Support the American River Parkway _ Urgent !

Choosing Democracy: Support the American River Parkway _ Urgent !: http://www.americanrivertrees.org/ This is what they propose: like near Sac State.    This email serves as official notification from the U....

Welcome to 2024

 Welcome to 2024.

 

10 Rules for 10 Months.  Robert Reich.

 

Today marks the start not only of a new year, but also a terrifyingly high-stakes ride for America — slightly over 10 months to the presidential election of 2024.

Trump is leading in the polls by a slim margin. Even more remarkably, more Americans disapprove than approve of Biden’s efforts to improve the nation’s infrastructure, and more believe that Trump “has a vision for the future” than believe Biden does.

Polls this long before an election have little or no predictive value, but they do suggest that over the next 10 months, Biden and his administration must get across a clear message of Biden’s vision and accomplishments.

What can the rest of us do between now and the election to help save American democracy?

Ten suggestions:

1. Become even more politically active. For some of us, this will mean taking more time out of our normal lives — up to and including getting out the vote in critical swing states. For others, it will mean phone banking, making political contributions, writing letters to editors, and calling friends and relations in key states. 

2. Do not succumb to the tempting anesthesias of complacency or cynicism. The stakes are too high. Even if you cannot take much time out of your normal life for direct politics, you will need to organize, mobilize, and energize your friends, colleagues, and neighbors.

3. Counter lies with truth. When you hear someone repeating a Trump Republican lie, correct it. This will require that you prepare yourself with facts, logic, analysis, and sources.

4. Do not tolerate bigotry and hate. Call it out. Stand up to it. Denounce it. Demand that others denounce it, too.

5. Do not resort to name-calling, bullying, intimidation, violence, or any of the other tactics that Trump followers may be using. We cannot save democracy through anti-democratic means. 

6. Be compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump, but be firm in your opposition. Understand why someone might decide to support Trump, but don’t waste your time and energy trying to convert them. Use your time and energy on those who still have open minds.

7. Don’t waste your time commiserating with people who already agree with you. Don’t gripe, whine, wring your hands, and kvetch with other anti-Trumpers about how awful Trump and his Republican enablers are. Don’t snivel over or criticize Biden and the Democrats for failing to communicate more effectively how bad Trump and his Republican enablers are. None of this will get you anything except an upset stomach or worse.

8. Don’t decide to sit this election out or vote for a third-party candidate because you don’t especially like Biden and you’re tired of voting for the “lesser of two evils.” Biden may not be perfect, but he’s not the lesser of two evils. Trump is truly evil. 

9. Demonstrate, but don’t confuse demonstrating for political action. You may find it gratifying to stand on a corner in Berkeley or Cambridge or any other liberal precinct with a sign asking drivers to “honk if you hate fascism” and elicit lots of honks. But this is as politically effectual as taking a warm shower. Organize people who don’t normally vote to vote for Biden. Mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts in your community. Get young people involved.

10. Don’t get distracted by the latest sensationalist post or story by or about Trump. Don’t let the media’s short-term attention span divert your eyes from the prize — the survival of American democracy during one of the greatest stress tests it has had to endure, organized by one of the worst demagogues in American history.

I cannot overstate how critical the outcome of the next 10 months will be to everything we believe in. And the importance of your participation. We must win this. And then continue to do the work of making our democracy and economy work for the many, rather than the few at the top. 

 

CSU Strike Settled _ Pending Vote of Members

 The strike at the largest university system in the nation has ended ( subject to ratification vote by the faculty union.

Posted 

“The collective action of so many lecturers, professors, counselors, librarians and coaches over these last eight months forced C.S.U. management to take our demands seriously,” Charles Toombs, president of the union, said in a statement.

The deal would immediately increase salaries for all faculty members by 5 percent, retroactively to July 1, 2023, with another 5 percent raise to take effect July 1, 2024, according to union officials. It would also immediately raise the salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty members by $3,000, and increase paid parental leave to 10 weeks from six.

Mildred García, the chancellor of the university system, said in a statement Monday night that she was “extremely pleased” with the deal, adding that it “enables the C.S.U. to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system’s long-term financial sustainability.”

I participated in the creation of this union and was a local official prior to retirement.

Choosing Democracy: Sac State Strike Begins _ System Wide Strike

Choosing Democracy: Sac State Strike Begins _ System Wide Strike:  Clouds, chills and the threat of rain didn’t dissuade Sacramento State faculty from forming the first picket line of the spring semester. P...

Why and Where the Working Class Turned Right

Why and Where the Working Class Turned Right: A new book documents the lost (and pro-Democratic) world of Pennsylvania steelworkers and how it became Republican.

The Wealthy are Not Paying Taxes

Choosing Democracy: The Wealthy are Not Paying Taxes: https://truthout.org/articles/uss-wealthiest-collectively-held-8-5-trillion-in-untaxed-assets-in-2022/ US’s Wealthiest Collectively Held $8....

Jan. 6 Insurrection. Reich.

 

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Five horrifying truths about what occurred three years ago today

The 2024 election will be the last opportunity for America to hold Trump accountable for his attempted coup

ROBERT REICH JAN 6

READ IN APP

Friends,

Three years ago today, the United States Capitol was attacked by thousands of armed loyalists to Donald Trump, some intent on killing members of Congress. 

Roughly 140 officers were injured in the attack. Four people died during the storming, while Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who participated in the response, passed away the following day. Another Capitol Police officer and one D.C. police officer who also responded to the attack have since died by suicide. 

January 6, 2021, will be remembered as one of the most shameful days in American history. 

Yet three years later, Americans remain confused and divided about the significance of what occurred. 

Let me offer five basic truths:

1. The events of January 6 capped two months during which Donald Trump sought to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election.

In the wake of the election, Trump repeatedly asserted that he had won and Biden had lost, without any basis in fact or law. Sixty federal courts as well as Trump’s own Departments of Justice and Homeland Security concluded that there was no evidence of substantial fraud.

Trump summoned to the White House Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania and Michigan to inquire about how they might alter the election results. 

He called two local canvassing board officials in Wayne County, Michigan’s most populous county and one that overwhelmingly favored Biden.

He phoned Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes,” according to a recording of that conversation, adding “the people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”

He threatened Georgia’s secretary of state with criminal prosecution if he did not do as Trump told him. “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it. You know, that’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk.”

He pressed the acting U.S. attorney general and deputy attorney general to declare the election fraudulent. 

When the deputy said the department had found no evidence of widespread fraud and warned that it had no power to change the outcome of the election, Trump replied, “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me” and to Trump’s congressional allies.

Trump and his allies continued to harangue the attorney general and top Justice Department officials nearly every day until January 6.

Trump plotted with an assistant attorney general to oust the acting attorney general and pressure lawmakers in Georgia to overturn the state’s election results. Trump ultimately decided against it after top department leaders pledged to resign en masse.

2. Trump then incited the attack on the Capitol.

For weeks before the attack, Trump urged his supporters to come to Washington for a “Save America” protest on January 6, when Congress was to ceremonially count the electoral votes of Joe Biden’s win. 

He tweeted on December 19: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” On December 26: “See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it. Information to follow.” 

On December 30, he tweeted: “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!” On January 1: “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C. will take place at 11:00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!”

At a rally he held just before the violence, Trump repeated his lies about how the election was stolen. “We will never give up,” he said. “We will never concede. It will never happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.”

He told the crowd that Republicans were fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back, respectful of everyone — “including bad people.”

He said:

“We’re going to have to fight much harder…. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong….We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.“

He then told the crowd that “different rules” applied to them. 

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike [Pence] has the courage to do what he has to do, and I hope he doesn’t listen to the RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] and the stupid people that he’s listening to.”

Then — knowing that members of the crowd were armed — he dispatched them to the Capitol as the electoral count was about to start. The attack on the Capitol came immediately after.

He watched the attack on television from the White House. For three hours, he made no attempt to stop it or tweet to his supporters asking they refrain from violence. 

3. Trump’s attempted coup continues to this day.

Trump still refuses to concede the 2020 election. He continues to assert it was stolen. 

He has presided over a network of loyalists and allies who sought to overturn the election and erode public confidence in it by mounting partisan state “audits” and escalating attacks on state election officials. 

A year later, on January 6, 2022, Trump hosted a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“Remember,” he said, “the insurrection took place on November 3rd. It was the completely unarmed protest of the rigged election that took place on January 6th.” (Reminder: they were armed.) 

Trump then referred to the House investigation of the attack on the Capitol: “Why isn’t the Unselect Committee of highly partisan political hacks investigating the CAUSE of the January 6th protest, which was the rigged Presidential Election of 2020?”

He went on to castigate “Rinos,” presumably referring to his opponents within the party, such as Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who sat on the January 6 committee. “In many ways a Rino is worse than a Radical Left Democrat,” Trump said, “because you don’t know where they are coming from and you have no idea how bad they really are for our Country.” He added, “the good news is there are fewer and fewer RINOs left as we elect strong Patriots who love America.”

Trump then led a purge of congressional Republicans who had failed to support him. He endorsed a primary challenger to Cheney, who then lost her reelection bid in Wyoming. Kinzinger left Congress. 

Trump is now running for president again, with a wide lead over other Republican candidates for the nomination. 

Since he launched his campaign, he has called January 6, 2021, “a beautiful day” and described those imprisoned for the insurrection as “great, great patriots”and “hostages.” 

At his campaign rallies, he has played a recording of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by jailed rioters, accompanied by his recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Today, Trump will spend the third anniversary of the January 6 attack at two rallies in Iowa.

4. Trump has still not been held accountable.

Trump’s post-riot impeachment was rejected by Republican senators, including Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who claimed there were better ways to hold him accountable than impeaching him. 

Although the House January 6 committee had no direct power to hold Trump accountable, its revelations did affect the 2022 midterms, in which many Republican candidates who had supported Trump’s lies were defeated. It also laid a foundation for the Justice Department’s indictment of Trump.

The Republican presidential primaries have not held Trump accountable. To the contrary, the Justice Department’s indictment and a similar indictment in Georgia have apparently strengthened Trump’s grip on the nomination, as he uses them as evidence that he’s being persecuted. 

The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine’s secretary of state have determined that Trump should not be on their state ballots because of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which bars someone who previously swore allegiance to the Constitution but then engaged in an insurrection from holding public office. Trump has appealed the decisions. 

5. Trump maintains a demagogic hold over the Republican Party.

According to recent polls, 70 percent of Republican voters believe his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Thirty-four percent of Republicans believe the FBI organized and encouraged the insurrection (compared with 30 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats).

The Republican Party is close to becoming a cult whose central animating idea is that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Trump has had help, of course. Fox News hosts and social media groups have promoted and amplified his ravings for their own purposes. The vast majority of Republicans in Congress and in the states have played along.

The 2024 election will likely be the final opportunity to hold Trump accountable for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his attempted coup three years ago today. 

The 2024 election may therefore be the last chance for American democracy to function. 

Why Is Media Failing on the Election ?

  

Why is the mainstream media failing to report accurately on the upcoming election?

Outmoded “standards” of journalism are preventing voters from knowing the truth

ROBERT REICH

JAN 2, 2024

Robert Reich,

You wouldn’t know if you relied solely on the mainstream media that Americans face an election on November 5 of this year in which one of the two likely candidates was engaged in an attempted coup and has given every indication of wanting to substitute neofascism for democracy.

Again and again, the mainstream media have drawn a false equivalence between Donald Trump and Joe Biden — asserting that Biden’s political handicap is his age, while Trump’s corresponding handicap is his criminal indictments.

But Trump is almost as old as Biden, and Trump’s public remarks and posts are becoming ever more unhinged — suggesting that advancing age may be a bigger problem for Trump than for Biden.

Why isn’t the mainstream media reporting on Trump’s increasing senescence?

Similarly, every time the mainstream media reveal another move by the Republican Party toward authoritarianism, they point out some superfluous fault in the Democratic party in order to provide “balance.”

So readers are left to assume all politics is rotten.

A recent Washington Post article was headlined: “In a swing Wisconsin county, everyone is tired of politics.”

“How do Americans feel about politics?” The New York Times asked recently, answering: “Disgust isn’t a strong enough word.”

But where is it reported that the mainstream media have contributed to making people tired and disgusted with politics?

And where is it acknowledged that this helps Trump and his Republican allies?

They want voters to be so turned off of politics that they’re unaware of Biden’s accomplishments, such as an economy that continues to generate a large number of new jobs, with real (adjusted for inflation) wages finally trending upward, inflation dropping, and no recession in sight.

Plus, billions of dollars pumped out to fix and improve the nation’s roads, ports, pipelines, and internet. Hundreds of billions allocated to combat climate change. Medicare now lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Billions in student debt canceled. Monopolies attacked. Workers’ rights to organize, defended.

One person interviewed by the Post admitted, “I can’t really speak to anything [Biden] has done because I’ve tuned it out, like a lot of people have. We’re so tired of the us-against-them politics.”

As if the “us-against-them politics” is the fault of Democrats as much as it is Republicans, when in fact the GOP is the party of dysfunctional politics.

Much of the GOP no longer accepts the rule of law, the norms of liberal democracy, the legitimacy of the opposing party, or the premise that governing requires negotiation and compromise.

Why isn’t this being reported?

Trump and his allies want Americans to feel so disgusted with politics that they believe the nation has become ungovernable. The worse things seem, the stronger Trump’s case for an authoritarian like him to take over: “I’d get it done in one day.” “I am your voice.” “Leave it all to me.”

By focusing on Trump’s rantings and ignoring Biden’s steady hand, the mainstream media are playing directly into Trump’s neofascist hands.

What can you do? 

When you see the mainstream media commit these errors, write to the editors and point them out. Second, don’t rely exclusively on the mainstream media for your news. (I read The Guardian every day. Please offer us your suggestions for reliable sources of news and analyses.) Also: Boycott all advertisers on Fox News. 

Other ideas welcome.