I can hardly wait to row out to a dark place on the lake tomorrow night, to watch the supermoon rising.
For at a time when the darkness of fascism is descending on America, threatening to turn that country into a police state, or the Mad State of Trump.
At a time when so many of our neighbours are so stunned, so full of despair, and so angry.
I think that big old moon couldn't be a more hopeful symbol of what is about to happen.
The beginning of a peaceful progressive revolution that will crush the fascists once and for all, and save the world from destruction.
The rise of the resistance...
This video is the real thing, folks. Anti-Trump protest march today in downtown LA. Please circulate! pic.twitter.com/Pndh7AnYSq— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) November 13, 2016
And a massive movement that has never been so united.
One where progressives will never again make the mistake of fighting themselves instead of the real enemy.
Or take democracy for granted.
A resistance so broad based that even some Republicans have joined it...
In a country where more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than they did for Donald Trump.
And then best of all, there is the return of Bernie Sanders, declaring war on the Democratic establishment.
The revolution is back in business. Supporters of Bernie Sanders' failed presidential bid are seizing on Democratic disarray at the national level to launch a wave of challenges to Democratic Party leaders in the states.
And unlike that establishment that led the Democrats to disaster, acknowledging the hunger for change that led so many Americans to vote for Donald Trump.
Millions of Americans registered a protest vote on Tuesday, expressing their fierce opposition to an economic and political system that puts wealthy and corporate interests over their own.
I am saddened, but not surprised, by the outcome. It is no shock to me that millions of people who voted for Mr. Trump did so because they are sick and tired of the economic, political and media status quo.
Challenging Trump to take on the big banks and his fellow billionaires, so his movement can reap the benefits when that old Con artist fails...
As he surely will.
Warning him to rein in his deplorables.
I am deeply distressed to hear stories of Americans being intimidated and harassed in the wake of Mr. Trump’s victory, and I hear the cries of families who are living in fear of being torn apart. We have come too far as a country in combating discrimination. We are not going back. Rest assured, there is no compromise on racism, bigotry, xenophobia and sexism. We will fight it in all its forms, whenever and wherever it re-emerges.
For let's not forget, they are beasts and bullies of the lowest order.
While renewing his call for a new American revolution...
When my presidential campaign came to an end, I pledged to my supporters that the political revolution would continue. And now, more than ever, that must happen. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. When we stand together and don’t let demagogues divide us up by race, gender or national origin, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We must go forward, not backward.
And of course sending out the same message that Bernie always has: never give up.
Which just happened to be the same message sent out last night by Kate McKinnon, who invoked the spirit of our great Leonard Cohen, in this moving opening to Saturday Night Live.
Tonight's cold open with Kate McKinnon. #ChappelleOnSNL pic.twitter.com/zZhQOLhKXY— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) November 13, 2016
Never give up. This is our time.
Conditions for a great progressive revolution have never been better.
Only something so bad could lead to something so good.
That big old moon is rising, and so is the resistance...
http://comicbook.com/starwars/2016/11/12/rogue-one-writer-uses-star-wars-to-protest-trump/
ReplyDeletehi David...thanks for that, I'll be sure to watch that movie when it comes out. I think the resistance to Trump is going to be the most creative and powerful one the world has ever witnessed...
DeleteI agree with this, but we need to beat them at their own game. There needs to be a HUGE drive to get the disenfranchised registered and have the proper ID. Then the Ds need to win the governorship in swing states and start moving to disenfranchise ignorant whites. It's ugly, yes, but it's the only way the nihilistic Republicans will ever stop with their bullshit. Fire with fire, none of this Michelle Obama, we go higher shit, we punch them in the balls. Figuratively, of course.
ReplyDeletedisenfranchising "ignorant whites" is not the way to go. disenfranchising any one is not the democratic way. it would simply be another form of fascism or changing the group which gets to oppress. democracy is about having everyone vote, so the true majority gets to speak and no one group has an unfair hold over another.
Deletehi anon... I like your spirit ;) At this point I'm not sure what the Americans need to do. But remember demography favours the Democrats, there will be more of them and less Republicans next time. And one thing is for sure, the left does need to play a harder game, and give those Trump fascists a taste of their own medicine...
Delete"It was necessary... for Moses to find the people of Israel in Egypt, enslaved and oppressed by the Egyptians, so that they would be disposed to follow him so as to get out of their servitude".
ReplyDelete- Machavelli, The Prince: on virtue and opportunity.
Sanders has both.
hi Luce...I have always been hopeful that Sanders would be our Moses and lead American and the Western world at least to the promised land. And whether it's Bernie or one of his followers, or Elizabeth Warren , I know we will get there sooner or later...
DeleteAt first Sanders looked good, but through the primaries I was disappointed by his unwillingness to deal with women, black's and Hispanics. No way could I believe in another old , white power hungry bigot.
ReplyDeletehi rumleyfips...Sanders is no bigot. He was in the streets fighting for the civil rights for African Americans, before and after he entered politics. Maybe he could have done a better job of reaching out to one group or the other, but he had and still has the support of most young people, and they are the future...
DeleteHe also poisoned the well for Clinton in the Primaries from mid March until June. This is as much on Sanders as anyone else, and his focus on her "Wall Street speech transcripts" was no less destructive for her on character grounds than the emailz thing was. Worse, the notion to go after her on the transcripts actually came from outside the Sanders campaign, by a little heard off political operative named turd blossom aka Karl Rove.
DeleteSanders was/is more about his own "revolutionary" self than he is about protecting those that most need and needed it in this past election. He is not the person you seem to think he is Simon, and it saddens me to see just how much you drank in his Kool-Ade. Sanders was in many ways Trump from the left, also riding anger, diagnosing problems yet not having solutions for them that made any real sense. I've never forgotten how when he was challenged by the NYT in an in depth editorial interview to explain exactly HOW he would break up the big banks he lacked any answer to that question despite having for months made that as central to his campaign as the Wall that Mexico was paying for was Trumps.
I would also point out that his campaigning for Clinton was minimal and mostly half hearted, totally unlike the way HRC worked for Obama after she lost, and she lost a far closer primary campaign than Sanders. Sanders talks a good game, but when push comes to shove, the substance is lacking. He too would have been destroyed int his election, the idea that he could have won is ludicrous.
Clinton was winning, despite Benghazi investigations up the wazoo, despite the non stop fake EMAILZ scandal that was not really one despite all the hyperventilating on the appearance of wrongdoing without any actual wrongdoing found, despite the blatant interference of Russia and their useful idiots in Wikileaks and the Trump campaign itself aiding one side.
It took all that PLUS James Comey making a blatant political interference move 11 days before election day with that unprecedented announcement and worse doing so with no need or basis for doing so, as when he did it he had no idea if anything on Weiners computers would have anything to do with is closed investigation on Clinton. Which proved out to be the case 9 days later when he "cleared" her yet again, but by then the damage was done. His action was far worse than when the RCMP released the news they were investigating Ralph Goodale for Income Trust leaks in the 2005-06 elections, which of course he was eventually exonerated for, but not until after it killed the Libs in that campaign and was equally unprecedented for the national LEOs to make known in an election period/campaign.
It took levels of interference unheard of to cause this narrow defeat of Clinton. You honestly think there would not have been similar efforts made for defeating Sanders too? I'm sorry Simon, but this is one thing we are NOT going to be seeing agreement on. He failed to motivate enough voters, his campaign was long on passion, short of ability, and his campaign manager was one of the nastiest pieces of work I've seen outside the Right/GOP in a long time. This notion Sanders could have let alone would have won is unsupported by any real facts, and the only argument that he would have are the same polls that got the election result so wrong too. Why would one trust them for one thing but not the other?
While for me Sanders is not the biggest offender in what happened, he does own his part in it in my view. Not for running, but for continuing to run as if he could win in an increasingly ugly manner from mid March onward. Listening to Trump repeatedly quoting Sanders from that period of the campaign in the last couple of months was in part why some of us where trying to make clear just how dangerous what Sanders and his campaign was doing truly was.
This is such a huge difference compared to the response when W. beat Gore at the college, but lost the popular vote.
ReplyDeletehi anon...that's true, but the election result was much closer back then. And hopefully this result will finally get Americans to change or scrap their electoral college system because it is both archaic and anti-democratic...
DeleteMeh the revolution can wait 4 years. Trump is probably going to do a great job and he'll get a second term anyhow.
ReplyDelete-MC
hello Eyore
Delete:)
It is doubtful, in my opinion, that Trump will do a great job. Congress will be divided and that is just the Republican side of things. There will be all those people who voted for him who are going to very disappointed when that wall doesn't go up, when the Muslims aren't forced to register, when immigration doesn't stop and "illegal" immigrants aren't rounded up and deported. Those disappointed people have guns and once they got activated, they may be difficult to de activate. Time will tell. Lets ask Simon to run another column in one year going back to all what we wrote here this time.
Deletehi MC...Trump will be lucky if he survives four years before he keels over or impeached. But you can be sure of something, time is on our side, and the revolution will not wait....
Deletehi e.a.f... Don't worry I will mark the first anniversary of this foul regime, and I will keep the same record of its nefarious activities as I did during the Harper years...
DeleteThat moon will be lovely, if we can see it. out here on the wet coast, it will be raining too much and some will be sand bagging on Vancouver Island. This moon only comes around every so often as does candidates like Trump.
ReplyDeleteClinton may have received more votes, but given how the Electoral College works, that does not give you a win. The Democrats forgot those rust belt states and that wasn't the smartest thing they did. Voter suppression in other states also was a problem and not enough ground work was done there to over come the problem.
We will see this marching in the streets but in the grand scheme of things the young people will get tired and go back to what they were doing before The marches will last as long as those in power permit them to last. Police chiefs seem to have taken the position they will wait them out, if they don't get too violent.
seeing Bernie Saunders again is great. He may be able to inspire young people to go out and vote in each and every election, regardless of where or what position and if they don't like the candidates, run themselves. some didn't want to vote for Clinton and look what they got, Trump. There is a very bitter lesson here. Some times the lesser of two evils is the way to go.
For all of Trumps statements/rantings he will still have to get a lot of this through Congress and that will not be an easy thing. Some of these republican senators and house of representative people don't like Trump. They may not vote the way he wants and there won't be much he can do about it. his new chief of staff is an interesting choice. He didn't go with the Breitbart guy.
So that big moon may also be a sign that that whole group of angry white people will not get what they hoped for. Big moons like that look wonderful and then they go away for a long time, as will the hope these people had. Then it will get interesting and perhaps dangerous. There is nothing worse than people who were given hope and then have that hope taken away from them by the person who gave it to them.
i think the first thing we can expect to change about thedonald is his hair and his tan.
ReplyDeleteit gives me certain amount of pleasure to think that his nannies' demands to be classy may be stressing thedonald beyond his capacities. if it wasn't for the frightening dispersal of power to his nannies when he goes golfing, instead of governing, i'd say that four years of hell are simply not enough.
sanders would have the masses at hand, there would be no hell for him. just challenge.
Could Bernie have beat Trump? Hard to say.
ReplyDeleteAnd now Glenn Beck seems like a liberal:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/14/glenn-beck-steve-bannon-is-a-terrifying-man.html