Trump continues to defy imagination, Sanders defies the critics, and we pay tribute to friend and advocate Lynne Fischer on Friday at the Roundhouse.

Trump Guilty As Hell, but Acquitted by a Spineless GOP Senate Majority

Senator Mitt Romney was the only Republican Senator who voted to remove Trump from office. And so the President has been acquitted after perhaps the only trial in US history that prohibited evidence or witnesses. Shameless but utterly predictable.

The Trump presidency has always been an insult to anyone with moral fiber, with his misogynist, racist ramblings, his impulsive decision-making, his insistence on surrounding himself with pandering sycophants who live in fear of ever uttering the slightest contradiction. It is beyond nauseating and Retake wants to play a role in reversing this embarrassment.

Retake is exploring ways in which New Mexico advocates might help get out the vote in neighboring swing states Arizona, Colorado, and Texas. We need to flip the Senate and the White House. None of us can endure another four years of this. Below is Mitt Romney’s announcement of his intent to vote to remove Trump.

The night before his acquittal, Trump offered up a State of the Union speech that was so utterly offensive, Speaker Pelosi stood up and tore her copy of the speech apart in a very public display of disgust. Truthout‘s Henry A. Giroux captured what prompted the Speaker to act as she did.

The ghost of Orwell has never been far from Trump’s misleading rhetoric, outright lies, dehumanizing invective, and punitive policies. All of the latter were on full display in Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address. Trump’s speech moved between the kind of absolutes one expects from demagogues, including comments that ranged from how great America is (overlooking how millions live in poverty and millions have lost health care under Trump) and how the U.S. economy is in an unprecedented boom (when in reality it grew at its slowest pace since 2016). Trump’s speech also included outrageously false claims about the president’s supposed support for people who have preexisting conditions and protection of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, when in reality he has taken steps to weaken or eliminate protections for patients with preexisting conditions, and he has proposed cutting funding for all three social programs. “

“Trump’s SOTU Speech Bristled with Fascist Politics,” Henry A. Giroux

At least one Republican had the courage to tell it like it is.

On Friday, Feb. 7, at 10:30 a.m. in the Roundhouse House Chambers, there will be a tribute to the late Lynne Fischer, Retake Our Democracy leadership team member and driving force behind Retake Our Democracy’s legislative strategies. Lynne Fischer was so important to environmental advocacy, beginning with her founding of NM Climate Action, serving with the Citizens Climate Lobby and Sierra Club’s Alliance, and as one of the leaders of Retake Our Democracy. Lynne died far too soon, on January 5, 2020, and is deeply missed by all who knew her.

So, on Feb. 7 at 10:30, Representative Andrea Romero will read a resolution into the House record acknowledging Lynne’s contributions. A group of people who knew Lynne best, including leadership from climate advocacy groups, will join her husband Dan Fischer on the House Chamber floor as the resolution is read. Please join us to show your respect and your appreciation for all she has done on behalf of the earth and our future.

On Friday, Feb. 7, 6 -7pm at Collected Works Books, 202 Galisteo St. in Santa Fe, Jeffrey Haas discusses the updated edition of his book, The Assassination of Fred Hampton. The book is Haas’s personal account of how he and People’s Law Office partner Flint Taylor pursued Hampton’s assassins, ultimately prevailing over unlimited government resources and an FBI conspiracy. Find out what Jeff did and the implications of the assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton to our current social-political situation.

I hadn’t know much about Fred Hampton before reading Jeff’s book. I was more aware of the Oakland Panthers than Chicago. But from reading the book I got a very clear idea of why the FBI hunted him down: he was becoming the voice of the Black Power movement and an inspirational speaker. He was destined to be a powerful voice for revolution. Come on Friday to find out what Jeff feels Hampton would be doing today and what he might have accomplished had he not been forever silenced.

Retake Our Democracy, February 8, 8:30 a.m on KSFR, 101.1 FM, interview with Dahr Jamail, internationally recognized climate crisis author who wrote The End of Ice, which the Smithsonian identified as one of the ten best science books of 2019. The conversation is as much spiritual and philosophical as it is political and scientific. Retake has done over 150 radio shows and this may well be the most important and the most moving. Thirty minutes will air live, but Dahr and I spoke for another 30 minutes that will be part of our podcast available by Monday morning.  

The week prior, we interviewed Representatives Melanie Stansbury and Abbas Akhil, and we spoke about the large number of tremendous bills focused on development of the state’s renewable energy infrastructure and to protect its natural resources. Reps. Stansbury and Akhil are two of the most articulate legislators in the Roundhouse when it comes to land, water, and renewables.

Iowa Update & Thoughts on Electability

The Iowa Democratic Party has finally released the results of Tuesday’s primary and with 96% of the caucus votes counted, Pete Buttigieg and Senator Bernie Sanders tied, with Buttigieg receiving just 3 more State Designated Electors (1/10th of 1%). On the other hand, Bernie leads the popular vote by 2,500 (or .5%) and each received 11 delegates, compared with five for Warren. The NY Times has projected there is a 54% chance that when the last vote is cast, Sanders will have won Iowa. Imagine the impact if that had been announced on Monday night!

Both Buttigieg and Sanders clearly head to New Hampshire with the wind at their backs, while Vice President Biden has gale-force winds in his face after finishing a distant fourth and receiving zero delegates. Further boosting Senator Sanders was yesterday’s release of new New Hampshire poll results showing him favored by 24% of the voters, a full 9% ahead of Buttigieg and Biden, and 14% ahead of Elizabeth Warren. It may well be that we are finally seeing the unraveling of VP Biden’s campaign, hopefully putting to rest one of the so called “electables.” Stay tuned.

A former member of our Leadership Team sent me a very clever, easy read, a blog that talks about electability and how all the pundits project how you should decide who to support based upon their understanding of how millions of people they don’t know might vote, i.e., electability. She uses an analogy, a riff on apple pie. If you tasted ten samples of apple pie and one made your body quiver with joy, would you purchase the dried out pie that a pie pundit told you was better? I hope not.

Her final thought is that we all must ignore the pundits and support and vote for the person who best expresses our aspirations for the future. Frankly, that sounds like good advice. To read a most amusing and short blog, click here.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

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