We offer clips from Robert Reich on how a centrist can’t win in 2020 followed by a five minute clip from Bernie reminding us of what progressive values look like. Lastly, two clips from the Extinction Rebellion.
The clips from Reich and Bernie speak for themselves and are quite short. But I’d also encourage you to review at least the first video from the Extinction Rebellion, as it is a 20 minute profile of the Rebellion’s launching of their direct action campaign This Is Not a Drill. Over the past week, hundreds of acts of civil disobedience have been staged worldwide, resulting in over 700 arrests. The segment describes how the Rebellion has significantly escalated direct action to dramatize the urgent need for action. Part of the segment is an interview with Gail Broodbrook, one of the co-founders of the Rebellion. She is extraordinarily articulate, inspiring. Despite its name sounding pretty grim, their movement is actually grounded in hope.
The second Rebellion outlines the principles and strategies of the Extinction Rebellion. Retake feels strongly that this kind of action should be applauded and replicated.
Inspiring Words from Frederick Douglas
Below is a quote from Frederick Douglas offered by David Thompson, a member of the Retake Leadership Team. He offered the quote as a comment on Retake’s post describing the reasons for our support for youth making demands of the Governor (emphasis mine):
“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her August claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all‐absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Comment from David Thompson, Retake Our Democracy Leadership Team
A protest without concrete demands is meaningless. I’m happy to help second the demands the youth of NM are making so eloquently. Those demands are direct, practical and achievable, and we should be doing everything we can to advance them. ”
David Thompson
Sunday at the Movies
Robert Reich describes why we can’t afford & won’t win in 2020 with a centrist Democrat
A Four Minute Profile of Bernie Sanders
Whether you are in his corner or support Elizabeth Warren, we can’t accept less. This is worth five minutes as the clip illustrates what a principled politician looks like and, whether he is the candidate or not, reminds us what we owe him for moving the entire discussion.
Extinction Rebellion in Brief
A must see video clip: The Extinction Rebellion, just one year old, has created a powerful message fully backed by direct action: This Is Not a Drill. This is a 20 minute segment from Democracy Now that serves as an intro to the Extinction Rebellion’s principles, assumptions and strategies. It includes a look at the past week of civil disobedience followed by an interview with Dr. Gail Bradbrook, one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion. We need this sort of urgency now.
What is the Extinction Rebellion, Pt II?
If the first clip whets your appetite, here is the main dish. The first 20 minutes is a pretty withering summation of where we stand in relation to the climate crisis, followed by a much deeper discussion of how and why the Rebellion was formed, its goals, what it has accomplished to date, and where it is headed.
In solidarity, Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Uncategorized
What is really chilling is that very little of the Bernie campaign, or Extinction Rebellion has been covered in the more accessible of popular media. Locally, they are already trying to define the legislative session.
http://www.thinknewmexico.org/think-new-mexico-launches-new-initiative-to-achieve-retirement-security-for-all-new-mexicans/ Once again , income inequality, low wages and poverty are re-framed as a “problem with saving money The legislators will most certainly prefer to blame income inequality, racism, and corruption, on people who just don’t “save enough money.”
These centrist think tanks are having a really deleterious effect on our democracy, and objective fact based policy. No doubt Think New Mexico is not concerned about the serious poverty a lot of seniors are living in. Wages never caught up, and SS does not adequately cover living expenses. Now our politicians can pretend they did something about it, while blaming people who worked in low wage jobs, supported families, or endured an abusive relationship, or sick spouse, who did not “save enough.”
They are still in denial about 30 years of Neo liberal polices, and how the “War On Drugs” underfunded social programs, and normalized corruption, did significant damage here in New Mexico.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/23/joe-biden-2020-drug-war-policies-opioid-crisis-226933
Our politicians are still in denial about the generational damage they did here in New Mexico. Families of hard working New Mexicans, suffered. Instead of saving for retirement,they were forced to pay court fees, attorneys, fines for incarcerated family members with mental illness or drug issues.
It is really significant, that the state of New Mexico deliberate did not track any racial data in the courts.
https://www.sfreporter.com/news/2019/10/08/collect-and-serve/
“Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an Albuquerque Democrat and former law professor, tells New Mexico In Depth she was “stunned” to learn during this year’s legislative session, her first in the Senate, that few agencies collect or share data on the race and ethnicity of people caught up in the system.”
None of the judges noticed either, as long as lawyers were making money. Not one of these caring politicians was aware of the injustice going on right here, in our courts. This was they could go on gas lighting the public, while monetizing the broken court system. All the while they devoted more money to law enforcement, ignoring the abuses. Local media ran articles about “drug fueled crimes,” “addiction” and sensationalized the crimes aspect essentially demonizing poor people. No local journalists observed the disparities. Instead they normalized it all, after all their first priority was the real estate industry and other major advertisers. The Pay Day Loan Industry, and bail-bonds industries were making really good money exploiting low income New Mexicans.
The police were above any accountability, it was important for local politicians and journalists to “support them.” they did not dig too deep, after all the courts allowed it and normalized it. The DA’s Offices, railroaded alleged criminals into court, it is relatively easy for them to mislead a Grand Jury, especially when they ignored the bad behavior and criminal behavior of the police. When juries caught on, to the misbehavior, the judges, did all they could to obscure the facts, and pretend we had a normally functioning society
Going back as far as Johnson and Richardson, they touted cutting positions at CYFD, ALTS, and other state agencies. If there were no people in positions to count or observe the damage, they could write their own narrative. One of Johnson’s brilliant moves was to sell soft drinks in the schools to pay for extracurricular activities. He even allowed a major soft drink corporation, run an advertising and “educational’ TV show for children in the schools. The corporations could subsidize the education of children, as long as they could expose them to their brand. We can see this reflected in the health of the children who are now adults, and giving their own children unlimited soft drinks. This was at a time, when many Santa Fe and Albuquerque schools had “portable classrooms.” These classrooms were cold in the winter, hot in the summer, and too noisy, from the heating or air conditioning, when it worked, to even hear the teacher.
Our governor and our legislative leaders have already shown their true intentions. They are going to glom on to “Think New Mexico’s false narrative of “Bi Partisanship,” and compromise the people in this state once again. They are all millionaires and Dumpf and the corporations has been very good to them. Our legislators will all be at the Rio Chama, waiting for any lobbyists to pick up the tab.
Lest we forget to look at the big picture, the money that should have funded schools, infrastructure, and human decency, is going to destroy civilization in the Middle East. Yemenis and Kurds are being slaughtered and we all paying for it. Future generations, if there are any will be paying for it.
I am astonished. I avoid mainstream media because my stomach is weak, so I was not aware of how people are talking about Senator Sanders.
I wonder whether his detractors and haters are directly paid to take the stances they do. Where in the world do they come up with their bizarre points? There’s zero substance; they just want to sabotage Sanders.
The mainstream media are so clearly hopeless – no, beyond hopeless; they’re hope-killing – that NET NEUTRALITY becomes ever more urgent.