In the 50s the auto industry and smog, in the 60s tobacco and cancer, 70s Nestle’s and baby formula, 70s until now fossil fuels and climate change: We are fine, science is wrong, trust us. And now IT and 5-G tell us that NASA, FCC and Oceanic/atmospheric scientists are also wrong. Our 5-G is fine…
Election, Political Reform & National Politics / Local-State Government & Legislation / Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform / Women and Girls / Women's Rights
Despite 60-70% of the population wanting to uphold Roe v Wade, a national effort is afoot that is developing a momentum of its own and it is beyond frightening. The post examines how quickly a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body is disappearing in one state after another. We also raise the…
Climate Change, Agriculture, Land Use & Wildlife / Election, Political Reform & National Politics / Uncategorized
That didn’t take long. Encore Green Environmental Group filed a permit application to use produced water to irrigate NM land and they have identified a fracking operator eager to sell them the produced water. Before HB 546 was signed, we asked the Governor: why would you explicitly include agriculture as one of the potential uses…
A very short blog today with links to the past week’s blogs, an eight minute video from Noam Chomsky on how the 1% is using Trump to distract while they quietly disassemble democracy. The levers are tightening. I offer thoughts on how what we are seeing and what we have been seeing for decades is…
Climate Change, Agriculture, Land Use and Wildlife / Election, Political Reform & National Politics / Personal & Collective Action
Days after Alabama essentially banned all abortions, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is staging a pricey fundraiser for a strident opponent of a woman’s right to choose. Call to Action on this. And it will be fun. The Supreme Court decision announced late yesterday validates NEE’s claims about PNM and voids PNMs acquisition of nuclear…
Is it possible to raise funds for your campaign and still offer substantive, provocative communication to your supporters? Today we examine the most recent fundraising email from Rep. Ben Ray Lujan and of Bernie Sanders. And we toss in a brief discussion of the new film Long Shot starring Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron because…
For months Retake has been framing the climate change as a crisis of capitalism that can only be solved by inventing another system. In two well crafted articles, from The Nation and Resilience, this challenge is framed brilliantly. Capitalism insists on me against you, me over you, with a thirst for profit eroding the value…
Today, we also have heartwarming news from the ABQ Asylum Seeker relief effort, a call to action on Well’s Fargo’s investments in private prisons housing immigrants, and a selection of comments from readers on Retake’s reaction to Milan Simonich’s article on Ben Ray Lujan’s all too misleading campaign emails. The report on Asylum Seekers alone…
We had 12 RSVPs, but 47 folks showed up and were brimming with enthusiasm at Thursday’s meeting. Next meeting: June 5, 6:30-8:30pm. Also, Milan Simonich absolutely nailed Rep. Lujan for his fundraising emails, which are clearly annoying, but also apparently riddled with lies. We summarize Simonich’s piece and provide a link. Maggie Toulouse Oliver on…
We are nearing completion of the 2019 Legislative Report Card. While we had much to celebrate, we compromised far too much to corporate interests in other areas..Tonight Retake seeks your input and ideas to inform how we move forward and ensure that in 2020 and 2021, we get far more done. 12 years and the…
The IPBES report points to still more evidence of encroaching disaster. Today’s posts reviews this report and puts it in local, state and national context. Quite by chance, I found a Truthout report by Dahr Jamail. The post closes with 2 citations and a link to Jamail’s full article—powerful. Also, a reminder Thursday night, Retake…
Last week’s post created, in effect, a sequenced series of related posts that points to how Retake Our Democracy might use its resources to create conditions to advance justice in NM. Today’s post also provides a critical action alert and three short videos from AOC, Naomi Klein & Valarie Kaur. This post should be shared…
What is Retake about if it isn’t there to advocate at critical moments, in ABQ on Monday the City Council will vote on whether or not to allocate $250K to support asylum seeker relief efforts. This is critically needed funding. The post includes info that should be shared on Social Media and with everyone you…
We continue our exploration of how Retake might develop a kind of community education and organizing tool kit that can support advocacy at the state level. Today we examine how that tool kit might include a framework for local advocacy focused on addressing poverty….
Today’s post extends the theme from yesterday’s post: How can we move the needle? How can we move from frustrated and angry to productively engaged in a campaign that could foster the conditions, capacities, and commitment necessary to address social, economic and climate crises? Join the conversation.