The video posted by Rumpie is something that would appeal to an obnoxious fourth grader. It is embarrassing that the purported leader of a major world power is a juvenile dork. Signing up for more postcards.
Simon, I just watched the interview with Randi Weingarten and think it’s fantastic. I have so many thoughts, but I’ll focus them to the lessons I learned from the pandemic as a teacher (I teach Spanish at a large research university in NC).
Several years before the pandemic, I heard a story on NPR about farmers in the Mississippi River basin who were concerned about the health of their crops. The reporter interviewed three or four farmers and started each interview with the question, “What do you farm?” To a one, each answered, “Oh, I’m a soil farmer, and out of that soil I grow ___.” This struck me in a profound way, and it echoed around in my brain for a couple of years. When Covid hit, I realized why: as a teacher, I am also a soil farmer. What is the soil of my classroom? It is the community the students and I build together. Without a strong classroom community, my students do not participate much in class and they learn a lot less.
In the first few weeks of online learning, I had the startling realization that my students were building relationships through the Zoom breakout rooms that were stronger than those that they had created in the physical classroom. Granted, my students were thirsting for human connection, and my class was probably the only one that required them to interact with their peers, but as a result of the random nature of the breakout rooms and the fact that their names were always visible, my students started forming friendships. When the pandemic ended and we came back to campus, I recreated the breakout room experience by randomly sorting my students into groups every class period. They enter class, see their name on the Power Point, and sit in their assigned group. By the end of the third week, every student has interacted with everyone else. This simple change has had a profound impact on my teaching. When class starts now, I call for silence. They no longer enter class and whip out their phones. They ask each other about their lives. They participate more in class (it’s scary to speak Spanish in front of strangers!) and are earning better grades. I tell them at the beginning of the semester exactly why I do this and emphasize that life is better with friends and that I hope that they can tell people in 20 years that they met their friends in Spanish class.
Building community is a skill that has been ebbing in America for decades (Robert Putnam was onto something with his 2000 book “Bowling Alone”), but the pandemic accelerated it. I have seen the decline in student mental health over the last twenty years, but particularly over the last ten (social media, I’m looking at you!). So although I’ll never be glad that the pandemic happened, I am glad that I learned such a deep lesson from it. And I challenge each of you reading this to think about what your soil is – tending our soil is exactly what we need now to get us out of this tyrannical place and is what will help us build a better America when we do.
The 'teachable moment' has always been crucial for those of us working with kids. Thank you, Elizabeth, for finding it in even the most dire circumstances!
What an amazing post! TY for sharing your observations about young people and what's happened to them over the past several years. I'm hopeful they'll realize that relationships can have a profound and positive impact on their lives.
Elizabeth, I am profoundly moved by your post. I was a public middle school math and science teacher in the 1990s in Castroville, California. My classes were 95% bi-racial (white/latino), across the economic spectrum from new arriving non english-speaking immigrants from Mexico, to 3rd generation "gang bangers" , to rural professional class offspring white kids, all in the same classroom. I often said that the only thing my kids had in common was their zipcode and that they were 12-13 years old. It was extremely challenging and I left the field after 9 years.
Your post should be day 1 curriculum for all new teacher trainings, and infused within professional development workshops that teachers attend throughout their careers. I was led to believe it was the content first. If I had been directed to consider the community first, i.e. the soil of the classroom, I woud have been far more effective, and likely had a more satisfyuing teaching career.
You are spot on: Building community is a fundamental "way through" this crisis we are in. Thank you for the work you are doing and for what you have written here today.
I have a podcast about wildlife and rewilding close to home, in its first season. Podcasters talk among themselves a lot about getting listeners involved beyond passive listening to episodes, and crafting a community seems to be the holy grail. I'm a former professor, and now I'm going to mull over how to build the "soil" online.
Elizabeth, I love your description here of being a soil farmer. I tend to quote the musical Hamilton...because we plant seeds in the garden and they plant seeds in ours. We have no control over how they tell our story. We tell theirs too.
WOW, thank you so much! I have had to learn how to teach on the fly - I am a librarian and mostly pretty introverted - and this is SO helpful! Our experience w breakout rooms was the opposite. I wonder if it's different for grade school v. university and a one-shot instruction vs. a semester class.
It's all about community and supporting each other when we need a self-care day, and each of us doing what we can when we can, each of us playing a different but important role. The power of individual actions of each member is what grows and maintains the community!
What a wonderful post, Elizabeth, and I agree that the interview with Randi Weingarten was important! One of my specialties in education was (is? still struggling with the past tense verb) helping middle and high schools create advisory programs. When the pandemic hit, I suddenly had a few new districts asking for help, realizing just how disconnected their teenagers were and just how important it was to create intentional structures and practices (like yours) that increased community and connection and decreased anonymity and alienation. Makes a huge difference.
Insane Chief Executive with an insane agenda to destroy our country! Doing Putin’s bidding! Too bad there are those of us in this country that do not see the devastating damage this regime is doing!
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to thank them for what they have been doing and to urge them to stand strong in the budget battle. I'm writing postcards to Virginia voters today.
I listened to part of Trump's address about the "enemy within". It was easily the most dangerous thing I've ever heard short of the Nuremberg rallies. He was slurring his words. It was incredibly dangerous. To me it sounded like a warning: do what you're told or be fired. We could be looking at dozens if not hundreds of military firings. It's like Stalin with the Great Purge. Maybe not yet as violent, but maybe just as dangerous. If we turn away from Asia, it might be the time China decides to attack Taiwan.
Ready to send 60 postcards today. I have a 6pm phone bank for CA 50. Thanks everyone.
Well, if they are fired, who is going to actually know how to, I dunno, get stuff done? That equipment/technology is very complicated and requires training and skill. YIKES.
Well, the generals probably don't know how everything works either. There are trained people there who know the technical details in their sphere.
But there won't be anyone to lead them.
The point is here, I think Trump wants the military to control the population inside the US. He wants to suppress dissent using troops on the street.
If there was an attack, say by China against Taiwan, if he's fired a large contingent of general, we might not know how to respond. Moreover, it may just convince the Chinese that we won't respond and make them more likely to try. When Stalin purged his military, they were unable to respond to the German invasion.
So yeah no one should underestimate how fucking dangerous this is.
I am sure this is exactly what they are planning, starting with Dem leaders, reporters, media etc and perhaps transgendered people first. Then the dissenters.
I think with these things, the first objective is to frighten people into not opposing them. Everything here is meant to scare people, including using the DOJ as a weapon, and deploying ICE to harass people, etc.
When none of that works (and it won't, which Trump doesn't understand), then you have to look at whether people will follow illegal, dangerous orders. So, when people will not be cowed, and then troops are deployed, you have to look to the leaders to not follow the dangerous orders. Trump will order the military to attack protestors, and fire generals who do not follow through.
I think all of this is intended to stop dissent without them having to do it. But that will not work.
And in addition to being against the lunatics running the White House asylum, we must offer our own positive vision, as Simon has also repeatedly said (and worked on, through Letter to America.) This vision needs to be conveyed in punchy, powerful visuals and "buzz words," through all forms of communication. This needs to be done now.
We have buzzwords. They are on protest signs. Tax the rich, affordability now, due process, defend the Constitution, no kings, fund science, support Ukraine, accountability, rule of law, freedom and justice for all.
We have punchy, powerful visuals. VP Harris had them, too.
I feel like there are two problems. One is that no one seems to see/hear them. How many people insisted that Harris was still an unknown to the voters, or was vague and refused to answer questions, even after she had explained her platform in detail every day for two months?
The other problem is that MAGA keeps lying about our punchy phrases.
DEI? They call it reverse racism or lowering the bar.
Reproductive healthcare? They call it irresponsible sex or murdering babies.
Path to citizenship? They call it inviting in criminals to steal elections.
They put words in our mouths, too. They claim we want to defund the police, do political violence, force gender reassignment surgery on people, teach children to hate America or White people, and other lies.
I keep seeing Democrats trying to find other ways to talk about these things, and avoid MAGA’s framing, but I think we should just speak plainly, definitely share our positive vision, own what we say, and not try to win the meme wars. We can’t. MAGA has a million pretty-sounding lies and we only have often-unpalatable truth. But more people are starting to understand that reality matters.
I agree, and think you're correct on all counts. But who is listening? Fair question! Harris/Walz detailed the Project 2025 roadmap, which has now been instituted--but not enough people apparently cared. Does anyone even know about our own Project 2026? Not really. But meanwhile, I'm so proud of our Illinois Governor, JB Pritzker, the other electeds throughout the country, attorneys general, the public and all of those who are speaking out against the fascist behavior and saying what we DO want. Still, over and over, we hear "What is the Dems vision? it's all criticizing Trump!"---which is a lie! Perhaps when children and pregnant women begin dying of preventable diseases, and prices get unbelievably bad, and federal workers are thrown into unemployment, etc; etc;--maybe that will convince people to get out and vote? Maybe not. But...."we still persist!"
We have power here, too, Jennifer. Just look at what all of the huge public pressure did to Disney, Nexstar, and Sinclair, bringing Jimmy Kimmel back to huge ratings. It was really a great show of force (as were the Tesla demonstrations.) Our actions do matter, and legacy media isn't the only game in town any more. Just like our rallies aren't organized by just one group, but many. It gives me hope! (And at every rally, I tell people about Hopium Chronicles. Most have never heard of it, and immediately look it up!)
I agree. They are going to hear what they want to hear if they are hardcore MAGA. We are not going to reach them anyway. It's the disaffected, the unaffiliated, the disengaged "low propensity voter" people that we need to reach and engage.
Self-report: I made my daily calls, and whether leaving a voicemail or speaking with a staffer, I expressed outrage at the lack of Republican negotiations ensuring health insurance protections and prohibiting presidential clawback of congressional appropriations. Also repeating again that any shutdown is a Republican shutdown.
I also demanded their public opposition to the militarization of our streets, whether by the military, National Guard, DHS, or ICE. Having military-grade weapons of war on our streets is an attack on the American people.
Rep Bresnahan is the only one with staff consistently answering phones. They are polite and always ask if there is anything else they can do for me today, to which I answer, not today, but I'll speak with you tomorrow. Today's staffer responded he was looking forward to it. Made me smile.
I also contributed to Mikie Sherrill's campaign, and Paige Cognetti's campaign against Rep Bresnahan.
Looking forward to tuning in at 1pm for the next Simon talk.
Just called Sens. Kim & Booker & Rep. Chris Smith (Traitor-NJ04) and told them to hold fast on the budget and cuts to ACA tax credits. As usual, Smith's folks were passive aggressively polite. UGH.
I am laser focused on doing my best for students and working to support survivors of gun violence--no time to listen to that fool & his fake videos and whining. Disinfo not being consumed in this household!
Got voicemail that our ballots were received by the county bd of elections - yay! This weekend, will knock doors with Randi Weingarten's American Federation of Teachers (my faculty union is affiliated). This will be a new experience knocking union doors!
I'm so dumbfounded that people can listen to what Hegseth and Trump are saying and just carry on like it's normal and there's no need for pushback. What will it take for people to wake up and put these thugs in their place? It's been 8 months of tyranny. Enough of my rant. I'll get back to taking action on those things I can - phone banks, letter writing, NO KINGS prep, donations to progressive candidates, etc.
People are listening and getting it. It's the MSM who is spreading the "all is well" line, and a diminishing number of folks are buying it. Wait till Oct 18.
Simon, Can you reach out to Ken Martin to get a message out to the country - a 30 sec TV ad, social media?
Simple message:
The government is running out of money and shutting down because Congress gave tax cuts to the rich. Democrats are working to keep your healthcare. Elizabeth Warren said it clearly on NPR this morning. NPR is not reaching the voters who are outside our echo chamber. This is your moment. Ken, you have our money. Get this message out. Make it happen TODAY!
That Hegseth “speech” was a total shit show, between pushing his new book, body shaming generals, making big FAFO declarations and waiting for applause that didn’t happen, ranting against diversity in the military and green lighting future war crimes. It was frankly like a never-ending MAGA comments section. And then there was trump demanding that everyone applaud. How weak and pathetic.
The lack of applause is very good news. I cannot imagine how angry the generals are at this treatment. They are not people I would choose to antagonize.
It will never cease to amaze me that at the same time they are posturing about improving “lethality” of the military by eliminating wokeness they are literally running away from the biggest, most important fight of our lives. Some “strength”
Our congressman, Gabe Vasquez (D NM CD2) sent a news update this morning. My response:
No deal with the GOP is secure because their word means nothing to any of them and they give Trump line-item veto; Trump will destroy the government with or without a shutdown; independents will not support GOP majorities who invite the shutdown.
How about a national narrative that Trump and his cronies are corrupt and lawless, p.o.s. failures spewing hatred and division (so obvious after that Jeffries in a sombrero stunt) and that they are shutting down the government to avoid the Epstein files vote and to hide the crashing economic numbers, in hopes we won't notice, while they line the pockets of billionaires at our expense.
This is the reality that America is waking up to, so why don't we just say it that way?
Fuck it…. My daily calls to TX senators are going to about replacing Drumpf with Vance. It’s time to plant that seed, enough is enough. Maybe I’m being rash…
The video posted by Rumpie is something that would appeal to an obnoxious fourth grader. It is embarrassing that the purported leader of a major world power is a juvenile dork. Signing up for more postcards.
It’s like suffering through 4 years of high school seated next to the class clown who thinks he’s funny
Simon, I just watched the interview with Randi Weingarten and think it’s fantastic. I have so many thoughts, but I’ll focus them to the lessons I learned from the pandemic as a teacher (I teach Spanish at a large research university in NC).
Several years before the pandemic, I heard a story on NPR about farmers in the Mississippi River basin who were concerned about the health of their crops. The reporter interviewed three or four farmers and started each interview with the question, “What do you farm?” To a one, each answered, “Oh, I’m a soil farmer, and out of that soil I grow ___.” This struck me in a profound way, and it echoed around in my brain for a couple of years. When Covid hit, I realized why: as a teacher, I am also a soil farmer. What is the soil of my classroom? It is the community the students and I build together. Without a strong classroom community, my students do not participate much in class and they learn a lot less.
In the first few weeks of online learning, I had the startling realization that my students were building relationships through the Zoom breakout rooms that were stronger than those that they had created in the physical classroom. Granted, my students were thirsting for human connection, and my class was probably the only one that required them to interact with their peers, but as a result of the random nature of the breakout rooms and the fact that their names were always visible, my students started forming friendships. When the pandemic ended and we came back to campus, I recreated the breakout room experience by randomly sorting my students into groups every class period. They enter class, see their name on the Power Point, and sit in their assigned group. By the end of the third week, every student has interacted with everyone else. This simple change has had a profound impact on my teaching. When class starts now, I call for silence. They no longer enter class and whip out their phones. They ask each other about their lives. They participate more in class (it’s scary to speak Spanish in front of strangers!) and are earning better grades. I tell them at the beginning of the semester exactly why I do this and emphasize that life is better with friends and that I hope that they can tell people in 20 years that they met their friends in Spanish class.
Building community is a skill that has been ebbing in America for decades (Robert Putnam was onto something with his 2000 book “Bowling Alone”), but the pandemic accelerated it. I have seen the decline in student mental health over the last twenty years, but particularly over the last ten (social media, I’m looking at you!). So although I’ll never be glad that the pandemic happened, I am glad that I learned such a deep lesson from it. And I challenge each of you reading this to think about what your soil is – tending our soil is exactly what we need now to get us out of this tyrannical place and is what will help us build a better America when we do.
The 'teachable moment' has always been crucial for those of us working with kids. Thank you, Elizabeth, for finding it in even the most dire circumstances!
I teach university too and my experiences are very similar to that.
What an amazing post! TY for sharing your observations about young people and what's happened to them over the past several years. I'm hopeful they'll realize that relationships can have a profound and positive impact on their lives.
Elizabeth, I am profoundly moved by your post. I was a public middle school math and science teacher in the 1990s in Castroville, California. My classes were 95% bi-racial (white/latino), across the economic spectrum from new arriving non english-speaking immigrants from Mexico, to 3rd generation "gang bangers" , to rural professional class offspring white kids, all in the same classroom. I often said that the only thing my kids had in common was their zipcode and that they were 12-13 years old. It was extremely challenging and I left the field after 9 years.
Your post should be day 1 curriculum for all new teacher trainings, and infused within professional development workshops that teachers attend throughout their careers. I was led to believe it was the content first. If I had been directed to consider the community first, i.e. the soil of the classroom, I woud have been far more effective, and likely had a more satisfyuing teaching career.
You are spot on: Building community is a fundamental "way through" this crisis we are in. Thank you for the work you are doing and for what you have written here today.
Wonderful post, thanks so much for it!
I have a podcast about wildlife and rewilding close to home, in its first season. Podcasters talk among themselves a lot about getting listeners involved beyond passive listening to episodes, and crafting a community seems to be the holy grail. I'm a former professor, and now I'm going to mull over how to build the "soil" online.
Elizabeth, I love your description here of being a soil farmer. I tend to quote the musical Hamilton...because we plant seeds in the garden and they plant seeds in ours. We have no control over how they tell our story. We tell theirs too.
WOW, thank you so much! I have had to learn how to teach on the fly - I am a librarian and mostly pretty introverted - and this is SO helpful! Our experience w breakout rooms was the opposite. I wonder if it's different for grade school v. university and a one-shot instruction vs. a semester class.
It's all about community and supporting each other when we need a self-care day, and each of us doing what we can when we can, each of us playing a different but important role. The power of individual actions of each member is what grows and maintains the community!
What a wonderful post, Elizabeth, and I agree that the interview with Randi Weingarten was important! One of my specialties in education was (is? still struggling with the past tense verb) helping middle and high schools create advisory programs. When the pandemic hit, I suddenly had a few new districts asking for help, realizing just how disconnected their teenagers were and just how important it was to create intentional structures and practices (like yours) that increased community and connection and decreased anonymity and alienation. Makes a huge difference.
This is quite an incredible post. Thank you.
This is frightening. Generals, please stay strong.
Insane Chief Executive with an insane agenda to destroy our country! Doing Putin’s bidding! Too bad there are those of us in this country that do not see the devastating damage this regime is doing!
His falling ratings show that more people are starting to see how harmful he is.
Simon, thank you for the great information.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to thank them for what they have been doing and to urge them to stand strong in the budget battle. I'm writing postcards to Virginia voters today.
I listened to part of Trump's address about the "enemy within". It was easily the most dangerous thing I've ever heard short of the Nuremberg rallies. He was slurring his words. It was incredibly dangerous. To me it sounded like a warning: do what you're told or be fired. We could be looking at dozens if not hundreds of military firings. It's like Stalin with the Great Purge. Maybe not yet as violent, but maybe just as dangerous. If we turn away from Asia, it might be the time China decides to attack Taiwan.
Ready to send 60 postcards today. I have a 6pm phone bank for CA 50. Thanks everyone.
Well, if they are fired, who is going to actually know how to, I dunno, get stuff done? That equipment/technology is very complicated and requires training and skill. YIKES.
Well, the generals probably don't know how everything works either. There are trained people there who know the technical details in their sphere.
But there won't be anyone to lead them.
The point is here, I think Trump wants the military to control the population inside the US. He wants to suppress dissent using troops on the street.
If there was an attack, say by China against Taiwan, if he's fired a large contingent of general, we might not know how to respond. Moreover, it may just convince the Chinese that we won't respond and make them more likely to try. When Stalin purged his military, they were unable to respond to the German invasion.
So yeah no one should underestimate how fucking dangerous this is.
I am sure this is exactly what they are planning, starting with Dem leaders, reporters, media etc and perhaps transgendered people first. Then the dissenters.
I think with these things, the first objective is to frighten people into not opposing them. Everything here is meant to scare people, including using the DOJ as a weapon, and deploying ICE to harass people, etc.
When none of that works (and it won't, which Trump doesn't understand), then you have to look at whether people will follow illegal, dangerous orders. So, when people will not be cowed, and then troops are deployed, you have to look to the leaders to not follow the dangerous orders. Trump will order the military to attack protestors, and fire generals who do not follow through.
I think all of this is intended to stop dissent without them having to do it. But that will not work.
And in addition to being against the lunatics running the White House asylum, we must offer our own positive vision, as Simon has also repeatedly said (and worked on, through Letter to America.) This vision needs to be conveyed in punchy, powerful visuals and "buzz words," through all forms of communication. This needs to be done now.
We have buzzwords. They are on protest signs. Tax the rich, affordability now, due process, defend the Constitution, no kings, fund science, support Ukraine, accountability, rule of law, freedom and justice for all.
We have punchy, powerful visuals. VP Harris had them, too.
I feel like there are two problems. One is that no one seems to see/hear them. How many people insisted that Harris was still an unknown to the voters, or was vague and refused to answer questions, even after she had explained her platform in detail every day for two months?
The other problem is that MAGA keeps lying about our punchy phrases.
DEI? They call it reverse racism or lowering the bar.
Reproductive healthcare? They call it irresponsible sex or murdering babies.
Path to citizenship? They call it inviting in criminals to steal elections.
They put words in our mouths, too. They claim we want to defund the police, do political violence, force gender reassignment surgery on people, teach children to hate America or White people, and other lies.
I keep seeing Democrats trying to find other ways to talk about these things, and avoid MAGA’s framing, but I think we should just speak plainly, definitely share our positive vision, own what we say, and not try to win the meme wars. We can’t. MAGA has a million pretty-sounding lies and we only have often-unpalatable truth. But more people are starting to understand that reality matters.
I agree, and think you're correct on all counts. But who is listening? Fair question! Harris/Walz detailed the Project 2025 roadmap, which has now been instituted--but not enough people apparently cared. Does anyone even know about our own Project 2026? Not really. But meanwhile, I'm so proud of our Illinois Governor, JB Pritzker, the other electeds throughout the country, attorneys general, the public and all of those who are speaking out against the fascist behavior and saying what we DO want. Still, over and over, we hear "What is the Dems vision? it's all criticizing Trump!"---which is a lie! Perhaps when children and pregnant women begin dying of preventable diseases, and prices get unbelievably bad, and federal workers are thrown into unemployment, etc; etc;--maybe that will convince people to get out and vote? Maybe not. But...."we still persist!"
Pritzker is a gem!
And they control the most of the media and soon it will be all. I worry about Blue Sky.
We have power here, too, Jennifer. Just look at what all of the huge public pressure did to Disney, Nexstar, and Sinclair, bringing Jimmy Kimmel back to huge ratings. It was really a great show of force (as were the Tesla demonstrations.) Our actions do matter, and legacy media isn't the only game in town any more. Just like our rallies aren't organized by just one group, but many. It gives me hope! (And at every rally, I tell people about Hopium Chronicles. Most have never heard of it, and immediately look it up!)
I agree. They are going to hear what they want to hear if they are hardcore MAGA. We are not going to reach them anyway. It's the disaffected, the unaffiliated, the disengaged "low propensity voter" people that we need to reach and engage.
Self-report: I made my daily calls, and whether leaving a voicemail or speaking with a staffer, I expressed outrage at the lack of Republican negotiations ensuring health insurance protections and prohibiting presidential clawback of congressional appropriations. Also repeating again that any shutdown is a Republican shutdown.
I also demanded their public opposition to the militarization of our streets, whether by the military, National Guard, DHS, or ICE. Having military-grade weapons of war on our streets is an attack on the American people.
Rep Bresnahan is the only one with staff consistently answering phones. They are polite and always ask if there is anything else they can do for me today, to which I answer, not today, but I'll speak with you tomorrow. Today's staffer responded he was looking forward to it. Made me smile.
I also contributed to Mikie Sherrill's campaign, and Paige Cognetti's campaign against Rep Bresnahan.
Looking forward to tuning in at 1pm for the next Simon talk.
Just called Sens. Kim & Booker & Rep. Chris Smith (Traitor-NJ04) and told them to hold fast on the budget and cuts to ACA tax credits. As usual, Smith's folks were passive aggressively polite. UGH.
I am laser focused on doing my best for students and working to support survivors of gun violence--no time to listen to that fool & his fake videos and whining. Disinfo not being consumed in this household!
Got voicemail that our ballots were received by the county bd of elections - yay! This weekend, will knock doors with Randi Weingarten's American Federation of Teachers (my faculty union is affiliated). This will be a new experience knocking union doors!
Keep going - we are turning the tide, folks!
I'm so dumbfounded that people can listen to what Hegseth and Trump are saying and just carry on like it's normal and there's no need for pushback. What will it take for people to wake up and put these thugs in their place? It's been 8 months of tyranny. Enough of my rant. I'll get back to taking action on those things I can - phone banks, letter writing, NO KINGS prep, donations to progressive candidates, etc.
People are listening and getting it. It's the MSM who is spreading the "all is well" line, and a diminishing number of folks are buying it. Wait till Oct 18.
Simon, Can you reach out to Ken Martin to get a message out to the country - a 30 sec TV ad, social media?
Simple message:
The government is running out of money and shutting down because Congress gave tax cuts to the rich. Democrats are working to keep your healthcare. Elizabeth Warren said it clearly on NPR this morning. NPR is not reaching the voters who are outside our echo chamber. This is your moment. Ken, you have our money. Get this message out. Make it happen TODAY!
That Hegseth “speech” was a total shit show, between pushing his new book, body shaming generals, making big FAFO declarations and waiting for applause that didn’t happen, ranting against diversity in the military and green lighting future war crimes. It was frankly like a never-ending MAGA comments section. And then there was trump demanding that everyone applaud. How weak and pathetic.
The lack of applause is very good news. I cannot imagine how angry the generals are at this treatment. They are not people I would choose to antagonize.
Nope. correct on all counts!
It will never cease to amaze me that at the same time they are posturing about improving “lethality” of the military by eliminating wokeness they are literally running away from the biggest, most important fight of our lives. Some “strength”
Our congressman, Gabe Vasquez (D NM CD2) sent a news update this morning. My response:
No deal with the GOP is secure because their word means nothing to any of them and they give Trump line-item veto; Trump will destroy the government with or without a shutdown; independents will not support GOP majorities who invite the shutdown.
Don't Back Down!
How about a national narrative that Trump and his cronies are corrupt and lawless, p.o.s. failures spewing hatred and division (so obvious after that Jeffries in a sombrero stunt) and that they are shutting down the government to avoid the Epstein files vote and to hide the crashing economic numbers, in hopes we won't notice, while they line the pockets of billionaires at our expense.
This is the reality that America is waking up to, so why don't we just say it that way?
(yeah... I'm having one of Those days)
well said!
Fuck it…. My daily calls to TX senators are going to about replacing Drumpf with Vance. It’s time to plant that seed, enough is enough. Maybe I’m being rash…