#how many protests and donations can we hold before we actually do something. the global south is fighting for its life every day

[tianshiisdead]

how can the west live with itself. how can any westerner live with themselves.

[captainbeverlycrusher]

An Open Letter to the Star Trek Community

To the Star Trek Community,

I write this from a place of deep respect, gratitude and compassion, and with hope that what I have to say will be received in good faith and be heard.

I am an immigrant woman of colour who found Star Trek at a time when I was at my lowest and stuck in what seemed like perpetual darkness, and it was this wonderful franchise and its powerful message which uplifted me and brought me back into the light so that today I can truly say that I am at my strongest. As such, Star Trek’s positive influence in my life has been no small thing. Star Trek has taught me to be the captain of my life, to reach for the stars, to stand up for what is right no matter the cost, and, above all, to be brave and bold.

And so, in the spirit of boldly going, I humbly call on ALL white members of the Star Trek Community — creators, platform curators, prominent fans and figures, including and especially Star Trek cast members, past and present — who believe in the underlying mission and vision of Star Trek to formally denounce all forms of racism and bigotry and those who uphold such abhorrent beliefs; I call on you to condemn the actions of those who have harmed Black and Indigenous people, and all People of Colour (BIPOC); and I call on you to strive to do more and do better for the sake of BIPOC in both the Star Trek community and in your own lives who have been subjected to racism. Finally, I encourage you to urge your supporters in this community to do the same, particularly those who are now finally waking up to the injustices perpetrated against BIPOC.

I am, of course, aware that the official Star Trek entity released a statement in this vein recently. I know many of you have expressed one way or another your support for the Black Lives Matter movement. I see you. It’s a good start. But it is not enough. I need each of you who hold so much influence within this community to do this, to say once and for all that you will not condone racism and anti-Blackness from your supporters, fans and followers any longer. It is important for this to happen.

I know you support the vision of the great Gene Roddenberry and the powerful philosophy of Star Trek and what it stands for. I know you believe in these words as much as I do:

“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms.”

But many white supporters within the Trek community truly do not share these sentiments, and they have proven this time and again, especially as they have belittled and driven fans of colour like me away instead of putting the mission of Star Trek into practice and welcoming us with open arms. Both on-and-offline, there are those who have insulted and degraded BIPOC involved in the Trek community— and not just fans but creatives, actors, and notable figures of colour alike. We have been treated as inferior and dismissed.

I have seen and witnessed it with my own eyes. I have endured this myself and I cannot explain to you how hurtful it has been for many of us. I am a fan who has experienced so much harm from many white people I have come across in Trek spaces, at conventions and events, even among those I had considered friends, and for it to come from within a franchise that promotes love, hope and acceptance, it has been devastating. What I once looked to as a safe haven no longer is.

I can only speak for myself and from my own experiences. And based on my experience, my call to action here is completely necessary. Because something I never say aloud, something I constantly have to process and reprocess in therapy is that 6 years ago when I was 24, the night before I first met my Trek heroes, I cried bitter tears because I felt that they would not accept me because I wasn’t white, that I was unlovable by even the most amazing people because I was not white like them. 24 years old. A grown adult. And I felt that way. So many white Trek supporters contributed to making me feel that way every time they overtly and subtly implied that their whiteness made them superior. I have remained silent about this and numerous other incidents for many years, but living in silence has only served to intensify the painful experiences I’ve had, and so I share this to stress the urgency with which this community-wide issue needs to be addressed. We cannot allow damage like this to continue towards BIPOC in this community.

Racism destroys the soul. Racism is why I hurt myself for so long and why so many white supporters have harmed fans of colour like me, despite their claims that they believe in all that Star Trek stands for. Racism hurts us all. This is just a small part of my story. Imagine how many more there are like it or even worse. As white people, you will never experience racism and you may not see the abominable treatment BIPOC in the Trek community encounter, but it is happening.

With the Black Lives Matter protests gaining momentum worldwide, it couldn’t be more clear that now is not the time to find the middle ground on issues like this, because there is none when it comes to racism. Either you are against it or not. And I promise you, the Trek community does not need the support of people who go out of their way to justify any and all racist acts, because as we can clearly see, even the smallest racial microaggressions and biases can ultimately lead to murder. The desire to keep the peace in the fandom and franchise is not more important than Black lives. Especially because the truth is, as far as I have observed, there has never been actual peace.

We are presently witnessing a global reckoning in which many are finally starting to acknowledge the existing ways racism and white supremacy are upheld. As a community that claims to value all beings and embrace all differences, it only makes sense for Star Trek and all its community members to lead the way to a better future in the entertainment and creative industries and beyond, and to start doing so by looking within ourselves and our own backyard. We MUST clean up this community so that all People of Colour can truly feel safe and welcomed and be embraced and celebrated in every Trek space.

As I issue my call to action, I urge you to consider doing the following:

First, in particular for prominent white cast and creatives, please let the Trek community know where you stand. If you have not already done so, please let people know that you will not tolerate any further bigotry and racist behaviour from anyone. Please let your Black fans and all fans of colour know that you are with us. And please don’t mince words.

Amplify the voices of BIPOC within this community. So many of us are constantly silenced and drowned out and it is time for us to be heard. Our presence only enhances the Trek community. Uplift and embrace us. We matter.

If you manage any online Trek-related spaces and platforms, it is your responsibility to moderate and remove speech that is racist against BIPOC. It is imperative for you to enforce stricter commenting policies and do all that you can to protect BIPOC from further harm. And for those participating in these spaces, it is equally your duty to call out and report any such speech you encounter.

Educate your fellow white Trekkies who don’t yet understand why this is important. BIPOC have expended a lot of labor attempting to do so already but we have been dismissed, ignored, and cast aside. The onus is now on you to ease us of this burden and do the work given your positions of influence.

Hold yourselves and other white people in your Trek networks accountable to BIPOC community members. Make this part of your norm so that it becomes second nature to you, especially so these issues don’t ever fade into the background as they have often done in the past. This is an opportunity to improve and get it right.

Continue supporting the Black Lives Matter movement even after it stops trending. Visit https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ to find helpful resources, make donations, sign petitions, and to get more involved in this work beyond the Trek community. This work is ongoing. It is lifelong.

Committing to doing every one of these would be small yet meaningful steps in the ongoing struggle for racial justice and it would make a significant difference. So with great respect and love, I implore you to use your power and privilege to do this for BIPOC, for yourselves, for all of us.

Stand up with and speak up for all BIPOC fans, friends and colleagues, far and wide. Be loud about it.

Be as loud and unrelenting as LeVar Burton. He has always been at the helm of this struggle, has always been upfront about it, and I love and admire him for it. Follow his lead.

Naturally, fear courses through me as I write all this, but I think of Gates McFadden, a great hero of mine, who once rocked the boat and spoke up against the sexism and racism she witnessed while working on TNG and was actually fired for it. If she can do that, then I think I can do this regardless of the risk. Because I know what I’m asking for and ultimately fighting for is right. Because what we can no longer deny is that lives are at stake. Black lives. And they matter.

Now it is up to you to do your part. Boldly go, in hope and with love.

And may you Live Long and Prosper.

— Originally published on Women at Warp

[mugasofer]

It seems like many, perhaps most, people historically believed in some immanent apocalypse.

Many philosophies claim that the world is passing into a degenerate age of chaos (Ages of Man, Kali Yuga, life-cycle of civilisation), or divine conflict will shortly spill over & destroy the Earth (Ragnorok, Revelations, Zoroastrian Frashokereti), or that the natural forces sustaining us must be transient.

Yet few panic or do anything. What anyone does "do about it" is often symbolic & self-admittedly unlikely to do much.

Maybe humans evolved not to care, to avoid being manipulated?

Many cults make similar claims, and do uproot their lives around them. Even very rarely committing mass suicide or terror attacks etc on occasion. But cults exist that don't make such claims, so it may not be the mechanism they use to control, or at most a minor one. "This is about the fate of the whole world, nothing can be more important than that, so shut up" may work as as a thought terminating cliche, but it doesn't seem to work that strongly, and there are many at least equally effective ones.

Some large scale orgs do exist that seem to take their eschatology "seriously". The Aztecs committed atrocities trying to hold off apocalypse, ISIS trying to cause it. Arguably some Communist or even fascist groups count, depending on your definition of apocalypse.

But even then, one can argue their actions are not radically different from non-apocalypse-motivated ones - e.g. the Aztecs mass-executed less per capita than the UK did at times & some historians view them as more about displaying authority.

I'm thinking about this because of two secular eschatologies - climate apocalypse and the Singularity.

My view on climate change, which as far as I can tell is the scientific consensus, is that it is real and bad but by no means apocalyptic. We're talking incremental increases in storms, droughts, floods etc, all of which are terrible, but none of which remotely threaten human civilisation. E.g. according to the first Google result, the sea is set to rise by 1 decimeter by 2100 in a "high emissions scenario", not to rise by tens or hundreds of meters and consume all coastal nations as I was taught as a child. Some more drastic projections suggest that the sea might rise by as much as two or three meters in the worst case scenario.

It really creeps me out when I hear people who confess to believe that human civilisation, the human species, or even all life on Earth is most likely going to be destroyed soon by climate change. The most recent example, which prompted this post, was the Call of Cthulhu podcast I was listening to casually suggesting that it might be a good idea to summon an Elder God of ice and snow to combat climate change as the "lesser existential risk", perhaps by sacrificing "climate skeptics" to it. It's incredibly jarring for me to realise that the guys I've been listening to casually chatting about RPGs think they live in a world that will shortly be ended by the greed of it's rulers. But this idea is everywhere. Discussions of existential risks from e.g. pandemics inevitably attract people arguing that the real existential risk is climate change. A major anti-global-warming protest movement, Extinction Rebellion, is literally named after the idea that they're fighting against their own extinction. Viral Tumblr posts talk about how the fear of knowing that the world is probably going to be destroyed soon by climate change and fascism is crippling their mental health, and they have no idea how to deal with it because it's all so real.

But it's not. It's not real.

Well, I can't claim that political science is accurate enough for me to definitively say that fascism isn't going to take over, but I can say that climate science is fairly accurate and it predicts that the world is definitely not about to end in fire or in flood.

(There are valid arguments that climate change or other environmental issues might precipitate wars, which could turn apocalyptic due to nuclear weapons; or that we might potentially encounter a black swan event due to our poor understanding of the ecosystem and climate-feedback systems. But these are very different, as they're self-admittedly "just" small risks to the world.)

And I get the impression that a lot of people with more realistic views about climate change deliberately pander to this, deliberately encouraging people to believe that they're going to die because it puts them on the "right side of the issue". The MCU's Loki, for instance, recently casually brought up a "climate apocalypse" in 2050, which many viewers took as meaning the world ending. Technically, the show uses a broad definition of "apocalypse" - Pompeii is given as another example - and it kind of seems like maybe all they meant was natural disasters encouraged by climate change, totally defensible. But I still felt kinda mad about it, that they're deliberately pandering to an idea which they hopefully know is false and which is causing incredible anxiety in people. I remember when Greta Thurnberg was a big deal, I read through her speeches to Extinction Rebellion, and if you parsed them closely it seemed like she actually did have a somewhat realistic understanding of what climate change is. But she would never come out and say it, it was all vague implications of doom, which she was happily giving to a rally called "Extinction Rebellion" filled with speakers who were explicitly stating, not just coyly implying, that this was a fight for humanity's survival against all the great powers of the world.

But maybe there's nothing wrong with that. I despise lying, but as I've been rambling about, this is a very common lie that most people somehow seem unaffected by. Maybe the viral tumblr posts are wrong about the source of their anxiety; maybe it's internal/neurochemical and they world just have picked some other topic to project their anxieties on if this particular apocalypse wasn't available. Maybe this isn't a particularly harmful lie, and it's hypocritical of me to be shocked by those who believe it.

Incidentally, I believe the world is probably going to end within the next fifty years.

Intellectually, I find the arguments that superhuman AI will destroy the world pretty undeniable. Sure, forecasting the path of future technology is inherently unreliable. But the existence of human brains, some of which are quite smart, proves pretty conclusively it's possible to get lumps of matter to think - and human brains are designed to run on the tiny amounts of energy they can get by scavenging plants and the occasional scraps of meat in the wilderness as fuel, with chemical signals that propagate at around the speed of sound (much slower than electronic ones), with only the data they can get from input devices they carry around with them, and which break down irrevocably after a few decades. And while we cannot necessarily extrapolate from the history of progress in both computer hardware and AI, that progress is incredibly impressive, and there's no particular reason to believe it will fortuitously stop right before we manufacture enough rope to hang ourselves.

Right now, at time of writing, we have neural nets that can write basic code, appear to scale linearly in effectiveness with the available hardware with no signs that we're reaching their limit, and have not yet been applied at the current limits of available hardware let alone what will be available in a few years. They absorb information like a sponge at a vastly superhuman speed and scale, allowing them to be trained in days or hours rather than the years or decades humans require. They are already human-level or massively superhuman at many tasks, and are capable of many things I would have confidently told you a few years ago were probably impossible without human-level intelligence, like the crazy shit AI dungeon is capable of. People are actively working on scaling them up so that they can work on and improve the sort of code they are made from. And we have no ability to tell what they're thinking or control them without a ton of trial and error.

If you follow this blog, you're probably familiar with all the above arguments for why we're probably very close to getting clobbered by superhuman AI, and many more, as well as all the standard counter-arguments and the counter-arguments to those counter arguments.

(Note: I do take some comfort in God, but even if my faith were so rock solid that I would cheerfully bet the world on it - which it's not - there's no real reason why our purpose in God's plan couldn't be to destroy ourselves or be destroyed as an object lesson to some other, more important civilization. There's ample precedent.)

Here's the thing: I'm not doing anything about it, unless you count occasionally, casually talking about it with people online. I'm not even donating to help any of the terrifyingly-few people who are trying to do something about it. Part of why I'm not contributing is, frankly, I don't have a clue what to do, nor do I have much confidence in any of the stuff people are currently doing (although I bloody well hope some of it works.)

And yet I don't actually feel that scared.

I feel more of a visceral chill reading about the nuclear close calls that almost destroyed the world in the recent past than thinking about the stuff that has a serious chance of doing so in a few decades. I'm a neurotic mess, and yet what is objectively the most terrifying thing on my radar does not actually seem to contribute to my neurosis.

[dunnystuff]

Hi to all -

Lincoln Project

Well, this one really hit the fan, didn't it? The problems of sexual misconduct by its leaders (why is it that this practice is nearly universal among democrats?) was known, and ignored or covered up, by the Project for almost a year. Now that it is exposed - as all such doings will be at some point, shouted from the rooftops, so to speak - their leaders have resigned, and what do you know - they have stopped accepting donations. That means they are done and over. Let the lawsuits begin !!!

This was an evil group, pretending to be conservative, in order to spread lies. Does anyone recall the fate of those 'who love and make a lie'? And people are asking unpleasant questions about where all those millions of dollars went.

NY Times

Speaking of lies - the nation's paper has quietly retracted and corrected their story about the fate of Police Officer Sicknick during the DC protests. The paper claimed at first that Officer Sicknick was killed by being struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. That story was picked up by many outlets, and spread as if it was true, with no one looking into it. Turns out that he was not struck in the head with a fire extinguisher, but had been pepper sprayed a couple of times, and may have died as a result of an existing medical condition. Boy, those tangled webs really get messy, don't they?

Supreme Court

Now that the election is over, and their desired result is done, the Court has agreed to hear some of those cases about election fraud. If they can get around to it, we may have an answer by October. Before you lock that barn door, did anyone see which way the horses went?

Cuomo

He rose up complaining about all that negative publicity concerning his handling of the Coronavirus, and the nursing homes. You know, it just is not his fault, don't you know? Why, he blamed everyone and everything, ignoring his own actions and refusal to use the hospitals and tools provided to him, gratis, and ended up with the highest death count in the nation. Why, that conflicts with his self-serving story of how great a leader he is, and we just cannot have that. Even his fellow democrats called his performance B.S. This might even be enough to cost him the election, and perhaps his brother his job on TV.

DeBlasio

He is right up there with the governor. While the city burns, and riots tear up what is left of business, and people flee as fast as they can move away, the mayor is holding 'performing arts' shows in the street - with dancers and all. Sick, unemployed and hungry New Yorkers are asking unpleasant questions. I do recall saying when this character was elected - 'congratulations, NY, you just elected a communist.' But he is only one of many in our political class. We have seen this before, the less competent want to rule, and be served. They get pretty loud and nasty with their demands.

Biden

Speaking of incompetent rulers....seems that Biden is so prone to speaking badly, that Kamala has taken on the task of communicating with foreign leaders. That is a task always performed by presidents, in days past. But, then, Biden is president in name only, and cannot string together two coherent sentences without a mentor to whisper in his ear.

He is now also saying he will enact gun control - read that as disarmament - of the rest of us by Executive Action, disregarding the Congress and Constitution. And, he must move fast, before the movement against him gains momentum and throws him and his non-elected cronies out of office. So, expect to hear a lot of bloviating in the next while about the evils of gun ownership and how we need to 'protect' everyone. You know, like they protect themselves with a wall around Washington, manned by military troops. If they can, they will deploy troops to all America to go house to house seizing guns. Just as Nazi Germany did, nearly 100 years ago.

LA

"Let my convicts go" !!! The DA there wants to release thousands of violent criminals back into the streets, against the law and the complaints of his own staff. Why? He is a far-left democrat - read that as communist - who wants to destroy America. These people will create havoc in the streets, giving him the excuse to crack down and seize power. Some will even vote - democrat of course - if allowed. Like all such people, he thinks that once he is in control, he can also crack down on these folks, and bring them into line. Oddly, that has never, ever worked in the past, but, as always, this time it will be different.

Trump

Did you see his return to Florida, to his home there? Looked like one of his rallies. Thousands of people lined the roads, waving flags and shouting encouragement. The impeachment thing was to try to prevent him from being able to run again - he is a very real threat to the left. They failed, so Trump can return, and run over the democrats like a train. The left will do something to try to prevent this - from election fraud to assassination. Bet on it.

Remember that saying embedded in the list of democrat supporters? Global Power, Weak America. That is where all this is headed. The left is part of the one world global government movement. They think it will give them power and wealth. The problem is that all such governments have failed, badly. Nations rise and become wealthy and powerful to the extent that they adopt capitalism. That unleashes the power of all the people. They will innovate, rise, and gain wealth for themselves and all around them. It has always been so. No repressive government creates wealth. They only get what they steal. And, they depend on slaves to stay in power, until the slaves revolt and throw them out. And, our own left - the democrats - has always been and remains the party of slavery. They fought a civil war to retain slaves, and spent the next 100 years trying to overturn the results of that war. Then, they changed tactics, and used economic slavery of the masses, rather than armed insurrection. It has worked well. Illegal immigration will sustain slavery for a time. Not only will they import a new class of unskilled slaves, but they can use them to control the voting process, to hold their power. This will harm their current slave class - inner city blacks. It will destroy their chances for jobs and advancement, and at some point, they will revolt - sooner if they learn the lessons of the Trump years - that they can better their conditions.

Bill Gates

He is a leader in the one world government movement. He has advocated for this for years, using technology to enslave the peoples of the world. And, he has been quite successful at it. His latest is to suggest that the wealthier nations change their eating habits. That is, give up real meats in favor of synthetic meats. After all, it will 'save the planet', as herds of cattle, etc. require a lot of land, compared to other food sources. And, they emit greenhouse gasses - cow farts. This not only ignores a lot of actual science, and common sense, but is exactly the same idea in the novel/movie 1984. Remember that scene where everyone is eating at the communal dining hall (actual homes and families were no longer part of that society) where one of the men was praising the quality of the new synthetic meat they were served "Double Plus good, this is', using the approved NewSpeak terminology.

Food is always a weapon of tyrants. Siege warfare had the goal of starving out the opposition, and has been used from ancient times and is still used today. Coming to a grocery store near you, sooner than you think.

Rich

[gibsongirlselections]

Will New Yorkers Get Desperate Enough To Vote for Trump?

With elderly Caucasian Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, November 3 will be less about the rise of progressive politics than the noise of the last four years would have you believe. But while the shine of AOC and her ilk winds down, progressive thought will find at least a petri dish to fester in during a Biden administration, and perhaps even a second media wind if Trump wins.

Since it’s not going away, seeing what would happen if progressives escape the lab and go viral is important. For that case study, we’ll look to COVID-laced New York.

COVID is supposed to be, finally, Trump’s white whale, the thing that will bring him down after he wriggled out from under the Russians and the Ukrainians and Stormy Daniels. Not enough ventilators! Not enough tests! Mass graves in Central Park! And it is all Trump’s fault. (See the headline: “Donald Trump is the Most Successful Bio-Terrorist in Human History.”) That set the stage for Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to craft a response far more political than medical. New York today is a laboratory for what happens when progressive ideology displaces reality.

But first a quick reality check: For every death in this global epidemic, it is critical to remember the virus did not strike masses down in the streets like the Black Plague, and did not create hideous sores like the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s that tore through this city. It is unlikely to infect a third of the world’s population like the Spanish Flu. An overwhelming number of those infected today never even know they have COVID, surprised by an antibody test months later. Most infected people do not pass on the virus. On July 12, New York had zero virus deaths for the first time since the pandemic started. But keeping the emphasis on “cases” and not conclusions keeps the fear alive.

But enough of reality; we’re talking progressivism here. Lockdown has left New York economically devastated, mired in “the worst economic calamity since the 1970s, when it nearly went bankrupt,” according to the New York Times. The unemployment rate nears 20 percent, a figure not seen since the Great Depression (during the 2008 recession it was about 10 percent). The newly unemployed strain food banks and soup kitchens. Policy described as a “pause” in March morphed into a semi-permanent state to keep things bad ahead of the election. While de Blasio authorized nail salons to reopen, he’s kept the city’s core sectors, the stuff that symbolizes New York—Broadway, tourism, conventions, restaurants, hotels, and museums—shut, sacrifices to The Cause. Look what Trump wrought!

So people are leaving. More than 10,000 Manhattan apartments were listed for rent in June, an 85 percent increase over last year. The super wealthy neighborhoods have seen 40 percent migration out, the biggest outward migration from the once economically strongest neighborhoods in midtown and the Upper East Side. Enough rich New Yorkers have left that it is affecting the census. The situation mirrors the outflow of the 1970s which decimated the tax base and led to landlords torching buildings to collect the insurance because they could not collect rent.

So it matters that 25 percent of New York tenants have not paid their rent since March. Those overdue payments left 39 percent of landlords unable to pay property taxes. A new NY law prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants facing pandemic-related financial hardships may help on the micro level while contributing to the destruction of the greater economy, which of course will eventually devastate everyone. Progressive zeal created an economic tide to sink all boats.

The mayor who threw his city out of work also banned large gatherings through September. He did however say Black Lives Matter protests would be allowed, claiming “the demonstrators’ calls for social justice were too important to stop.” The mayor himself, maskless, took time off to help paint “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower. The central thoroughfare in Manhattan was then closed to traffic to let the paint dry. Some are more equal than others; the mayor criticized Trump for putting politics first in his coronavirus response.

De Blasio is also allowing an “occupation” to continue at City Hall, where a mix of activists and homeless (attracted by donated food) live in makeshift tents. It stinks, a throbbing health-hazard island of human feces and drugs and food scraps even before you get to the COVID part. The city allows them even as, until recently, it sent goons to chase unwoke citizens in twos and threes from playgrounds. A woman at the occupation asked my preferred pronouns while behind her a half-naked homeless man screamed. A few cops stood in front of a graffitied courthouse and laughed. Maybe they just like graffiti; it too is back across New York.

So what else are the cops up to? A former police commissioner criticized city and state leaders for abandoning the police (de Blasio pushed through a $1.5 billion cut to the NYPD on BLM demand) and for helping create a “crime virus” to go along with the coronavirus. Amid defunding elite NYPD units in spite of a 205 percent rise in shootings this year (one of the most recent shootings was a one-year-old caught in gang crossfire), so many NYPD officers are seeking retirement the department has been forced to slow-walk applications to get out. The state legislature meanwhile is proposing a new law to hold cops (not the city, as it is now) personally liable for events on duty even as New York City made the use of certain restraints by cops a criminal act.

De Blasio and Cuomo found ways to put more criminals on the streets. New York state recently eliminated bail for many crimes, claiming alongside BLM it was unfair to POC without resources to pay. Adding to the criminal population, Mayor de Blasio supported the release of some 2,500 prisoners due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. At least 250 of those released have been re-arrested 450 times, meaning some have been re-arrested more than once. Since they cannot be held for bail, most are returned to the street under Governor Cuomo’s fairness policy.

The next battleground will be the schools. With only weeks to go in summer, the mayor announced the nation’s largest public school system will reopen with an unspecified mix of in-person and online classes. Teachers say crucial questions about how schools will stay clean, keep students healthy, and run active shooter drills while maintaining social distancing have not been answered. There have been no directives on how to handle online classes, no published best practices, not much of anything. Quality of education, like quality of life, is not on the agenda.

One certainty is New York’s students will have fewer options—26 Catholic schools will not reopen due to low enrollment and financial issues. That affects more than religion. Many of those schools represent the only neighborhood alternative to the failing public system. Closures will drive middle class flight.

And there’s always something more. With indoor restaurant dining prohibited, many places are setting up sidewalk tents. In addition to adding to the Hooverville atmosphere, all that food has brought out the rats, who are attacking patrons.

There is no sense we will ever end this. It’s easy to criticize places that have moved too fast, but they had the right underlying idea: we can’t live like this forever. People need to work, not just for money (though they need the money) but to have purpose. So much of what has been done in the name of justice feels more like punishment—suck on this bigots—racial score-settling under the guise of progressive social justice.

A lot of us are just sitting around like the Joad family, waiting for something to happen. The thing is, we’re not sure what we are waiting for. The lockdown was, we were told, to flatten the virus curve. We did that. COVID hospitalizations and actual deaths in NYC are at their lowest levels since March. But the lockdown is still here and nobody seems to know when to declare victory—is the end point zero new cases before we can re-open Broadway? A vaccine? We just wait, the days violent, hot, and liquid. De Blasio and Cuomo are waiting, too, but for November 3 to free us. No need for a continuing crisis after Biden wins.

But maybe the New York case study will serve as a different turning point in the election. Imagine enough purple voters who look at New York and become frightened of what the Left will do with power in Washington. They want to work. They want their kids in school. They might just vote for Trump.

Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department veteran, is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan, and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the 99 Percent.

The post Will New Yorkers Get Desperate Enough To Vote for Trump? appeared first on The American Conservative.

[investmart007]

MINNEAPOLIS | Catholic faithful demand change after sex abuse scandals

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/WmiqAy

MINNEAPOLIS | Catholic faithful demand change after sex abuse scandals

MINNEAPOLIS — The day after a grand jury report revealed that Roman Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children over decades, Adrienne Alexander went to Mass at a Chicago church and waited for the priest to say something about the situation.

He didn’t. And that left Alexander fuming. So she went on Facebook to vent — then organized a prayer vigil in Chicago that became the catalyst for similar laity-led vigils in Boston, Philadelphia and other cities nationwide.

Alexander is among countless Catholics in the U.S. who are raising their voices in prayer and protest to demand change amid new revelations of sex abuse by priests and allegations of widespread cover-ups. They are doing letter-writing campaigns and holding prayer vigils and listening sessions in an effort to bring about change from the pews, realizing it’s up to them to confront the problem and save the church they love after years of empty promises from leadership.

“I think it’s important that the large body hears from us,” Alexander said. “We actually make up the church.”

Their grassroots efforts are gaining momentum. In the last week more than 39,000 people have signed their names to a letter demanding answers from Pope Francis himself.

Another effort, sponsored by reform groups, has seized upon the “Time’s Up” and #MeToo movements and is organizing events across the country this weekend under the CatholicToo hash tag.

Some of the efforts are calling for specific reforms, such as laity-led investigations and transparency, while others are still brainstorming solutions. One woman in Michigan founded a website to make it easy for anyone to speak up and write to church officials.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Marjorie Murphy Campbell, a civil and canon lawyer in Park City, Utah, said of the laity’s engagement. She said many Catholics feel they have no choice.

“You either have to get involved now, because you cannot trust the bishops to solve this themselves, or you leave. … It’s our job to help the mother church get through this.”

The actions come as the church is facing a global crisis over clergy abuse following the scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report and the pope’s removal of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from public ministry amid allegations McCarrick sexually abused a teenage altar boy and preyed upon adult seminarians decades ago.

Francis wrote a letter to Catholics in August, saying the laity must help end the clerical culture that has placed priests above reproach.

He then found himself immersed in the scandal amid claims that he knew about allegations against McCarrick in 2013, but rehabilitated him anyway.

A collective of individual Catholic women last week wrote a letter urging Francis to deliver answers. The letter, which had more than 39,000 signatures by Friday, declared “we are not second-class Catholics to be brushed off while bishops and cardinals handle matters privately.”

“In short, we are the Church, every bit as much as the cardinals and bishops around you,” the letter said.

Robert Shine, a Catholic in Boston and vice president of the Women’s Ordination Conference, said he believes Catholics are now ready to confront what’s been happening in the church and talk about how they can be involved in reform, reflecting a broader trend in the U.S. with people getting more active in protests. Other denominations have been struggling with the issue as well.

“People are less willing to look the other way … This new consciousness and new honesty about politics is sort of being transferred to the Catholic Church as well.”

Miriel Thomas Reneau of Ann Arbor, Michigan, founded a website to make letter-writing easy. Her site lists the names and addresses of local dioceses and includes templates for people to write letters to church leaders.

Others are withholding donations in protest. Legatus, an association of Catholic businessmen, announced it would put its annual tithe to the Holy See in escrow. Thousands of people have also signed a statement that calls on Catholic bishops in the U.S. to consider resigning as a public act of repentance.

There are examples of laity forcing change in other countries. In the city of Osorno, Chile, a group of lay members organized themselves to raise attention to the sex abuse crisis, and their movement helped throw out a bishop. It took more than three years, but they decided it was necessary to try to change their church from within.

Lori Carter of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and two other women started a “Wear Gray” campaign in which they are urging “prayer warriors” like themselves to wear gray to Mass and fast as a symbol of repentance. They are also asking people to write letters to the pope and local bishops.

“I’m assuming it’s going to have to go back to sort of how it was — a church of the people and prayer and holiness,” she said.

In Minneapolis, Chris Damian believes having more nuanced conversations can bring about change. Damian, 27, organized a group of Catholic young adults to respond to the church crisis. The group has held a public prayer session, which St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda attended, as well as a discussion session where more than 100 people gathered to learn about the issue and brainstorm solutions.

The group is sending a letter to Hebda that urges pastors to listen to lay people, instead of telling them what to do. The letter also lists concrete recommendations, such as waiving confidentiality agreements for all past settlements and reopening the investigation into a former St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop who resigned in 2015 after prosecutors filed criminal charges against the archdiocese for failing to protect children from an abusive priest.

“We’re all really frustrated because things continue to pop up and that’s just not acceptable,” Damian said. “I think we can spend all this time complaining about how churches aren’t being more proactive …

but there’s no reason why we can’t take this issue and make the solution our own responsibility.”

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press

[belairresident55-blog]

season 1 episode 1

Uncle Phil! Man! How are you doing? l am not your uncle Philip. My fault, man. l must have got the wrong crib. l didn't know there were so many brothers living in this neighborhood. We're doing all right, huh? You have the right house. l am Geoffrey, your uncle's butler. Okay, well, l. Cheerio and all that rot. Bring the horses round, would you? lf you will follow me l will show you to your room, Master William. Hey, man, it's cool if you just call me Will. Master William tradition dictates that a clean, unbreakable line be drawn between a family and their butler. Therefore, it is necessary for the operation of a household that you address me as Geoffrey and l, in turn, address you by your proper title: Master William. Who are you, Robo-butler, man? Come with me, Master William. Yo, G. Let me rap to you for a second. All this Master William stuff, l'm not down with that, man. Make it sound like we're back on the plantation, like: ''Massa William ! Massa William ! '' Let's come up with something better that you could call me. What would you prefer? Check this: ''His Royal Freshness. '' That's dope. Master William, walk this way. No. -Willie! -Hey, Aunt Viv! -Sweetie, hi. -How you doing? My goodness, let me look at you. Turn around. The last time we saw you, you were this funny little boy. Now look at you. My goodness, you are a man. That was the plan. lt is amazing. You certainly have grown, Will. Well, we all have. Did you enjoy the trip? The plane ride was stupid. All the way first-class-- Excuse me? -l'm saying the plane was dope-- -Excuse me? No. Stupid, dope. No, that doesn't mean what you. How would he say. The flight was really neat. Geoffrey, would you take Will to his room, and help him get settled in? -Yes, Madam. -Nice seeing you. -Master William. -You got to love this guy, right? -Did you see the way he was dressed? -What's wrong with it? -You hear that language? -We used slang when we were kids. Do you remember our first date? You took one look at me and said: ''That is a bad dress. '' You could've just said it was a good dress. l could have, if l liked it. Actually, it was a bad dress. That's stupid. Now, take it for whatever meaning you want. Now he's got you doing it. Philip, cut him some slack, please. He's my nephew. And l would just appreciate it if you would try to understand him. Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. -Hi, sweetie pie. -Hi, Ashley. Yo, this place is huge, man. Next time l go to my room, l'm gonna take some bread crumbs. -Will, this is Ashley. -Hi. My little Scottish cousin. Pleased to make your acquaintance. l'm your humble servant. -He's cute. -l know he is. -l'm gonna take a swim before dinner. -Good luck. The pool heater's broken. -Don't you just hate it when that happens? -Yes, that is my pet peeve. -You got your own pool here? -And a tennis court, too. Yo, this is better than Love Boat. This boy gonna be maxing and relaxing. Hold on just a minute, son. We promised your mother that you're here to work hard, straighten out and learn some good old-fashioned American values. Dad, l need $300. Hilary, your cousin Will is here. Hi. Dad, l need $300. That's a lot of money, Hilary. What for? l need a new hat. -For what? -Probably her head. Okay, l'm going on the Save the Ozone celebrity bus next Saturday. lt's gonna be Bruce Willis and Demi, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez or Charlie Sheen, l can't remember which. We're taking the bus all over town to protest air pollution and then we're gonna motor to the beach and have a big bonfire. What? l'm not an expert or anything, but don't you think driving a big old bus around town and then having a bonfire is sort of adding to the problem of pollution? Look, if this weren't a good idea l really don't think Ally Sheedy would be involved. Hey, look who's here. Benson. -This is for you. -But l didn't get you anything. Your uncle has invited several of the partners from his law firm to dinner. At the time of the invitation, he did not realize you'd be descending upon him today. And regrettably, it was too late to cancel. Yo, are we having a party? We're gonna get stupid, right? For some of us, that will require very little effort indeed. -Miss Ashley. -That will be all, Geoffrey. That's all you had to say to get rid of him? l've been racking my brain. -This is for you. -Thank you, Ashley. This is nice. You're very talented. Well, l'm glad l'm good at something. l tried out for the school chorus today, but l didn't get in. How come? Well, when l auditioned for Mrs. Berkley l couldn't remember all the words to the song. The part l remembered was fantastic. -l'm sure it was. l bet you're def. -That's what she said. Not deaf. D-E-F. That's just slang. Means terrific, good. Thank you. You should try rapping. When you're rapping, you mess up the words and make up some new ones right there on the spot. Let's try this. l'll sing one line, you make up a line to rhyme it. -Okay. -All right. Let's see. ''You didn't get into Miss Berkley's chorus'' -l'm thinking, all right? -That's all right. We got all day. -Okay, l've got it. -Here we go. ''You didn't get into Miss Berkley's chorus'' ''l'd like to hit her in the head with Roget's Thesaurus'' ''Don't need no choir when you're a rapper'' ''Gonna hunt Miss Berkley down and zap her'' ''Got this whole town of Bel-Air buzzing'' ''Get a load of me and my rapping cousin'' Ashley, why don't you go downstairs and get ready for dinner. -Okay, Daddy. Bye, Will. -Check you later, Ash. Look who's here, Will. Who is he? lt's your cousin, Carlton. Don't you remember? When you two were little, people thought you were twins. You looked exactly alike. l guess some things never change. -How's it going there, Will? -lt's going all right. -Malcolm X. -He's sort of my hero. Well, he was a great man. l don't know if l'd call him my hero exactly. -Really? Who are your heroes? -Well, my dad. And Bryant Gumbel. He's darn good. Oh, my, yes! l see they brought your tuxedo. Tell me something, Will. Have you ever attended a formal dinner before? Other than that thing at Buckingham Palace, no. The important thing to remember is to relax, enjoy yourself and when in doubt, do whatever Carlton's doing. -You got it, man. -Okay, l'll see you at dinner. -That's a really neat tux, isn't it, Will? -Yes. lt's definitely the cat's meow. Wait till we come downstairs in those tuxes. People may not think we're twins, but l bet they'll think we're brothers. l don't think you have to worry about anybody mistaking you for a brother. Touche. This is going to be great. Your first formal dinner. And tomorrow, l'll introduce you to the gang. Maybe we'll play a set of tennis or two. Yes, this is going to be wild. -Where is he? -He's upstairs changing. Not Will. President Reagan. -You didn't? -What do you mean, l didn't? -You invited him again. -Why not? He's our neighbor. He's turned down the last 16 invitations. When are you gonna take a hint? -Maybe l should call his house. -Don't. l don't want him here. -Why not? -Because he'll bring her. Anyway, Bruce, Demi and l all feel that the ozone layer must be protected. l mean, every square foot of rain forest that's cut down brings us just one step closer to global warming. We have to learn to protect the earth. Not just for ourselves and not just for our children but for the future of all mankind. l had no idea it was such a serious problem. l really commend you for getting involved in such a good cause. Thanks. lt's my passion. -Where can l send a donation? -l don't know. Oh, my God! Philip, don't make a big thing out of it. lf this is how he feels comfortable. He's not killing anybody. Aren't you going to introduce Will? lntroduce him. Well, Steve, David, Henry. This is Will, my nephew by marriage. Will, these are my partners in the law firm of Furth, Winn and Meyer. Earth, Wind & Fire! When's your next album coming out? Will is going to go to Bel-Air Academy with Carlton. Good for you, Will. l used to fence at Bel-Air. Really? How much do you think we could get for that stereo? These hors d'oeuvres look tempting. Don't mind if l do. -How could you do that? -lt's all in the tongue. l'll show you later. There are other people at this table. You're right. Any requests? -Sweetie, would you say grace, please? -Yes, Mommy. ''Hey, there, Lord My name is Ashley Banks ''My family and friends Want to give you some thanks ''So before this dinner's All swallowed and chewed ''Thank you, God, for this stupid food'' Hey, Geoffrey, home butler. l'm glad to see you, man. lt is a special thrill for me as well. Check this out. l'm gonna be down here for a while. Why don't you hop on in the kitchen and get me some cocoa? Master William while it is my natural inclination to accede to your every demand l officially go off duty at 9:00 p. m. And if you care to look at your watch, you will note that the long hand is on 12, and the short hand is on 9. lt is 9:00, Master William. And do you know what that means? Masterpiece Theatre is on. Sir, do you require anything further of me? No, Geoffrey. Then l shall retire. Man, he took that hard. l want to talk to you. -About what? -You know. From the minute you came, you've been a one-man wrecking crew trying to tear down what's taken a lot of hard work to build up skewering everything with your flippant shenanigans! Man, l was with you up till ''skewering. '' You know what l'm talking about. You deliberately tried to embarrass me tonight and l don't get it. Your aunt and l went through a lot of trouble to bring you here. -This is the thanks we get? -l ain't asked to come. Everyone's talking about shipping me off, and dressing me up and changing me into something l don't wanna be. Nobody wants to change you. You told me yourself l got to straighten out. ''When in doubt, act as Carlton acts. '' Man, l don't wanna be like Carlton. l'm a joker. l play around. l have fun. Being a joker is what's gotten you into trouble. You may think it's cool to be on the streets when you're 17 but when you're my age, it's a waste. l can't think that far ahead. That's your problem. You can't take anything seriously. Look, man, l don't have the problem. You have the problem. l remind you of where you came from and what you used to be. l don't know, somewhere between Princeton or the office, you got soft. You forgot who you are and where you came from. You think you're so wise. Look at me when l'm talking to you. Let me tell you something, son. l grew up on the streets just like you. l encountered bigotry you could not imagine. Now, you have a nice poster of Malcolm X on your wall. l heard the brother speak. l read every word he wrote. Believe me, l know where l come from. -You actually heard Malcolm speak, man? -That's right. So before you criticize somebody, you find out what he's all about. l'll take care of you in the morning. l'm going to bed. Hold on. l can't tell my side of the story? No, you can't. l know what you're all about. Believe me, the very thought of it makes me very tired. Good night. Ladies and gentlemen, my fly girl, Ashley Banks. -Would you teach me how to dance? -Yeah. Not in here. Even l lose my rhythm in this room. Okay. -Could you do me a favor? -Sure. l seem to be missing a Walkman. So if it shows up anywhere, like, l don't know, on your head, maybe maybe you could get that to me. -Sorry. Dad won't let me get one. -How come? He says he wants to hear everything l'm listening to, to make sure it's not bad. -What record does he think is good? -He really likes the Care Bears. Ash, from time to time, your father's gonna say or do things that may seem irrational or hard for you to understand. lt's not because he's mean, or a bad guy, or that he doesn't care about you. lt's that he's from Mars, Ashley. -l gotta get washed up. -Me, too. -l'm really glad you're living here. -Thanks, Ash. You're like the big brother l never had. What are you talking about? You got. You're right. l see your point. How many bathrooms you got in this place? Four and a half. A half bath? How does that work? lt doesn't have everything a full bathroom has. You better show me a full bathroom. l don't want to take no chances. Next bathroom. Can't a person gargle in peace? Hilary, are you gonna be in there for long or is this just like a pit stop? Stop hounding me. l'm trying to take off my makeup. Now, go away. Okay, good night, Hilary. l knew it! Read more: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-fresh-prince-of-bel-air&episode=s01e01

[firedupreadytogousa-blog]

DAY 7 (1/26) ACTIONS TO MAKE AMERICA, AMERICA AGAIN!

-YESTERDAY, IN TRUMPLAND-

TRUMP DECLARES WAR ON IMMIGRANTS

Trump signed an executive order to ban Immigrants from several middle eastern countries and stop Syrian Refugees from entering into the US. His supporters love this because most of them believe the hype behind this myth that our borders are wide open. The process is actually very thorough and takes up to 2 years before any refugee is able to enter the US, but FOX News or it didn’t happen right? This order also plans to defund any sanctuary cities, hire 5,000 border officers, expand detainment centers, and the end the catch and release policy. For a group of people that are so pro-life, they seem to not GAF about the lives of these women and children. I’m not surprised when you have Senators compare people to buildings… yes you read that right, people are just inanimate objects for them to play with.

Trump also ordered the building of the Wall right before his officials are set to meet with senior Mexican officials. The wall will still cost us $25 Billion dollars to build and Mexico has already said, hell no to paying for it and they aren’t planning to pay us back for it either. What does that even mean, pay us back? Well, apparently Trump wants to take all the money that Mexican immigrants in the US are sending back to their families in Mexico to help fund the $25 Billion wall. Which doesn’t seem like a reliable defense since, you know, tunnels… Just sayin’

Then later in the day, Foreign Mexican officials who were supposed to meet with Chief of Staff Reince Pubis Priebus, Trump’s Son In-Law Jared “My daddy had to pay to get me into Harvard” Kushner, Mike Flynn (NSA), and Steve “is Alt Right” Bannon are reconsidering their visit. They were going to try to convince Trump that blowing up NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) could potentially effect 6 million American Jobs that depend on exports to Mexico. They also were planning to flex by threatening to stop cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking, and discontinue efforts to stop foreign terrorists from using Mexico as a throughway into the US because let’s face it everyone hates us right now. Granted, NAFTA could use some updates (data protection, online-crime, and e-commerce weren’t around in the early 90’s when initially signed). But “NAFTA and Other trade deals [are not what has] gutted American Manufacturing”. Automation and our failure to train people for the evolving job requirements in manufacturing have. Let’s face it, this whole plan isn’t for the people; this is for Profit… because remember the President is still profiting from his businesses.

 Let’s Talk About Climate Change

Trump has ordered the EPA to take down the climate page from their website. Also with everything else that’s going on, the sneaky GOP has officially shut down the investigation into the Flint water crisis. All those people will receive no justice and the problem has not been fixed. 

 ACA/ Housing Developments

House passes a nationwide abortion ban, vote now goes to the Senate! Also, turns out that Global Gag order is not just business as usual as some news reports say. It actually goes much farther with some unprecedented reach

HHS banned from releasing data/facts to the public.Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown to approve Ben Carson to HUD. Yup the same guy who said Obamacare was “the worst thing to happen to America Since Slavery” and that he didn’t want to take this job because he has no experience running a government agency. SMH

 The GOP’s Hypocritical Oath

Looks like the axis of evil has some hypocritical skeletons in their own closets. I mean you would think that if two of the cornerstones of your campaign centered around the misuse of emails (one that led to that investigation to nowhere) and unsubstantiated claims of a rigged voting system, you would want to make sure your hands were clean of such offenses right? WRONG! Egg, meet face.

It has come to light that both Steve Bannon, Steve Mnchin (Treasury Secretary Nominee) and Tiffany Trump are registered to Vote in 2 different states! Also, the republicans beat the democrats in the House and Senate by over 3 million votes, so I’m thinking the GOP really doesn’t want this investigation digging up dirty details. But logic need not apply in this house.

Oh, and BTW Kellyann, Bannon, Kushner, and Spicer are all using private email accounts, while Trump is still communicating on unsecure devices. This is the same private email system that the Bush Administration got caught using (remember the one where they “lost” 22 million emails).  Guarantee that is something you will not see on the FOX News feed. Stay woke people!

 Bills, Bills, Bills & The Crooked GOP

The Senate Voted 51 to 48 to completely dismantle clauses in the ACA they were supposed to keep. And there is still no replacement! Items include: ending coverage for preexisting conditions (this also affects you if you get your insurance through work, like I do), cut funding for Child Health Insurance Program, cut provision allowing children to stay on their parent’s healthcare until the age of 26, remove discrimination from women in healthcare, end contraceptive coverage, defund and repeal the affordable care act. House Vote is on FRIDAY! Better get in touch with your Senators!

Mississippi Gov, Phil Bryant, aka Mike Pence 2.0, signed into law yesterday a bill allowing businesses to refuse service to people in the gay community just by claiming, “God made me do it.” Oh ya, this effects the Trans Community as well.

On a National level, Mr. “I Love The Gays” is now backing this Anti- LGBTQ bill, the First Amendment Defense Act, which essentially is code for “Not Straight, No Service.”

House passes bill to PERMANENTLY outlaw abortion for folks on ACA, Medicare and Medicaid in the case of incest or rape! This was the only form of abortion allowed to be paid for with federal $$$ under the Hyde Amendment. Studies have shown that banning abortion does not decrease the number of abortions, but is does increase the number of maternal deaths. This is truly the party of death!

Keep track of all proposed legislation with the countable app.

-RESISTANCE REPORT-

The Netherlands came to SLAY! In response to Trump’s reinstatement of the global gag order, the Dutch government set up an International Abortion fund. Just as we saw in the Women’s March, the WORLD has got our back and we will need the support for the next 4 years!

Another Victory, the Agriculture Department Lifted the Gag Order out of response to all the “outrage” they received! The Resistance IS working. Continue to be vigilant and speak up!

ProPublica is an outlet that recently came out and is now helping Scientists “leak” data and still stay anonymous. This could prove very valuable as many scientists were frantically saving data before the Trump Dumb. Now it looks like there are alternative venues to house and distribute info to the public, including rogue twitter accounts created by the National Parks Service AltUSNatParksService (@AltNatParkSer), the EPA @UngaggedUSEPA, and NASA @rougeNASA. it’s official! The resistance movement has hit SPACE!

Greenpeace killed it in the resistance game yesterday! These People Scaled a crane and hung a “Resist” banner just blocks away from the White House! You could actually see it in the background as you looked at the Whitehouse! And then these folks chased down Marco Rubio to give him an actual spine in response to his caving on the Tillerson vote.

Some leaky aids in the Whitehouse spilled all the tea on how our resistance is getting under the Child in Chief’s thin skin. It seems like he’s having a hard time adjusting to having a real job.

NYC continues to make me proud! Here is video of the hundreds of people that descended upon Washington Square to STAND up for immigrants and Muslims! Later on Mayor Bill De Blasio, held a press conference to express that NYC would remain a sanctuary city. Mayors from Boston, San Francisco, and other sanctuary cities around the US joined suit. I couldn’t make the protest by donated to the IRC (International Rescue Committee). You can Donate HERE. Philly also Rose Up and protested outside the GOP’s hotel where Trump is supposed to meet with the GOP today! More Protests are scheduled. Info HERE.

-TAKE ACTION-

Demonstration Save the Dates

1/30 (MON) Stop Devos Office Visit at Schumer’s Office, 49th and 3rd 4:15pm! Why? Because even her former college mates think she’s inept! RSVP HERE

1/31 (TUES) What the F@$k Chuck, rally in front of Chuck Schumer’s house to remind him he may be sitting pretty and secure now, but he works for US and we will hold him accountable. #NotOneInch. RSVP to the Event HERE

2/11 (SAT) Anti-Planned Parenthood Protest Support needed. They are targeting the Planned Parenthood on Bleecker, 26 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, from 11pm-1pm. The PP reps do not want counter protesters but instead folks that can volunteer to be escorts for patients. Find if your center is affected and call/ email for more info on how to help.

MY ACTIONS FOR TODAY

1) EMERGENCY ACTION TO STOP DEVOS. VOTE IS 1/31. Calling all NC, SC, ME, TN, AK, GA, UT, LA, KS, and KY friends!! WE NEED 3 SENATORS TO CHANGE THEIR VOTES TO PREVENT DeVos FROM BEING CONFIRMED!!!. Guide to Calling Senators. These are the Senators we need to vote NO. Find Your Elected Officials HERE. If you can’t get to them, try all the numbers listed for their staff as well!

2)  FLOOD Paul Ryan’s office with letters (since he has stopped picking up the phone) and tell him what happened today in the House to remove the provisions of Obamacare and defund it with no replacement is unacceptable. here is his mailing address: 1233 Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515; Fax: (202) 225-3393. Yes, they still use Fax Machines over there.

3)  NYC/ Manhattanites Keep Calling Chuck to demand he stop compromising with Trump. Home Address: 9 Prospect Park, W Brooklyn, NY 11215. Fill his mailbox! Melville Office: 631-753-0978, Dir of NYC Policy and Economic Development: 212-486-7804, or his special assistant: 212-486-5373 (these are the only ones getting through right now)

4)  Call (844)-6-RESIST to tell the House to vote against Jeff Sessions.

5) Follow the @AltNatParkSer, @UngaggedUSEPA, and @rougeNASA to stay woke on Science!

6) Science March on Washington Is in The Works. Join their FB Page Here or follow them on twitter @SciencmarchDC or Reddit to keep up to date or signup to help!