The People's March for Climate, Jobs and Justice was by all accounts a huge success in spite of snowfall in Denver, pouring rain elsewhere and record sweltering heat in Washington DC. (Click here to see videos of the DC march. Also, watch this People's Climate Movement video.) Did you attend a local event? Please send us your photos and your stories to the blog to share with other activists at thebernieblog2016@gmail.com. Here's a few stories shared by activists from around the country:
Marylis Saltzmann marched in Port Jervis, the other side of NY State, on the Delaware.
From Robyn Richards: I went here in Albuquerque. We had a rally in the heart of the city, marched around several blocks, then got a Native American blessing and some tribal dances right by the side of Central Ave (Route 66!). I brought my first voter registrar kit and sign, but most every person I asked was already registered or at least said so. Also, it was snowing and raining, after being in the 80s just last week. How about that climate, folks?!
Let's encourage more folks to speak out and take a stand for our country and our world. After all, there is no planet B, and we don't want to wind up in the same scenario as described below.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying about the Climate, Jobs and Justice and Love the Bombing
by C. A. Matthews
by C. A. Matthews
It's hard to know if the US is regressing toward a racist pre-WW II
isolationist era or we're heading to perfecting a mid-Cold War hysteria lately with the rhetoric coming out of Washington. Establishment party members blame Mr. Putin for somehow forcing Democratic Party officials to write inflammatory emails
showing how they rigged the primaries against Bernie Sanders. It seems anything and anyone is fair game to be made into a scapegoat so the DNC's own incompetence and
corruption are hidden.
The same goes for the other establishment corporatist faction--they blame Paul Ryan, criminal immigrants or welfare queens for whatever ills our society. When caught out in an outright lie or embarrassing situation, establishment politicos click their heels three times and shout, "Russia, Russia, Russia!"and the bought-off mainstream media pundits repeat the scapegoating propaganda until they're blue in the face
The surreality in our world is growing, and what better way to deal with something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever than to compare it to something similar which does make sense, such as the classic movie Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Spoiler Alert: This 1964 Stanley Kubrick film does not have a "happy ending" as such, but it is hysterically funny throughout. Worth watching if you haven't seen it several dozen times and memorized the best lines already. Read the book if you have for a fresh take.
Once you're immersed in the world of Bat Guano, Colonel Kong and Dr.
Strangelove the current Trump administration and its tactics makes absolute…
No, I take that back. They don't really make sense when compared to their fictional counterparts. I'm grasping for straws here, but the wind has already blown them out of my hands. Sorry. Let me start again.
The Trump administration's actions prove they doesn't care about destroying our climate and environment as long as they and their rich donors make billions in profit. (Read more about how they're dismantling the EPA so the public can't learn about climate change and science.) This means we have to continue marching and speaking out on this issue. They don't care about working Americans or the elderly without health care, a $15 minimum living wage, ending the school-to-private-for-profit-prison pipeline or protecting the refugees whose homelands we've just bombed back to the Stone Age. To put it simply, Trump and his disciples love themselves to the exclusion of all others, which makes several online memes where "Donny Tiny-Hands" is compared to Jesus even more disgusting and beyond ludicrous.
Some days you wish Dr. Strangelove and company were real people. At least the president in the movie cares about nuclear annihilation and what will happen to humanity. Sort of. He and the other leaders do as long as young, beautiful, nubile women (the rich,white old farts can easily grab) are involved.
Now, why does that grabbing bit sound eerily familiar?
Fortunately for us, there are others with integrity and sanity who can help us see our way out of this surreal mess. Listen to one such voice of sanity and morality:
Now is the time to buckle down and get serious about taking our country back from those who wish to do it (and really all of us) harm. Whether it's a march, a rally or a friendly visit to your elected representatives' local offices to speak to them on the issues important to you, do something this week. (Follow the example of these Nebraskans this past week protesting against the Keystone XL pipeline.) Stand up and be counted. Stand united and cry with one voice, "Our planet and our people are worth more than corporations' endless profiteering! Corporations are not people!"
There's no promise the surreal circus emceed by the Cheeto-in-Chief will
end any time soon, but at least we can slow the merry-go-round down some and
prevent Donny Tiny-Hands from riding a nuclear missile, like Slim Pickens doing
his bronco buster impersonation in Dr. Strangelove. It would be
beneath all our dignity if he did.
It's up to We the People to restore our nation's sense of morality and justice for all. It's up to us to protect our climate and our world from further degradation for profit by a handful of billionaires. Encourage one another and build up the movement to take back our civil liberties. We don't need tangerine tyrants to mislead us under the guise of leadership. We can lead ourselves. Power to the people.
From The Guardian:
The surreality in our world is growing, and what better way to deal with something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever than to compare it to something similar which does make sense, such as the classic movie Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Spoiler Alert: This 1964 Stanley Kubrick film does not have a "happy ending" as such, but it is hysterically funny throughout. Worth watching if you haven't seen it several dozen times and memorized the best lines already. Read the book if you have for a fresh take.
No, I take that back. They don't really make sense when compared to their fictional counterparts. I'm grasping for straws here, but the wind has already blown them out of my hands. Sorry. Let me start again.
The Trump administration's actions prove they doesn't care about destroying our climate and environment as long as they and their rich donors make billions in profit. (Read more about how they're dismantling the EPA so the public can't learn about climate change and science.) This means we have to continue marching and speaking out on this issue. They don't care about working Americans or the elderly without health care, a $15 minimum living wage, ending the school-to-private-for-profit-prison pipeline or protecting the refugees whose homelands we've just bombed back to the Stone Age. To put it simply, Trump and his disciples love themselves to the exclusion of all others, which makes several online memes where "Donny Tiny-Hands" is compared to Jesus even more disgusting and beyond ludicrous.
Some days you wish Dr. Strangelove and company were real people. At least the president in the movie cares about nuclear annihilation and what will happen to humanity. Sort of. He and the other leaders do as long as young, beautiful, nubile women (the rich,white old farts can easily grab) are involved.
Now, why does that grabbing bit sound eerily familiar?
Fortunately for us, there are others with integrity and sanity who can help us see our way out of this surreal mess. Listen to one such voice of sanity and morality:
Now is the time to buckle down and get serious about taking our country back from those who wish to do it (and really all of us) harm. Whether it's a march, a rally or a friendly visit to your elected representatives' local offices to speak to them on the issues important to you, do something this week. (Follow the example of these Nebraskans this past week protesting against the Keystone XL pipeline.) Stand up and be counted. Stand united and cry with one voice, "Our planet and our people are worth more than corporations' endless profiteering! Corporations are not people!"
There's no promise the surreal circus emceed by the Cheeto-in-Chief will
end any time soon, but at least we can slow the merry-go-round down some and
prevent Donny Tiny-Hands from riding a nuclear missile, like Slim Pickens doing
his bronco buster impersonation in Dr. Strangelove. It would be
beneath all our dignity if he did. It's up to We the People to restore our nation's sense of morality and justice for all. It's up to us to protect our climate and our world from further degradation for profit by a handful of billionaires. Encourage one another and build up the movement to take back our civil liberties. We don't need tangerine tyrants to mislead us under the guise of leadership. We can lead ourselves. Power to the people.
***
Bernie Sanders had this to say about climate change and Big Oil:
"Most Americans know that Congress is way out of touch with where the American people are. The Koch brothers and the fossil fuels industry are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign contributions to keep it that way. Too many members of Congress now worry more about the interests of the oil, gas, and coal companies than the interests of their constituents and the well being of the planet.
"The only way we will defeat organized money is to organize through people power. We must stand up and demand that Congress put people over the profits of the fossil fuel industry. That’s why the People’s Climate March in Washington, DC and all over the world on Saturday is so enormously important.
"When millions of people in every country in the world demand that their government work to transition our energy systems away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy, we will win. That’s what today is about, and that’s what tomorrow must be about. We must keep up the fight for our children and future generations to come."
***
Found on Facebook and worth sharing widely this week:
Under Trumpcare 2.0, which Trump's Republican administration is working this week to make law, nine out of these ten people will lose their coverage and one won't. Guess which one won't:
1. a diabetic
2. a cancer survivor
3. an asthmatic
4. someone with allergies
5. a heart disease patient
6. an HIV/AIDS patient
7. someone with chronic lung disease
8. someone with Cystic Fibrosis
9. someone with Multiple Sclerosis
10. any member of Congress
Please copy and paste to share, or only mutual friends will see this.
(Read this article and discover how much a private health insurance company will charge someone who has or has had cancer.)
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
Thomas Carper (D-Del.)
Bob Casey (D-Pa.)
Chris Coons (D-Del.)
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)
Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)
Tammy Duckworth (D-Il.)
Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)
Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.)
Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Gary Peters (D-Mich.)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)
Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
Tom Udall (D-N.M.)
Mark Warner (D-Va.)
***
And now a poem expressing how many feel about the Trump administration.
A Rebuke to the Current Administration
A poem by Eddie Alvarado
January 20th, 2017, a man who fought the oppressed captured the nation
A man who said the gays should be prayed away to appease creation
A man who is bribed to poison the air of our nation
A man who portrays us as cowards in the world’s greatest nation.
The twitter fingers became trigger fingers
The trigger fingers became the death of us all
The blind men who were conned on the national mall.
The billionaire he chose wants to indoctrinate us all.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all oppressors are created equal
And when we met Mr. President, the radical right joined the sequel.
They said the swamp will leave the nation
But now the swamp is taking the nation
Lady Liberty is watching the White House collapse
The abused nation is now dealing with relapse
January 20th, 2017, a man who fought the oppressed captured the nation
A man who said the gays should be prayed away to appease creation
A man who is bribed to poison the air of our nation
A man who portrays us as cowards in the world’s greatest nation.
The twitter fingers became trigger fingers
The trigger fingers became the death of us all
The blind men who were conned on the national mall.
The billionaire he chose wants to indoctrinate us all.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all oppressors are created equal
And when we met Mr. President, the radical right joined the sequel.
They said the swamp will leave the nation
But now the swamp is taking the nation
Lady Liberty is watching the White House collapse
The abused nation is now dealing with relapse
Bio: Eddie works hard for the political revolution in New Jersey.Some closing thoughts to keep in mind this week:
