#presidential centers

[deadpresidents]

A Statement from 13 Presidential Centers: The unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, are principles that bind us together as Americans. They have enabled the United States to strive toward a more perfect union, even when we have not always lived up to those ideals. As a diverse nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, democracy holds us together. We are a country rooted in the rule of law, where the protection of the rights of all people is paramount. At the same time, we live among our fellow citizens, underscoring the importance of compassion, tolerance, pluralism, and respect for others. We, the undersigned, represent a wide range of views across a breadth of issues. We recognize that these views can exist peaceably side by side when rooted in the principles of democracy. Debate and disagreement are central features in a healthy democracy. Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or otherwise, are essential. Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and respect for human rights around the world because free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home. But that interest is undermined when others see our own house in disarray. The world will not wait for us to address our problems, so we must both continue to strive toward a more perfect union and help those abroad looking for U.S. leadership. Each of us has a role to play and responsibilities to uphold. Our elected officials must lead by example and govern effectively in ways that deliver for the American people. This, in turn, will help to restore trust in public service. The rest of us must engage in civil dialogue; respect democratic institutions and rights; uphold safe, secure, and accessible elections; and contribute to local, state, or national improvement. By signing this statement, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of democracy undergirding this great nation, protecting our freedom, and respecting our fellow citizens. When united by these convictions, America is stronger as a country and an inspiration for others. Obama Foundation George W. Bush Presidential Center Clinton Foundation George & Barbara Bush Foundation The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute The Carter Center Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Richard Nixon Foundation LBJ Foundation John F. Kennedy Library Foundation Truman Library Institute Roosevelt Institute Hoover Presidential Foundation

[noctomania]

Presidential centers from Hoover to Bush and Obama unite to warn of fragile state of US democracy

The statement released Thursday, the first time the libraries have joined to make such a public declaration, said Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and human rights around the world because “free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home.”

[marvelsmostwanted]

Far from the only person to point this out, but the advance team outdid themselves on this one

[Source]

[goldkirk]

okay, wow, I’m not publishing that ask, anon.

I need you to understand that online activism only reaches people who are also online.

And it only reaches people who, in our current algorithm-based internet, are actually shown that content.

When you do online activism that’s not something concrete like a petition, you’re spreading information and awareness. That’s super important.

But it’s also like, step one of twelve, and unfortunately it’s where most of us just stop. We share information and news and share guilt tripping posts and we say things should be different and we tell other people that things are terrible and we carry on and most of it makes no real-world difference at all.

I don’t know how to tell you that you have got to do local, real life activism if you want to make any change.

You have got to pay attention to your school boards and judges.

You have got to campaign for local candidates.

You have to encourage locals to run for office, or run for office yourself.

You have to volunteer your time and energy for real local causes and groups.

You have to get acquainted with your local news sources so you know who to reach out to when word needs to be spread about something important.

You have to call and contact and petition your local officials, you need to put up flyers where your actual community will see, you need to get aquatinted with local resources so you know where to direct people who need them.

You have to actually do activism irl. That is how you make change happen.

Any time you spend arguing with online users about activism and not doing enough could be spent actually making a difference in your literal real life community, or helping the people who do.

[clonerightsagenda]

Growing up my brother had a medical model of a skull that glowed spookily in the dark so he wrapped it up in brown fabric like mummy wrappings (which made it much scarier). I rehomed it when he was cleaning out his room because it was a vital part of our childhood but uh. I can't find it. Where did it go

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Madeline Peltz and John Knefel at MMFA:

Media Matters found significant ties between authors, contributors, and partner organizations involved in Project 2025 — an extreme right-wing initiative organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration — and the ongoing right-wing efforts to disenfranchise voters and sow confusion about the 2024 election. The Heritage Foundation itself is at the center of many of these efforts; The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer identified the conservative think tank as one of the election denial movement’s “leaders” following the 2020 election. Heritage has extensive connections to election denial groups through both direct collaboration on voter suppression policies and the Project 2025 advisory board, which includes more than 110 conservative groups.  According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “Project 2025 threatens to reverse progress made over the last four years by stripping crucial federal resources from election officials and weaponizing the Department of Justice against officials who make decisions the administration disagrees with.” The Project 2025 policy book, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, recommends dismantling the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which plays a key role in protecting American elections. Mandate’s chapter on the Federal Election Commission was written by Hans von Spakovsky, a Heritage legal fellow with a decades-long career spreading voter fraud myths. The Heritage Foundation’s political arm, Heritage Action, is a member of the Only Citizens Vote Coalition — a collection of election denial activists and right-wing groups that voting rights experts say are spreading misinformation about noncitizen voting. Only Citizens Vote was organized by prominent election denier Cleta Mitchell, a Project 2025 contributor, and many of the Heritage plan’s advisory board members are also Only Citizen Vote Coalition partners. In collaboration with The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, the groups and individuals listed here are at the forefront of efforts to sow chaos and confusion in the 2024 election.

Project 2025 partner groups are seeking a redux of their unsuccessful 2020 election-stealing efforts to sow chaos about a potential Kamala Harris win with their bogus crusade against the essentially nonexistent bogeyman of noncitizen voting.

PDF:

[thottietohottie]

I’m sorry but framing Roe v Wade as you giving it back to states when you fucking KNEW that those states that supported you the most wanted to overturn and strike down Roe v Wade and take away the right to abortion and take away bodily autonomy of numerous citizens. I hate when Trump does that thing where he acts like he is giving Americans choice to be liberal when he is in fact stoking the flames of right wing conservative thought to become reality. Stop being a funky ass liar.

[jacks-weird-world]

Jack at the white house poses next to the portrait of George Washington, first president of the United States of America.

[killrisma]

Feel upset by the election results and want to donate to a rural LGBTQ+ Resource Center? Well you’re in luck because I happen to know just the one!

[fictionadventurer]

Interesting thing about Lincoln.

As a person and a politician, he was defined by his way with words. He was a lawyer, which involves speaking in courtrooms and appealing to audiences. He rose to national prominence because of how well he did in a series of public debates. He wrote speeches that have lasted through the ages because of their concise yet vivid phrasing.

He understood the world through the lens of storytelling. He had anecdotes for every situation, and constantly used them to provide metaphors explaining his stances or his strategy or his view of an issue.

As president during a Civil War, a huge part of his job was crafting the narrative explaining what they were fighting for. The Gettysburg Address reframed the national narrative so the founding moment of the country wasn't the ratification of the Constitution--as the South claimed--but the Declaration of Independence that listed the ideals that all the states should be held to. Of course, the South was doing the same thing, so that the conflict was not only a battle of muskets and cannons--it was a war of stories.

And he was killed by an actor.

In a theater.

He was struck down by an opposing storyteller in a palace of artifice. An actress made a point of cradling his dying head in her lap so she could have a part in the drama. He lived by stories and died as the center of one, in a place made for telling such stories.

It's poetic and tragic and so shockingly fitting that the war of stories claimed him as its central victim.

[deadpresidents]

"Everyone was calling everyone. I was honored to call one of the family members of the 9/11 victims; I called the House Homeland Security Committee and [Secretary of Homeland Security] Janet Napolitano. While I was in the Situation Room, I overheard one of the White House operations, saying [on the phone], 'Oh, I'm so sorry -- I didn't know you didn't work for President Clinton anymore. Do you know where I can reach him?' President Obama was calling his predecessors, George W. Bush and President Clinton. The operator is trying to find President Clinton. I looked at him and I said, 'Hold on one minute.' And I stepped back into the main room, [Secretary of State] Hillary [Clinton] was there, and I said, 'Madam Secretary, I'm really sorry to bother you, but do you have your husband's phone number?'

-- Mike Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, on the immediate aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. President Obama was trying to get in touch with his immediate predecessors to notify them about the successful special forces operation and bin Laden's death, but there was some trouble finding contact information for former President Bill Clinton until Leiter realized he could simply ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the former President's phone number.

[thingstrumperssay]

If you're in Houston right now, I'd leave, period.

Apparently this is all the detail that's public on the gas leak:

The same thing happened in my home town. The radius widened within minutes which is why I'm suggesting you leave Houston for a few hours if you can.

The gas leak in my home town resulted in an explosion that killed one person. That's when the radius widened a lot.

My brother witnessed it. He was about a half a mile away and he was in his truck, which lifted off the ground by "what felt like an inch." He'd probably be seriously injured if he wasn't in that truck.

I'm going to be tagging this with tourist attractions in Houston to make sure that as many people as possible sees this.

[pomegranatepatriot]

Robert Kennedy Jr. Official 2024 Independent Presidential Campaign announcement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the National Constitution Center.

October 9, 2023

I had the honor to witness this historical announcement + meet the man himself, RFK Jr.! A day I’m forever grateful for & a day I’ll never forget.

Video on my YouTube:

[rabbitcruiser]

The Presidential Proclamation 2537 which required that Americans from Germany, Italy or Japan must register with the Department of Defense, was issued on January 14, 1942. Proclamation No. 2537 permitted the arrest, detention and internment of enemy aliens who violated restricted areas, such as ports, water treatment plants or even areas prone to brush fires, for the duration of the war. Roosevelt reluctantly signed Executive Order 9066, which sent many Japanese-American families into internment camps, on February 19, 1942.

Source

[casuallyodd]

I'm seeing a lot of the standard left fighting if the Democrats went too far left or to the center.

Honestly, I have no idea and I don't think anyone else really does...yet. Yeah, we can all point to articles and votes that prove our point, but this early on, I don't think there has really been enough investigation with *evidence* that either is correct.

I think we *can* say a few things

- the general public is more ignorant than you realize

There was a documented spike in Google searches for "Did Biden Drop out?" "Can I change my vote?" "how do tariffs work?"

People were blaming Biden for Roe being overturned (not understanding the role of the Supreme Court)

1/3 of Americans believe Trump’s big lie about 2020 election

Blaming Democrats alone for inflation (instead of actions by both parties)

- some people really do want the hate Trump is selling