Welcome to Today's Agenda...
Focused Read in about 3-4 minutes
"'Face of Evil': Fascism Scholar Calls Out Trump Rally Crowd Chanting 'Send Her Back, Send Her Back'
An American philosopher and expert in fascism says the country is "facing an emergency" after what has been branded "one of the single most racist moments in modern American political history" at a Trump rally on Wednesday night.
"The word 'emergency' is tricky to use because 'emergency' is a word that anti-democratic people use all the time to justify non-democratic measures," Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley told Newsweek in an interview on Thursday.
"But, what we have is a Republican Party that has just completely become the party of 'us versus them.' They have not just accepted this; they have become champions of it."
"Trump is trying to define America in a very negative way," he said. And, he said, "we need to call this racism very clearly."
The night before, Stanley had been left "shocked" after watching video of President Donald Trump's rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where supporters chanted the words, "send her back," as the U.S. leader renewed his racist attacks against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,...
"I am not easily shocked. But we are facing an emergency," the Yale professor and author of the book How Fascism Works wrote on Twitter.
"Journalists must not get away with sugar-coating this," he said. "This is the face of evil."
In his post, Stanley shared a tweet from writer and activist Shaun King, who described the moment the "send her back" chants broke out at the rally as "one of the single most racist moments in modern American political history."
"As Trump began attacking my friend, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the crowd began chanting, 'SEND HER BACK, SEND HER BACK.' It's utterly despicable and dangerous," King said, adding: "We are here. We are in THAT time. UGLY."
Trump had used much of the campaign rally to launch a fresh series of racist attacks on Omar and three other Democratic representatives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who have collectively branded themselves "The Squad.
During his speech, the president branded the four congresswomen, who are all women of color, "hate-filled extremists," in a renewal of the racist assault the U.S. leader launched on Sunday when he tweeted that Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley should "go back" to the "crime-infested places from which they came."
Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 at the age of 17, while the three other representatives were born in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens.
In his interview with Newsweek, Stanley warned that the president was demonstrating a "deep-seated commitment to fascism," in addition to clear racism.
"This whole administration has been orienting itself around attacking and vilifying ethnic minorities," he said. "It's horrifying to see."
"Fascist ideology is based upon the vilification of 'outsiders,' you know. It's an ideology that has, at its very center, panic and fear about outsiders. All fascist movements are toxically anti-immigration," he said. Adolf Hitler, for example, ran by "raising rants about lax immigration laws constantly."
"Fascist ideology says there's the nation and the members of the nation and they are ethnically defined and they face this mortal threat from leftism, communism, socialism and foreigners
and so you would think the president has a choice: he could run saying well you know the economy's strength or he could run with one of the most toxic ideologies the world has ever seen...
and that's what he's doing," Stanley said.
After branding the Trump rally "the face of evil," the philosopher explained that "evil is a moral concept and obviously we're talking about political systems,
but trying to get Americans to identify with hatred of others as a defining feature of being American...
the president is saying that being American is hating foreigners."
Stanley also stressed that today's journalists have a responsibility to be clear in identifying the president's rhetoric as what it is: racism.
" ... [Trump] is utterly clear about his white nationalism and his racism and you just have to call it what it is and not suggest that it's being misunderstood," he said.
Since Trump launched his racist attack on Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley, world leaders, including Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May, have spoken out to condemn the president's rhetoric, joining lawmakers in the U.S.
In a 245-187 House vote on Tuesday night, U.S. representatives officially condemned Trump's racism, with 240 Democrats in favor of and 187 Republicans opposed to the resolution, which is a statement of opinion and not legally binding.
Only four Republicans voted...in favor of the measure, along with Independent Justin Amash, who parted ways with the GOP earlier this month.
In a tweet, Omar appeared to respond to the president's renewed attacks on Wednesday, writing: "I am where I belong, at the people's house."
"You're just gonna have to deal," she said.
Focused Thought in 30 seconds
(I do not know who the creator of this fabulous meme is,
if you know please drop it in the comments section so I can give credit. TY.)
if you know please drop it in the comments section so I can give credit. TY.)
Focused Action in 30 seconds
You can retweet George Conway's Tweet here
(For those who don't know, Conway is Kellyanne Conway's husband)
Focused Point of Interest in 3 minutes
"'Go Back Where You Came From': The Long Rhetorical Roots Of Trump's Racist Tweets
When President Trump tweeted his racist remarks Sunday, asking why certain Democratic congresswomen don't just "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,"
he did not just take aim at the four women of color — three of whom were born in the U.S.
He did so using a taunt that has long, deeply entrenched roots in American history: Why don't you just go back where you came from?
The question doesn't always appear in those precise words, nor does it always surface in the same situations. And it doesn't always get directed at the same groups of people — far from it, in fact. But more often than not, it conveys the same sentiment:
You — and others like you — are not welcome here.
"There have been different phrases that have been used," says Michael Cornfield, a scholar of rhetoric at George Washington University,
"but the idea that we don't have any more room for people, or those people don't look like us, this is a long, ugly strain in American history."
Jennifer Wingard, a University of Houston professor who has looked at rhetoric and immigrant communities, traces this sentiment at least to 1798, when the U.S. passed a series of laws — together known as the the Alien and Sedition Acts —
that were aimed at making citizenship more difficult for immigrants and deportation easier for U.S. authorities to carry out.
"The legislation is actually constructed for the ability to remove immigrants who are saying things against the U.S. government," she says, explaining that these laws were passed in a tumultuous political climate.
"We were starting to see different political parties and different politicians arguing for different ways that the government should be run.
And it just happened that politically, they could try to maintain and try to withhold the status quo by putting it on the backs of immigrants."
Those laws established a pattern, she says, that would resurface with new waves of immigration and new perceived threats — from the Great Famine in Ireland and the Spanish-American War to the Great Depression and the attacks on Sept. 11.
"Every wave of immigration that gets in sees the next wave as the threat. That is the wave that is now going to take the jobs, that is now going to take things away," Wingard says. "The latest flow in is always the one that seems the most threatening."
... The process renews often, Wingard says, and she says the sentiment remains steady even if the names of the targeted groups change.
"There's a fancy theoretical term — it's called a palimpsest," says Jennifer Wingard, a rhetoric scholar at the University of Houston.
A palimpsest, she explains, is a text that has been erased and overwritten — but that nevertheless continues to bear many of the markings and meanings largely concealed beneath the new writing.
"They carry these sentiments that we have seen over centuries, but then they get repurposed for the current moment — and a phrase like that [racist taunt] becomes almost like a shorthand for anti-immigrant sentiment," Wingard says.
"You know, 'go back where you came from' is the same as 'go back to your own country' is the same as 'you are not allowed here' is the same as 'no immigrants allowed.' Yet it carries all of this historical shorthand with it."
Cornfield says it's partly the statement's variability that makes it so powerful.
"It plays to the fear that somehow America is getting too full or that the mixing of ethnicities and races would somehow aggravate issues," he says. "It's a potent phrase and part of its potency is its ambiguity."
It's simplicity, too.
"When you use a phrase like this, you're just asking people to forget about context
and forget about policy choices," he adds,
"and just get angry at people who don't look or sound like you do."
Courtesy of "NPR"
Focused Monthly Inspiration
( #itsNovember2020Now )
.
.
.
THE next Democratic Party 2020 Presidential Nomination Debate will be held July 30 & 31, 2019
And the best candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination is Kamala Harris, IMO...
You can follow her on facebook here
You can follow her on Twitter here
You can follow her on Instagram here
→ Some Direct sources & resources for Democrats:
* ( My personal favored and most informative follows are also shared here, below, with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify -- even if it's me. I am using a "star" rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
Democratic Party Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, representative of The People at home & abroad while the President of the United States is MIA...
There is no better way to get your information than to #Go2TheSource
You can find the Speaker's website here
You can find the Speaker's Twitter feed here
You can find the Speaker's Facebook Page here
The Democratic Party Website
Also, NOT exactly a Democratic Party specific source under a GOP majority but a good place for to hear and to watch speeches & hearings directly C-SPAN
+
"Women are already the majority. Now Let's build a Supermajority.
Women are on the cusp of becoming the most powerful force in America. But to fundamentally transform this country, we need to work together. That’s where Supermajority comes in.
LET’S GET ORGANIZED
We’re building an inclusive, national membership of women who are connected, empowered, and taking action—from increasing their level of civic engagement and advocacy to voting in record numbers.
If we can build women’s collective power in this moment, we can lift up an agenda that addresses our needs and hold candidates and elected officials accountable. ... "
We’re building an inclusive, national membership of women who are connected, empowered, and taking action—from increasing their level of civic engagement and advocacy to voting in record numbers.
If we can build women’s collective power in this moment, we can lift up an agenda that addresses our needs and hold candidates and elected officials accountable. ... "
"Meet the people behind the politicians.
A new podcast introducing you to the staffers and strategists that silently shape our politics from behind the scenes" here
A new podcast introducing you to the staffers and strategists that silently shape our politics from behind the scenes" here
You can email your two Senators and your Representative in Congress in one email here
"Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
What started on March 11, 2017 with sharing 5 addresses apiece to 5 volunteers on Facebook...
Now, we consist of over 20,000+ volunteers in every state (including Alaska and Hawaii) who have written close to 3 million postcards to voters in over 100+ key, close elections."
You can find Postcards to Voters here
This movement is diverse, open source, and powered by citizens. We are proud to be a part of it.
"Born from conversations between Governor Howard Dean and Secretary Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of the 2016 election, Onward Together was established to lend support to leaders — particularly young leaders — kicking off projects and founding new organizations to fight for our shared progressive values." here
Organizing for America and the Democratic National Redistricting Committee have merged in "All On The Line":
The former president’s activist group Organizing for Action has folded into a fight to end gerrymandering."
On Thursday he announced that the progressive Organizing for Action group, which formed out of the pieces of Obama’s re-election campaign, would be folded into the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
In a Medium post, Obama called gerrymandered maps “undemocratic” and “unrepresentative,” saying they have “too often stood in the way of change.”
... The merger will create a “joint force focused on this issue of singular importance,” Obama said, per The Atlantic. ... "
You can read more here
" Since #StandOnEveryCorner has grown, it’s become a stand by all of us to protect our democracy from corruption and treason...A stand not at your State Capitol, but in your own backyard. Not once every few months, but as often as you can here "
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of my favorite, highly credible media -- at the moment:
→ Some of my favorite Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
→ Some of my favorite media/panelists -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
✅✅✅✅ Joan Walsh national affairs correspondent for The Nation; CNN political contributor
✅✅✅ Heidi Przybyla USA TODAY Senior Political Reporter
✅✅✅✅ Jennifer Rubin Conservative blogger at @ WashingtonPost's Right Turn,MSNBC contributor
✅✅✅ Natasha Bertrand Staff writer @ The Atlantic covering national security & the
Intel community. @ NBCNews/@ MSNBC contributor
→ Some of my favorite legal analysts in the context of Putin attacked America to install Trump investigations, primarily seen on MSNBC:
→ Some of my favorite Democrat Party Leaders to follow on Twitter, not in elected office but proving knowledge & experience are positives & not negatives are:
Former First Lady Michelle Obama
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Former Labor Secretary/Today's DNC Chair Tom Perez
Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area and unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees in general elections. I don't support bashing Democrats.
→ PARTY Informational
"To Whom It May Concern: By authority of the Democratic National Committee, the National Convention of the Democratic Party is hereby scheduled to convene on July 13-16, 2020 in TBD at an hour to be announced, to select nominees for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, to adopt and promulgate a platform and to take such other actions with respect to such other matters as the Convention may deem advisable. ... "
You can read more here
"PREAMBLE We, the Democrats of the United States of America, united in common purpose, hereby rededicate ourselves to the principles which have historically sustained our Party. Recognizing that the vitality of the Nation's political institutions has been the foundation of its enduring strength, we acknowledge that a political party which wishes to lead must listen to those it would lead, a party which asks for the people's trust must prove that it trusts the people and a party which hopes to call forth the best the Nation can achieve must embody the best of the Nation's heritage and traditions. What we seek for our Nation, we hope for all people: individual freedom in the framework of a just society, political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens. Bound by the United States Constitution, aware that a party must be responsive to be worthy of responsibility, we pledge ourselves to open, honest endeavor and to the conduct of public affairs in a manner worthy of a society of free people. Under God, and for these ends and upon these principles, we do establish and adopt this Charter of the Democratic Party of the United States of America."
You can read more here
What is the CPD? The Commission on Presidential Debates (the “CPD”) is a private, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization. As a 501(c)(3) organization, it is eligible under federal law so serve as a debate sponsor. The CPD's primary mission is to ensure, for the benefit of the American electorate, that general election debates are held every four years between and among the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United State. The CPD is an independent organization. It is not controlled by any political party or outside organization and it does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates for parties. It receives no funding from the government or any political party, political actions committee or candidate. The CPD has sponsored general election presidential debates in every election since 1988. Although its plans for 2020 are in the developmental stage, it looks forward to bringing high quality, educational debates to the electorate in 2020 ...
You can read more here
.
.
.
(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
Owned, Created and Curated by Gail Mountain, this blog is often gently edited and/or excerpted for quick reading, with occasional personal commentary in the form of the written word and/or in the form of emphasis noted. Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
You can follow her Blog
at https://networkstrongertogether.blogspot.com & you can follow her on Twitter at GKMTNtwits
( find her on Twitter
*** My updated ebook is coming soon ... :
"How to Influence Media in Real Time!"
What's in the book?:
( My updated ebook, "How to Influence Media in Real Time," will be ready soon. It will include updated examples of the conversations I have with some of my “media friends” and some updated indications that media can hear us! If you have left a donation toward my effort to help Democrats win in 2020, I will send you an updated copy as soon as it is ready. New donors who leaves a name and an email on my GoFundMe Page will get one as soon as it is ready to go! Thanking you in advance for your interest. I hope you will join me in helping media be the best they can be -- by being a media influencer, too, in your own way and at your own pace. )
*
See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
*
...for Networking for Democrats today!
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
No comments:
Post a Comment