A 16 year old recites his 4-minute poem Rise Up! to a packed black church that roars its approval, another video on what works & what doesn’t when trying to convince others, and excerpts from a how Trump is numbing us.
In brief:
New Mexico Oil & Gas Association (NMOGA) Annual Meeting. Tuesday, Oct. 8, 8:30am. Eldorado Hotel, 309 W. San Francisco, Santa Fe. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is the keynote speaker at the NMOGA breakfast meeting. YUCCA (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action) promised ongoing actions and they are keeping their word. Please arrive early and if you have a sign bring it. Click here to RSVP and for more info.
Please share tomorrow’s post with five or more friends and to your Facebook feed.
Monday’s we reprise all the posts from the prior week and so it is an excellent introduction to Retake Our Democracy. Last week we covered: soaring health care costs and why they soar; Youth United for Climate Crisis Activism demands for NM’s just transition; the Governor speaking to gas & oil execs and the scale of her campaign donations from G&O; a scan of US history and its persistently imperialist policies; and today’s post on why it has become difficult to find humor in Trump’s behaviors and how his daily histrionics are numbing us to just how awful this man has become. So, tomorrow, please share.
Let’s Show Up & Show Our Support for Youth Climate Activists
Monday, Oct. 7, 12:30 pm Working Lunch. Interim Legislative Committee on Science & Technology. New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired 801 Stephen Moody St. (5) Proposals for State Action to Mitigate Climate Change
- A. Create a Just Transition Fund from Oil and Gas Revenues to Build a Sustainable Carbon-Neutral Economy for All New Mexicans
- B. Convert New Mexico to 100% Renewable Energy Use by 2030
- C. Impose a Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing
- D. Pass Community Solar Legislation in 2020 —
Testifying for the Interim Committee on Science & Technology will be: Emese Nagya, Student, Amy Biehl High School —Olivia Gonzales, Student, Public Academy for Performing Arts —Mariluz Lebkuechner, Student, Public Academy for Performing Arts —Andre Miller, Student, Central New Mexico Community College
Researchers Needed to Compile Profiles on Incumbents & Challengers
We are beginning to determine which incumbent Democrats we may want to support in primary challenges or where we might want to challenge incumbent Republicans in the general election. We want to use solid summaries of their votes, positions, ratings by lobbying organizations, and campaign funding support to inform those decisions and to motivate people in those districts to become engaged and active.
In the past, we have used Vote Smart to identify campaign funding sources, but Roxanne found that the site also includes easily searchable summaries of past votes, positions, ratings and campaign donations. We need a couple of researchers to spend some time using Vote Smart to compile profiles on incumbents we might want to challenge. If you would like to do this, please write to retakeresponse@gmail.com.
Why Trump Is No Longer Funny & How His Onslaught of Offenses Has Numbed Us
His behavior is beyond abnormal and every night late night hosts satirize and skewer him, as we laugh. Dahlia Lithwick examines how over time, we have almost grown to accept Trump or at least cease being offended as his ever escalating offensive behavior numbs us. Lithwick focuses on John Oliver’s “Stupid Watergate” skits, but they could just as easily focus on Stephen Colbert and his monologues or Trevor Noah’s pieces.
From even the early days of Oliver’s “Stupid Watergate,” these scandals have followed the same general arc. Generally the pattern has been that Trump and his incandescently mediocre family and hapless enablers do something moronic (such as suggesting that Obama wiretapped him) and we all recoil in horror. That is followed by hasty claims that this was just Trump being Trump, and what can you do. As a result of the soft bigotry of ever-lowered expectations, the Trumpier Trump acted, the shruggier we became, until it actually appeared that he was slyly enrolling Americans in tolerating the stupidity and training us to accept yet more of the same. At some midpoint in this incubus, it seemed that nothing would ever seem stupid, or at least surprisingly stupid, ever again. And that is where the joke went to die. “
This is an excellent piece and worth your time, as Lithwick does an excellent job of framing the current crisis, how it is fundamentally different, and how it may not matter. Well done analysis and reading it caused me to omit my usual inclusion of a skit or two lampooning Trump. The situation has simply ceased to be funny.
Click here to read the full piece.
Royce Mann: Rise Up
An inspiring 4 minute poem from a 15 year-old boy speaking before a packed African American church in Georgia. He is absolutely on fire and when done the church explodes into a standing ovation.
Using Morale Language to Frame Arguments
This is a tremendous video on how to frame your argument in moral and ethical terms to achieve the greatest impact. The video focuses on conversations around climate change, but the principles apply to discussions related to any form of political discussion. Very useful video for people who want to canvass, speak at a City Council meeting, post on Facebook, or write a letter to the editor.
Categories: Uncategorized
I heard an author on a radio show (sorry; was driving and didn’t get the names) say that the things Trump does that seem ridiculous to many of us [such as publicly calling on Chinese leaders to investigate Joe Biden when Trump is already getting heat for asking Ukraine to do so] make absolute, crystal-clear sense to Trump’s supporters. The supporters have for decades been listening to a steady stream of opinion and news that skew the picture of reality to a belief system in which Trump’s actions make sense.
Sounds plausible to me. It is worrisome, because we’ve got such divergent views of truth and reality that we can’t talk rationally with each other.
Unfortunately no one is looking at how this happened, and how it will continue to undermine reality. The long term effects of undermining laws and regulations, we had to protect us are gone. The people with alternate views of reality, did not happen accidentally. It is part of a long term war on facts and reality, and it is incredibly profitable.
There is no concerted effort to reign in big tech, even after this pronouncement, https://time.com/5564311/mark-zuckerberg-political-advertising/ This should have been hair raising, yet our politicians are silent, and our regulatory agencies are hamstrung. It is really clear that targeted de regulation, of advertising, media, and no regulation of any tech corporation is driving all of this. It is particularly horrifying to see how it works here in NM, at the local level.
Pick a topic any topic, and see how we are misinformed daily. Take a look at how they whitewashed the Valerie Plame scandal, in our local media. There are no “two sides” there are facts, and then there are lies and misinformation.
Sorry. I don’t agree with Lithwick. Skewering this shambling, evil administration and its weak, embarrassing progenitor continues to be the most effective way to react. Does she think that logic or the endless recitation of data and history will turn the trick? How about rants? If we lose our capacity to laugh, they’ve won indeed. Give me Colbert, Borowitz, Herblock (remember him from Nixon days) anytime. Don’t give in. Deep belly guffaws. SNL on caffeine. They’re our not-so-secret weapons.