

It looks like the Romney staffers behind Our Principles PAC spent some time reading Timothy Egan's How Stupid Is Iowa? over the weekend. "It was Donald Trump who first raised the issue of Hawkeye State imbecility," he wrote for the NY Times, "in a mocking reference to a crush that Iowans had on Ben Carson last fall. And it’s the odious Ted Cruz who has been using Trump’s very words to goad Iowans into proving that they are not, in fact, so stupid as to back an ego-inflamed reality television star who makes fun of them... You’re supposed to be vetting, Iowa. You’re supposed to be culling out the crazies. You’re supposed to recognize the fraud of Ted Cruz and how Donald Trump is playing you. For all your touted small-town verities, you’re not doing your job. Your bull manure detector is broken." An amusing Establishment hack of the first degree, Egan disqualifies Iowa voters not because they're too stupid but because they're too white and too old.

Consider that half of all the babies born last year in the United States were nonwhite. Not in Iowa, of course, one of the whitest states in the nation. On Monday, if the Republican caucus is anything like the 2012 turnout, 99 percent of the attendants will be white. That’s not even the United States of 1816, let alone this year.

We’re a young nation, though you won’t see much of that fresh blood when Republicans gather on Monday night. Iowa is the fourth oldest state in the nation: In 2012, nearly seven out of 10 Republican caucusgoers was older than age 45.

And Iowa women are not leaning in, at least in one party, where a majority of Republican caucusgoers are men. As for religion, 57 percent of 2012 Republican caucusgoers were evangelical-- more than twice the percentage of the electorate nationwide.

What do these demographics do? They produce candidates who deny that climate change even exists, who favor total bans on legal abortion, who are opposed to the most common-sensical reforms in gun laws, and who would require a religious test for entry into the country. All of those positions are out of step with the views of a country that’s supposed to reflect majority will.

Trump can call for a police state pogrom against 11 million people and be rewarded, because a majority of Republican caucusgoers are white, native-born and believe that electing a demagogue will make American white again.

The evangelicals, in particular, deserve Trump’s taunt at their intelligence. Devout Christians profess a belief in piety, humility and sacrifice. The thrice-married Trump says he’s never asked God for forgiveness. His entire campaign is about pride, ego, solipsistic excess. He can’t even fake evangelical speak. For this, he’s their favorite. As he said, he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose supporters.

It’s time to rotate. Imagine Trump making his racially incendiary remarks in the most populous state, California, where Latinos outnumber whites. Or think of the ideas that could emerge from a focus on how the least populous state, Wyoming, could build a more sustainable economy beyond oil and gas. Missouri could bring its raw racial troubles to the table for a larger national debate.

None of this is discussed in the gloomy chill of Iowa. Instead, we have the stupidity question. Trump raised it. And if he wins on Monday, the people of Iowa will have answered him.

I'm not saying Matt K. Lewis is stupid, but he is a conservative... and author of Too Dumb To Fail: How the GOP Betrayed the Reagan Revolution to Win Elections, about the grifters who run the GOP and who are in the process of being displaced by a higher level grifter, crooked New York billionaire Donald J. Herr Trumpf. Expanding slightly on philosopher Eric Hoffer, "Every great cause [which, obviously conservatism never was] begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." Conservatism started as a racket and degenerated from there. A year and a half ago Lewis, writing for the Wall Street Journal, exposed the conservative PACs trolling for your money. His Salon post this weekend, like his Journal OpEd from 2015, is about how suckers give their money to the Republican grifters.

In order to raise money from the masses, organizations and consultants are also helping dumb down conservatism. In some cases, this consists of rhetoric about taking down the establishment and the “ruling class.” In other cases, it is accomplished by stirring up paranoia and anger among the base, often to get them to sign petitions (and almost every online petition is a ruse to get you on e‑mail lists that can then be sold) or to clog the phone lines of House members so that reasonably conservative Congressmen can be lectured to about why shutting down the government is, in fact, a good idea that will work “if only they have the guts and courage to try.”

The irony is that the people who tell the base what they want to hear are characterized as courageous, while the people willing to stand up to them are labeled cowards. And some of us have our conservatism questioned and are labeled RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).

But it’s not just outside groups and venders pocketing money that should be spent on candidates. In 2013, a reporter for ProPublica, a nonprofit organization that specializes in investigative journalism, alleged all sorts of unethical practices by a group ostensibly set up to help support the troops. According to reporter Kim Barker, “an examination of its fund‑raising appeals, tax records, and other documents shows that Move America Forward has repeatedly misled donors and inflated its charitable accomplishments, while funneling millions of dollars in revenue to the men behind the group and their political consulting firms.” One of the men behind the group is Sal Russo, a longtime political consultant who is chief strategist for the Tea Party Express.

Time for honest and sincere Republicans to give up on their tattered and disheveled party and rally behind Bernie's campaign-- for the sake of the country we love and for the families who live here? Martin Luther King, Jr.: "The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being but his material well-being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial."

Bernie battled the entire establishment to a tie and O'Malley, like Huckabee, dropped out. Have you contributed to Bernie's campaign? Thank you; you can do it again-- and to the congressional candidates who have endorsed him and are running on his platform. Conservatism is wrong for America, the radical conservatism of Cruz, the establishmentarian conservatism of Clinton and the faux-conservatism of Herr Trumpf. In his concession speech tonight, Rubio pointed to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War as the beginning of what makes the U.S. special. What he didn't mention is that conservatives opposed both the Declaration and the Revolution itself. Many conservatives fought on the side of the British and fled to Canada, the Caribbean and to England once the British and their German mercenaries were defeated by the progressives. Conservatives never understand their place in history. But Thom Hartmann does:

Tonight in Iowa we see the beginning of the political revolution so many progressives have worked to ignite and that Bernie Sanders has embraced as his campaign's central theme. It is not a revolution fueled by those already invested with money and power but one built with and for people who believe we can and must do better.

Ever since PDA began its Run Bernie Run petition drive in 2013, we have stayed dedicated to the core issues that we can now legitimately claim have the attention and energy of this presidential race.

Bernie Sanders expresses it best when he uses his now familiar cry, "Not me, us." Whether we are talking about creating a more just, improved and expanded Medicare for all healthcare system, providing access to a college education for all, addressing the climate crisis, or ending the death grip of Citizens' United on our democracy, Bernie Sanders gives us reason to unite.

For the Love of MLK: Tolerance In Short Supply In City By The Bay

photo by Steve Rhodes

-by Denise Sullivan

With so much activism, advocacy, and service taking place in the name of MLK from coast to coast on the third Monday of January, it's easy to forget we largely have a musician to thank for making the dream of a federal holiday in Dr. King's name a reality.

This year was the 30th anniversary of making it official and the effort to #ReclaimMLKDay was not just a hashtag campaign but a full court press toward reinvigorating the civil rights movement. Ignited by the escalation of police murders of black men and women, whether it's the right to water in Flint, better representation for people of color in Hollywood, or protection from police terrorism across the nation, Black activists and their allies took to the streets in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago, staking a claim for racial and economic justice. Here in the Bay Area, organizers and participants were successful on a number of levels at shutting things down.

On Sunday, an early morning protest at the homes of Mayor Ed Lee and Police Chief Greg Suhr was designed to keep the pressure on the demand for justice in the police shootings of Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez-Lopez in the Mission and most recently the slaying of Mario Woods in the Bayview district which went video viral on December 2. Strangely, the case has not received much national press, but that is about to change as on Monday, civil rights attorney John L. Burris held a press conference to announce he would be calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the SFPD's racially biased "pattern and practice" of law enforcement.

In in addition to the cold-blooded killing, this third in a series of police murders in San Francisco has been left to be investigated by the force itself, further fueling public outcry. On Monday, The Justice For Mario Woods coalition successfully disrupted Lee from addressing a crowd that had assembled for the Interfaith Council's annual MLK Day commemoration at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts. Given the increase in police violence here and in light of the City's abandonment of its working poor, homeless, senior, disabled, and average citizens trying to make ends meet, Lee was a poor choice to lead a faith-based gathering. "We're here to reclaim San Francisco," one of the protestors shouted, thereby mercifully pre-empting any further remarks from the mayor and hastening his exit. Among the protestors was hip hop musician Equipto who made headlines last year for calling out Lee as a "disgrace to Asian people." The rapper and local pre-school instructor continues to devote an increasing amount of energy to the fight to reclaim the City for San Franciscans (Wednesday evening, the Justice for Mario Woods coalition had another chance to confront the cops and call for answers).

Oakland protest calling for end to police violence

photo by Steve Rhodes

Protestors also succeeded with an action to stop traffic on the Bay Bridge on Monday afternoon. Working as an adjunct to Black Lives Matter and the Anti-Police Terror Project, the group Black.Seed used the bridge sit-in to call for the resignation or firing of Chief Suhr as well as that of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff and Police Chief Sean Whent while issuing a general call for Black Health Matters. Though the group was arrested and released that evening, they took heat on social media for inconveniencing fellow drivers with their civil disobedience. Yet it must be said: These young men and women of color, some of whom identify as queer, have their peace disturbed pretty much every day, living Black lives by the Bay.

Meanwhile, the fight against displacement, foreclosures and evictions continues in the African American community, now officially down to 3 percent and closer to 2 percent of the overall population in the City and County of San Francisco. Few know the reality of displacement better then Pastor Yul Dorn of Emmanuel Church of God in Christ and chaplain at the San Francisco Sherif's Department: He's counseled many displaced persons on the job site. Yet on January 15, the pastor was unironically evicted from his home and arrested, alongside protesters, by the Sherif's department.

San Franciscans should be prepared and/or be ready to participate in further actions highlighting displacement, income disparity, racial injustice, and police terrorism in general, and specifically as it pertains to the Super Bowl here on February 7. This completely tone-deaf booking of a major spectacle like the Super Bowl by a city already under siege by jerk-offs, done in a deal struck behind-closed-doors is particularly egregious. For chasing out homeless encampments and inconveniencing thousands of working San Franciscans (who, for what it's worth can't afford a ticket to the game), the City shall expect in return plenty of public intoxication, urination, illegal gambling, human trafficking and domestic violence---the kinds of activities known to accompany massive sporting events around the world--and very little in the way of revenues trickling down to average citizens. But hey, welcome to San Francisco 2016 and the Year of the Monkey anyway. Here's to hoping things get better from here.

Altar on the Bay Bridge to people killed by San Francisco and Oakland Police. Members of Black.Seed blocked the span in the effort to ReclaimMLK.

-photo by Steve Rhodes

Denise Sullivan writes on arts and culture and gentrification issues for Down With Tyranny.

Eric Kingson Reflects On The Legacy Of Dr. Martin Luther King

The day after that speech, April 4, 1968, an earlier version of a prototypical Ted Cruz/Donald Trump/Mike Huckabee supporter shot and killed Dr. King, one of the darkest moments in our country's contemporary history. Today, progressive Democrats are still carrying on Dr. King's struggle against economic inequality and much of what you hear from Bernie Sanders comes straight from Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, Dr. King's final book, and from his final Poor People's Campaign. Blue America always strives to find candidates who will uphold Dr. King's values and goals and honor his struggle with their own deeds, men and women like Alan Grayson, Donna Edwards, Elizabeth Warren, Ted Lieu...

The DCCC insistence on running Republican-lite or DINO candidates resulted in the loss of the very blue 24th congressional district in New York (metro Syracuse all the way to the eastern suburbs of Rochester). Obama won the district 56-42% in 2008 and 57-41% in 2010 but Chris Van Hollen and Steve Israel got it into their heads that only right-of-center fake Dems could win the congressional seat there. The D+5 district now has a conservative Republican congressman, John Katko, and the Democrats have a 3-way primary. EMILY's List and former Blue Dog Kirsten Gillibrand have put up a harmless but clueless staffer from Gillibrand's office, Colleen Deacon, and Steve Israel is pushing some apolitical lawyer with wealthy friends, Steve Williams. The progressive in the race is SocialSecurityWorks founder and Syracuse University professor Eric Kingson, who has been endorsed by Blue America. (You can contribute to his grassroots campaign here.) Today Eric reflected, briefly, on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.

With the rhetoric of intolerance and the drumbeat of war dominating the Republican Party’s presidential spectacle, this is an important time to reflect on how Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Movement he embodied changed for the better our nation and our lives.

Dr. King, Pope Francis, Nelson Mandela, and the millions of people engaged in nonviolent human rights struggles for justice, then and now, are beacons of strength, hope, and progress in a world often darkened by greed, hate, and violence.

Their courageous commitment to human decency and forceful opposition to injustice move us closer to what Dr. King called The Beloved Community-- where, The King Center explains: everyone would share in the earth’s bounty; commitment to human decency would not allow hunger, homelessness and poverty; all forms of bigotry and discrimination would be replaced by an understanding of our common humanity; justice and peace would trump vengeance and war.

Today’s Republican Party presidential campaign is dominated by hate, animosity, and noxious rhetoric. In Dr. King’s spirit, people of good will-- Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike-- have a responsibility to name Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and those echoing their intolerance for what they are-- dangerous throwbacks to the bigotry of the past.

Dr. King left a legacy of love, inclusion, equality, nonviolent struggle against injustice, and-- perhaps most importantly-- of seeing the dignity in every man, woman and child.

It is ever more pressing that we do the hard work Dr. King challenged us to take on. Only together, through love and community effort, can we create the country he envisioned so our children and our children's children have equal opportunities to create the more perfect union our founders intended.

If you'd like to see a man like Eric Kingson in Congress, instead of some self-serving partisan hack of either party, please consider contributing to his campaign.