"We failed"

That is what we will say if we don't get our self-righteous butts off the couch and away from the echo chamber of the web. We need to spend that daily news orgy in the neighborhood bar, bowling alley, etc., and talk to our fellow citizens.

Some talking points (please improve):

–Have you registered to vote?
–Are you planning on holding a motivational pre-vote party?
–Like I did for Hillary, I'm going door to door. Join me this Sept, October and November?
–Do join the blue wave that's actually VOTING in November –for Democrats. They are the only sane party left standing (and they are pro gun control, reproductive rights, Kyoto Protocols, regulating banks, etc)

Another action in the PHYSICAL WORLD: I've already got my homemade sign spread across my car's entire bumper:

WHILE CITIZENS CLASH
THE 1% TAKES THE CASH
Vote Democrats 2018

It reaches way beyond my echo chamber and I've received nothing but thumbs up.

Let's get off the web + talk to neighbors!!!

I have a thought:

Let's get off the web/Facebook/Twitter, even DU, and put the breaks on this insane slide towards fascism, civil war... or whatever it is we seem to be fumbling into. We need to spend that daily news orgy in the neighborhood bar, bowling center, etc., and talk to our fellow citizens.

Here's my talking points (please improve below):

–Have you registered to vote?
–Are you planning on holding a motivational pre-vote party?
–Like I did for Hillary, I'm going door to door. Join me?
–Do join the blue wave that's actually VOTING in November –for Democrats. They are the only sane party left standing (and they are pro gun control, reproductive rights, Kyoto Protocols, regulating banks, etc)

Another action in the PHYSICAL WORLD: I've already got my homemade sign spread across my car's entire bumper:

WHILE CITIZENS CLASH
THE 1% TAKES THE CASH

It reaches way beyond my echo chamber and I've received nothing but thumbs up.

Al Franken: lynched by bots + unthinking colleagues

Well now... The revelations about bots undermining Franken are both on Newsweek and Raw Story.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/white-nationalists-twitter-bots-fueled-war-al-franken-democrats-fell/

I feel vindicated for helping to sound the alarm last year against what seemed like a Franken lynching. If Gillibrand and the other Democrats want a truly moral Democratic party, they could cite this bot/troll event and hide behind "we didn't know."

Of course they could have also taken Franken's many female colleagues in both congress and Saturday Night Live at their word: the man was a mensch. His acting out a groping on the plane was Vaudevillian bafoonery during a USO tour in which Tweeden slapped the ass and groped a guitar player with her legs – on stage. His crime – and hers –was poor taste. His was also being short and placing his hands on people's waists during many photo ops – instead of shoulders which would have been awkward

Oy vey. Now we know what really drove the Dem leadership into a frenzy: a lack of schooling in 21st century humor, and an army of bots, commanded most likely by the same Russians/Republicans who discouraged black voter turnout and turned uninformed independents against Clinton.

1) Vote the weasels out of Toad Hall. 2) Break up monopolies

Time to keep the pressure on ourSELVES to do the right things after the Democrats retake the government:

Start by dismantling the monopolies which control everything else. See The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/six-ways-to-rein-in-todays-toxic-monopolies/

Gentrification vs Devdumping

As a term for urban growing pains, my vote is for "development dumping" (or "devdumping" as some call it). Development dumping is more decisively the root of neighborhood displacement. The "luxury" high rises that are dumped on a community with little to no gentleness, and a lot of collusion with city governments to leverage tax abatements and changes in zoning laws to make room for the damn things. Developers literally force out renters through a range of terrible strategies, from instant eviction when the rent is late, to arson.

"Devdumping" is perfectly suited for what really happens, economically and politically, to certain neighborhoods. The term "gentrification", in contrast, is an oxymoron at best, but is actually quite insidious. (I really can't stand the term, it drives me bonkers). It has built within it two insidious forms of prejudice. One is that so-called "impoverished" groups aren't gentle or cultured. The problem may be that they are too gentle, too civilized, and are easily pushed aside by the true gentrifiers – large, wholesale developers. But another problem with "gentrification" as a term is that it implies a prejudice towards an entire class of underpaid worker – the artists and musicians whom we fantasize are the friends of princesses and billionaires, but in fact pull in far less than a plumber or retail employee. The creative classes are some of the lowest paid of the trades and professions. However, by shear pluck and DIY struggle, they have the nerve to transform their apartments, their parties and even their streets with next to no funding from banks or rich uncles. We often blame these struggling, but inspired, people for the "gentrification" of neighborhoods when in fact the rise in cost of living is not something 99% of the creative classes actually WANT, nor are they responsible for it. When neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Brooklyn, are analyzed, it becomes clear that after a wave of hands-on activity stirs up the spirits and storefronts (such as what the Brooklyn Immersionists did on the weed-infested waterfront and in the abandoned factories in the 1990s), a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT crowd leverages tax abatements and rezoning to invade an area with stacks of "luxury" apartments. These "devdumpers" are neither creative nor gentle. If anything, they promote the term "gentrification" to buttress their crude luxury branding games. Devdumpers have no discourse, no sensibility, save for a knack to exploit. They are not gentle and some are downright Trumpian (especially the Trumps!). "Gentrification" is the worst possible term for what development dumpers actually do. So my vote is use "devdumper" or "monopoly capitalism" next time you're pissed off at the cost of living.

A number of articles (below) seem to flirt with a speck of understanding, but still miss these salient points. The creative community does not wish for, nor directly induce, a rise in the cost of living. They're renters, after all, not landowners. And the larger community we all-too-easily label a "ghetto" are rich in culture, inspiration and talent. Both groups are quite gentle (with the usual exceptions you find in any group) and neither – as renters or single unit homeowners– are responsible for shutting out the sun with tall buildings and a steep rise in rent.


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/11/is-gentrification-really-a-problem

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/gentrification-bad-word/396908/

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/06/toward-being-a-better-gentrifier/531324/

Is the FBI investigating Fox News for ties to Russia?

(I'm posting this in Entertainment since Fox "News" is asmittedly entertainment. Also, since EVERYTHING in the USA is impacted by Russia's attack, there's nothing that isn't political):

What else would explain Fox's shrill, high anxiety, and unrelenting attack on the FBI? Is Murdoch in cahoots with Russian oligarchs? And therefore beating the "news" agency's drum in favor of Putin's favorite puppet?

Is the FBI investigating Fox News for ties to Russia?

What else would explain Fox's shrill, high anxiety, and unrelenting attack on the FBI? Is Murdoch in cahoots with Russian oligarchs? And therefore beating the "news" agency's drum in favor of Putin's favorite puppet?

Does anyone know what the ties are between Fox and Putin?

I would love to see aerial shots...

of last weeks' Wonen's March(s). Last year Trump, in his hallucinogenic fashion, managed to keep the public riveted on the women's movement by constantly reminding us of how small his inauguaral was in comparison.

Can we get some of the best shots back in rotation?

Best photos from Women's Marches...

PLEASE POST YOUR COOLEST PIX FROM THE MARCH BELOW.
(Crowds, charts and people holding signs)

Last year Trump's attempt to compare the size of his puny inauguration with Obama's and the Women's March the following day kept photos of the groundbreaking Women's March in the news for weeks, even months. It was a huge boost to the resistance and provided constant, VISCERAL proof that progressives, LEAD BY WOMEN OF ALL ETHNICITIES, were in the majority and a force to be reckoned with. (And we do have a message: stop the hate and fix this country, beginning with economic inequality)

Please post your best pix of this year's march (from any city) and let's keep that profound statement in circulation right up to November 6!!!