Different Drummer

Different Drummer's Journal

January 25, 2017

How to Take Action and Stay Sane in the Trump Era

Source: Rolling Stone

For more than 35 years, L.A. Kauffman has been deeply involved in political organizing, from anti-apartheid actions in the Eighties to Iraq War protests in 2003.

Over the years, Kauffman began to notice that successful organizing doesn't look the same as it once did. The Civil Rights movement of the Sixties, for instance, took place in a political landscape that has dramatically shifted. The question of how things have changed – and how protests today can be more effective – led Kauffman to write Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism.

Her book couldn't have come out at a better time. With Trump just sworn in as president, millions of Americans – and folks around the world – are eager to organize and take action. The good news, Kauffman says, is that while we may be facing an unprecedented political situation, we're also seeing an unprecedented wave of powerful movements and protest. Take this weekend, when millions of people came out for the Women's March on Washington and its hundreds of sister demonstrations in what may be the biggest protest in U.S. history.

Rolling Stone recently talked to Kauffman about how people – including those who either can't or aren't up for getting arrested – can effectively take action in the Trump era, while staying sane and having fun in the process.

More at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/how-to-take-action-and-stay-sane-in-the-trump-era-w462512

January 25, 2017

Trump won this little chunk of Los Angeles, where half of voters are linked to Scientology

Source: L.A. Times

It surprised no one last fall when Los Angeles and California at large overwhelmingly backed Hillary Clinton in her failed bid for the presidency. Just seven of the city’s 1,700 precincts went for Donald Trump.

But while nearly all of the surrounding region voted for the Democratic former secretary of state, one little chunk of Hollywood best known for the Church of Scientology’s “Big Blue” complex went red, picking the Republican billionaire instead.

The precinct, wedged between Hollywood Boulevard and Fountain Avenue, tipped to Trump by just three votes, 347 to 344. It marked the first time since at least 2000 that the area went Republican. In 2012, President Barack Obama defeated Gov. Mitt Romney by 81 votes, 316 to 235.

“I honestly can’t begin to fathom how or why that happened,” said Erin Lee, a precinct voter and one of several Clinton supporters who said they were shocked to learn that Trump had carried their neighborhood.

More at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pol-scientology-trump-hollywood-20170119-story.html

January 20, 2017