Quakers are inherently grass-roots. It comes from the belief that metaphysical truth is revealed to any and all of us if we but listen. There is that of God in each of us, and, as communities, we are called to speak up when human events conflict with our values. One of the ways we express our collective sensibilities about important matters is to agree on a “minute” recorded at Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business. Here is one such expression of unity and commitment from my Newtown Friends Meeting:
Keeping Track
The very unpopular and much lied about Project 2025 is notching off its “accomplishments” one-by-one as congress allows the executive branch unfettered sway even when the actions are lawless overreach. Here is a website that’s keeping score and citing the sources.
This does not, of course, track items on the more hidden agenda of intended covert consequences that is disabling and eliminating the means to hold anyone accountable. Much of the factual reporting and more candid analysis is showing up in independent media like Substack.
The NY Times has a series titled “The Opinions” and if you are trying to understand the lack of GOP and mainstream media opposition to all of this evil, I recommend you listen to “There’s a reason even smart people surrender to Trump” (below).
There’s a reason …
This thirty-minute interview explores how we are being manipulated into anticipatory compliance contrary to our deeply held values. The GOP fell into line first, and now they are coming for the rest of us.
Look What’s Going Down
Free Press
The administration is attacking the funding of listener-supported non-commercial radio by attacking the long tradition of acknowledging funding provided by businesses. The intent is to put a chill on non-promotional sponsorship announcements. You have heard them; they tell you the name of the business and something about what they do, but there is no call to action or promotional claims. Attacking stations and networks like PBS, NPR, and WHYY has only one purpose: to suppress news and opinions that don’t conform to the alternative facts of the administration’s propaganda machine.
In parallel with this, high journalistic quality news media are being replaced with low quality sources that spread conspiracy theories and the administration’s deceptions.
Will they seek to suppress or disrupt internet communications? Access to the Internet is in the hands of the FCC, now led by a GOP loyalist.
Justice
The purging of the FBI, and the Justice Department of those deemed not loyal to the President is clearly a move intended to tip the scales of justice to serve #47 instead of the people.
Separation of Powers
The Supreme Court has been made partisan; Congress fails in its role of advice and consent by approving nominees whose character, inexperience, and partisan loyalty make them obviously unsuited for elevation to powerful and critical office.
Law
The President is immune from prosecution. If they do his bidding, his cronies are all but assured of pardons. The Inspectors General, our watchdogs, have been dismissed. Agency leadership that follows the law, in defiance of #47 gets furloughed.
It’s already tyranny!
The behavior of Putin’s legislators, no dissent unless #47 gives it the nod, is what we are seeing in the GOP Senate and House.
Read what Timothy Snyder says about all of this. It’s expert opinion, not media hysterics.
Why it’s a Coup
“The ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights.” So says Timothy Snyder, esteemed author of On Tyranny and Freedom.
Snyder has spent his life studying how freedom is won and lost. Dismiss him at your peril.
Read more on Substack: Timothy Snyder
On Heroism
” … heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.
“It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day’s failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.
“It means writing in your diary that you “still believe that people are really good at heart,” even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did.
“It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did.
“It means defending your people’s right to practice a religion you don’t share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did.
“Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did.
“None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It’s just that when they had to, they did what was right.” ~ Heather Cox Richardson 1/19/25
My granddaughter attends a Catholic parochial school in Key West. She sent us one of her lessons, which we keep on our refrigerator door. It enumerates “the fruit of God’s spirit.”
These are the qualities of true heroes, are the not? Ordinary decency coupled with a willingness to serve the greater good mark the kind of heroism that Richardson describes.
Have you ever heard of acts that manifest these qualities by the man who is being inaugurated as President of the United States this week? Even one?
Break’s Over, Resist!
After a stunning electoral loss like this, there’s a natural impulse to shut off the news, log off social media and withdraw from public life. I’ve seen this with friends in Turkey and Hungary with opposition supporters retreating in disillusionment after Erdogan’s or Orbam’s victories. Understandably, people want to turn inwards.
Dancing, travel, meditation, book clubs — it’s all fine. But eventually, in Poland, Hungary and Turkey, opponents of autocracy have returned to the fight, driven by a belief in the possibility of change. So will Americans.
Asli Aydintasbas – Article from Politico via Robert Reich.
Stacey Abrams has some specific suggestions:
Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams | Crooked Media
A weekly podcast from All-American polymath Stacey Abrams focused on connecting the people and pieces in order to make our union a little more perfect.
If you have discovered action-oriented political commentary, share it as a comment.
Be a Prepper
No, I don’t mean one of those who make a hobby of preparing for the collapse of civilization by digging a bunker and learning to make fire by rubbing sticks together. The next four years will be chaotic, and we expect the excesses of the GOP to be exceeded only by the excesses of the extreme right that terrorizes them.
There are some actions to take to protect yourself socially, psychologically, and politically. I’ve mentioned On Tyranny. Marguerite has shared the link to his series of videos which present his wisdom in his own voice. She also offers a link that has advice for remaining grounded in the face of actions intended to put us off balance.
Here’s the link for a video series created by Timothy Snyder about On Tyranny:
Here’s the link for an article in Convergence Magazine on how to prepare ourselves for what’s coming:
Flood the Zone
Since the election, I have greatly reduced the time I spend on the media. I rationalize my indifference to political news in various ways, but the effect is to disengage. Advertising-funded media are cowering at the threat of losing subscribers or ratings. They pull their punches or give too much airtime to political theater. I have retreated to reading a few blogs that I have found to be credible: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, and Talking Points Memo (TPM).
But I know that I am succumbing to Steve Bannon’s “Flood the Zone With Shit” strategy. If you don’t know what that is and how it affects you, read on. What follows is a ChatGPT generated briefing. Feel free to share it widely.
Lest We Forget
America has produced some great leaders, people who called forth the greatness of our aspirations even when circumstances were grim. So it was in 1863.
Who will rise to speak great words of resolve and hope today?
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