General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPlease do not underestimate the anger and rage on the left.
The media yawns at the traitor. The right loves a good fascist. Every governmental department, institution and military has been destroyed by this garbage criminal. And lets not forget the lifetime appointments for unqualified judges that are now a majority on all US Circuit Courts.
I have zero shits to give about billionaires and people who are hell bent on criminalizing pot.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)awaken up a sleeping giant. That is us.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)And finish it we will.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)soldierant
(6,647 posts)sadly have little energy left for taking to the streets, even if they manage to find the time (itself a challenge). I doubt a "sleep-in" would be very effective.
No, I am not in quite that position,being retired - but I am mobility challenged and have chronic pain.
onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)TygrBright
(20,733 posts)Upthevibe
(7,879 posts)Never in my life have I been to more marches or gatherings. And I won't stop. And I'll do more than march. I'm on a budget (I'm currently a substitute teacher and unfortunately all the schools are closed this week and then three weeks during Christmas) but I still sent $7 to the candidate that's running against McConnell.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,021 posts)Ditching Moscow Mitch is not going to be easy.
There are still sane Kentuckians amongst us, but McConnell gets a lot of outside help.
KPN
(15,585 posts)flying_wahini
(6,513 posts)barbtries
(28,702 posts)4 or 5, and am ashamed of myself the number is not higher. i am proud of having marched in the first and third Womens Marches in
DC, with children and grandchildren and others.
stage left
(2,934 posts)I belong to a group in Greenville, SC called Tell Them Tuesday that has been out on the streets in protest against the orange menace every single Tuesday, rain or shine, since January 2017. We've gone from mostly middle fingers and jeers to mostly cheers. Many people come up to us to thank us and have pictures taken with us. In the past we have fielded a Congressional candidate from our ranks and one of our members is now running for the S.C. house from my district and we're going to help him win. The congressional candidate, who unfortunately lost the run-off, is now serving as President of the Greenville Democratic Women. Three other women from our group serve with her as Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
In July, we expanded to Saturdays as well, in the hope that we can get people who work during the week to join us. At the same time we had cards printed up and we give those out by the dozens.
Besides waving signs and chanting and generally making a nuisance of ourselves, our members have knocked doors for candidates, made calls, faithfully visited local offices of our "representatives", registered voters, wrote letters, and worked for commonsense gun laws. We've also participated in other rallies. We stood and marched against the Muslim ban, for gun control, in support of Christine Blasey Ford, and for the environment.
We plan to be down on Main Street in Greenville every Tuesday and Saturday until Trump is gone.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Unfortunately I'm a caregiver for a family member and can't take any time off. Your work means a lot to me.
stage left
(2,934 posts)We do it for those, like you, who are serving others in different ways and for the future.
stage left
(2,934 posts)We do it because we want the orange slime cleaned out of the White House.
murielm99
(30,655 posts)in a massive GOTV effort.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Dems and Dem-leaning indies, but "rage"? Not us.
The right and LW extremists do rage much better than us. And reality is that many extremists don't bother to vote. (Sanders didn't vote all through the civil rights era until he ran and voted for himself -- no one worth voting for. ) Or vote stupid (like to help Republicans to take out Democrats and destroy the nation so the righteous fringe can take over).
Just yesterday some here were admiring people marching in the street over people who "just" vote, completely mistaking what people putting their lives on the line around the planet are doing for what they're trying to accomplish. I'd put a laughing emoji on, but that kind of contempt for the vote was a big factor that put the Republicans in power.
On the plus side, though, sensible people on the left who do vote and many who might vote are getting appropriately angry, at all who did this.
stage left
(2,934 posts)Protest is an attempt to wake people up, inform them of the issues, and get them to march enmasse, in overwhelming numbers, to the polls and vote. And not just vote in National elections, but in state and local ones, too.
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts)Last edited Tue Nov 26, 2019, 02:27 PM - Edit history (3)
. . .and join up with your local Democratic committee or club in your hometown.
Become a district leader, precinct committeeperson, precinct captain, or whatever, and get to know your fellow rank-and-file Democrats, as well as your most direct representatives in local government.
(Disclaimer: I live in a deep blue state and city, which makes things easier, but my area wasn't always this blue)
Where I live (in a city of 80,000), we have monthly meetings.
Each meeting, we have either the mayor or a couple of city council folks,
plus 1-2 county legislators or even the county executive,
sometimes we have state assembly or state senate folks (or a staffperson),
and sometimes we even get our Congressional representative (or a staffperson).
However we slice it, we get to know our representatives in government on a one-to-one basis and not merely watching them on a screen.
We also have a number of rank-and-file members who are also members of Indivisible. Quite often at a street rally or demonstration, I'll see some of them.
Back in 2017, our committee chairperson saw the wisdom of having Indivisibles and committee members working in concert, especially during campaigns, where the Indivisibles are at their best as reinforcements during the day-to-day drudgery of canvassing, phone-banking, texting, and postcard writing.
This work has paid off big time the past 3 election years, as we have piled up victory after victory at the city, county, state and federal levels.
What I'm saying is, keep one foot in the activist/protest camp and the other foot in the political process/elections camp.
Rallies and protests are fine, but won't mean shit unless you vote in and keep officials who side with you and will go to the mat for you at the various levels of government.
onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)I registered voters, knocked on doors, wrote postcards and made calls.
Shortly after the orange garbage was elected my husband had a massive stroke. My full time job and his care make it difficult for me these days.
McKim
(2,412 posts)I asked a friend in Latin America who had lived through The Dirty Wars of the 1970s and 80s: What advice do you have about dealing with Facism? He said: Protest is good, keep it up, but be sure sure that you are also building something, like a political party, an organization or institution that will survive. Otherwise when Facism ends, you are left with nothing concrete!
Take Heed!
mudstump
(342 posts)it won't be pretty. Especially given that we know Russia is still at it while republicans refuse to do anything to secure our elections. They want Russia to influence our elections.
BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)No they are not. Turtle has been shoveling through a bunch but not that many to flip every Circuit Court (I think most are being filled at the District Court level). It's only been 3 years and the shovelling didn't get started in earnest until more recently because they weren't recommending anyone due to cluelessness about the process and providing recommendations (but Turtle eventually took care of that problem).
I will post this once more -
How Barack Obama Transformed The Nations Courts
He filled two SCOTUS seats and made the judiciary more diverse than ever. But the GOP stopped him from doing more.
By Jennifer Bendery
WASHINGTON ― Republicans cannot wait to begin dismantling President Barack Obamas accomplishments, but theres one thing they cant undo, even with full control of Congress and the White House: his judicial legacy.
Obama will leave office with 329 of his judicial nominees confirmed to lifetime posts on federal courts. That includes two U.S. Supreme Court justices and four judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the two most powerful courts in the nation. Because of Obama, Democratic appointees now have a 7-4 advantage on the D.C. panel, and those judges will play a major role in deciding cases during the Trump administration related to environmental regulations, health care, national security, consumer protections and challenges to executive orders.
Obama also tilted the partisan makeup of circuit courts. Nine of the countrys 13 appeals courts now have majority Democratic appointees, compared with just one when he took office in 2009.
/snip
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/barack-obama-judicial-legacy_us_586c1944e4b0de3a08f9eb1f
What the above means is that when Obama took office, 12 of 13 Circuit Courts were (R)-controlled. When he left office 9 of 13 were (D)-controlled.
When Drumpf took office and per the latest I think that had been posted about when that unqualified judge was being confirmed, I believe it was noted in the thread that one Circuit Court (the 2nd - which covers NY) was flipped back to (R). But that will still leave 8 of the 13 Circuits (D)-controlled.
Remember the above was after 8 years - even if there was a "trickle" due to GOP blockages, it would still be more than what has been confirmed in the most recent 3 years.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I live by this motto.
BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)(was trying to find where on the US Courts web site the list was but Wikipedia has a list that appears to be updated as the confirmations come through - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Circuit_Judges#cite_note-bios5th-8)
onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)Courts are majority republicans .
BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)then they are not going to be booted out and replaced. There were 5 courts (including the newly-added 2nd) that were (R)-controlled but the other 8 are not - and the most important of those being the D.C. Circuit where the bulk of the most critical things have been moving through! That one is 7(D) - 4(R).
Some of the ones that are starting to trickle out may be some Clinton (1st term) appointees and there were even some Raygun and Poppy Bush ones still left (who would naturally be ripe for replacement). But believe it or not, a bunch of Shrub appointees the past couple years have actually sided with the (D)s against Drumpf.
onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)According to your own link.
Kind regards.
BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)My link said that Obama appointed 329 judges TOTAL during his 8 years. I think the Drumpf appointment count is 164 so far as of last week. This article had the tally at 150 from September.
The issue that has been brought up by our side is Drumpf has appointed "more" IF you compare this to the SAME point in the Presidency of past Presidents (i.e., year 3 of a first term) but he has not appointed "more" than any other President during the entirety of their Presidencies. The hope is that he is 1-term and done and that will end that.
Here are all the vacancies - https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/current-judicial-vacancies
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,780 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)We all know things are dire with this current administration but we need to not exaggerate where we are either. Obama did what he could to get some firewalls in place with the focus on WHERE his judicial appointees would go. The most significant being the D.C. Distrct and D.C. Circuit, which had chronic vacancies over the years and which he would target to fill because that is where so much dealing with Congress and the Executive branch agencies, will go through. And since 90+% of cases get decided at the Appeals Court level (there is no way the SCOTUS can or will take every appeal), then filling those courts was critical.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)One million in DC is a good start. We're not going to tolerate these fucking crime boss-directed syncopates any more. The tide is changing and we cannot be silent. Our national security and our Constitution is in serious risk. Putin- Beware what you have started, and yes, it was you. Nice job KGB. PS Fuck you and I hope the Russian citizenry throws your ass off the Kremlin roof.
Sorry folks. We are at that point.
brooklynite
(93,836 posts)Why is it always someone else's job to organize?
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)that have the reach to get people together. That's all I'm saying.
Initech
(99,909 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)gulliver
(13,142 posts)brooklynite
(93,836 posts)Yeah! there hasn't been a negative media story about Trump in MONTHS, right?
onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)Theyre reporting the Biden story like its something other than Russian propaganda.
bucolic_frolic
(42,657 posts)as long as you're telling the Repukes. Keep our anger quiet until unleashed at the polls. We'll gain more seats that way.
ShhhhhH! Keep it our little secret.
Rainbow Droid
(722 posts)NNadir
(33,368 posts)...does rate among the top 100 issues about which we should feel angry.
We don't serve ourselves well as liberals when we raise it to same level as climate, poverty, racism, sexism, war, etc, etc.
Beartracks
(12,761 posts)==============