Shit's bad

Friends, I’m not really sure what to say. In short, America is in extremely deep trouble. Uninformed and misinformed citizens are marching willingly with leaders -who at best have been brainwashed and hoodwinked but who are, more likely, fully cognizant of what they’re doing in the name of personal gain and power- into the maw of authoritarianism.

Since the GOP acquitted trump, he has:

• disinvited Mitt Romney to CPAC, and the conference’s organizer stated that ‘the Utah Republican’s vote for more witnesses and documents in President Trump’s impeachment trial would make him unsafe at the event.’ “This year, I’d actually be afraid for his physical safety, people are so mad at him,” American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp said in an interview Saturday on “Full Court Press” with Greta Van Susteren;

• recalled Gordon Sondland (who really cares, but still) for not-enough fealty;

• fired Lt Colonel Vindman AND his twin brother from the NSC and had them escorted out of duty by security officers as if they were criminals;

• worked with AG Barr to interfere in the federal sentencing of Roger Stone, a move so unprecedented, wrong, and offensive to the justice system that all four federal prosecutors resigned from the case and one from his job entirely;

• urged government prosecutors to indefinitely delay Michael Flynn’s sentencing and the judge agreed;

• told Barr/approved of Barr’s decision to create “an ‘intake process in the field’ that could vet information coming from Giuliani, as well as ‘all information that comes to the department relating to the Ukraine.’ This would allow the information to “be carefully scrutinized by the department and its intelligence community partners so that we could assess its provenance and its credibility.” The justice department is NOT supposed to serve as a secretive informational pipeline between the White House and shady, off-book, rogue actors like trump’s “personal attorney,” Rudy Giuliani.

• withdrawn the nomination of Elaine McCusker, a Defense Department official who was to become the chief financial officer of the Pentagon, because she had raised objections to his withholding aid to Ukraine;

• suggested that warmer weather in April will “miraculously” end the coronavirus epidemic.

and on and on.

This is all seriously bad and seriously dangerous. I hope you are doing everything you can to encourage a blue tsunami in November. Everything depends on it, and I am not being dramatic or hyperbolic in the least.

Please call your representatives and demand that Barr be called to testify before House Judiciary MUCH sooner than March 31.

At least Parasite won Best Picture and Bong Joon Ho won Best Director. Sigh.

#SwarmTheCapitol :: what a day

A non-political and also comedic post is coming tomorrow, but for now, sit with me in the shaky, dispirited place I’ve been since K and I left the Capitol around 2.

K, aka Thursday walking friend, and I signed on for today’s day of action as soon as we heard about it late last week. It was a Herculean organizing effort in just a few days with people from all over coming in to make our voices heard, and she and I wanted to add ours. My longtime resister pal, Julie, signed on too, as did another friend, Marne. K and I met up at 9:30a and headed to an Episcopal church in Northeast DC for the pre-protest training.

There were tons of people of all stripes there, the organizers and musicians were inspiring, tables were laden with shirts, pins, stickers and more, all of which everyone was welcome to, for a donation or not, the spirit of inclusion and purpose was pervasive. We sat on the floor behind an older man with hearing aids, an elderly woman with stickers on her cheeks, and an inspired woman wearing so much flair that the manager of Chotchkie's would have hired and promoted her on the spot. We papered ourselves with stickers. Reverend Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign prepared in the room next to ours.

I completed a form that would allow the organizers to track and support me were I arrested, and K agreed to be my contact and pick the boys up if need be. Marne found and plopped on the floor next to us. She has a tiny baby at home and came out for a few hours to do what we should all be doing. It was really good to see her. The organizers introduced the marshal's and outlined the plan of action: we’d go to the Hart Senate Building atrium for a silent protest and then head to the steps of the Capitol. Julie said she’d meet us at Hart.

Around 11:30, we headed out of the beautiful church. We were many. We chanted, hugged, smiled, power-fisted. We didn’t verbalize it openly, but we all felt a sense of hope and determination: how can people who say they want a fair trial NOT want to hear from witnesses? Witnesses and documentary evidence. Aren’t we told, as citizens when we sit on jury duty, to impartially listen to both sides, taking into account all witnesses and evidence? Of course we are. So why shouldn’t Congress?

Our path took us past the Supreme Court: Justice the Guardian of Liberty. We waited patiently in the security line at Hart. We quietly applauded the number of civil disobedients there. We took stock of the number of police folks, both Capitol and DCPD. We know the rules. We respect them.

we never could figure out why we were smiling. conditioning? enjoyable to do something so meaningful together?

And yet the increasing numbers of enforcement officers felt intentionally threatening. The Silent Swarm, everyone meandering around the atrium like silent dust motes on various currents, is the way you can “protest” in the Senate. And so we did. The police presence grew, Julie waited nearly 20 minutes to get through security, and finally we were told that once we passed the seemingly arbitrary police line, we couldn’t go back. To the Capitol we went.

It was a glorious day here. Blue skies, dramatic clouds. It was cold. A pro-democracy org handed out hats; K and I each took one and were grateful. Marne left, Julie walked with us, we saw another resister friend along the way. We met a woman using a walker who’d taken a 1am flight into DC. Young people with bullhorns, older people with canes. Moms with strollers, people who looked rigid with anger and heartbreak. I felt bits of all of them. I tucked a snack bag of almonds into Julie’s pocket and gave the woman with a walker a small packet of Kleenex.

As we walked up to the Capitol, straight on, I felt I was approaching the reaping in The Hunger Games: determined, worried, enraged citizens maintaining equilibrium and decorum while marching up to a giant white marble edifice guarded by vested, armed officers who seemed pissed before we arrived. We lowered our signs, our voices, our fists. We have the right to assemble and the right to express ourselves. But past a certain line, on federal property that we pay for and to which we send elected officials, our rights become fuzzy, obscured in a vortex of permitting, mood, private and public space, and the people behind the window treatments.

It’s not a good feeling. That feeling didn’t improve as we were pushed off of and back from the stairs and then back, back, back towards the Supreme Court by a thick line of police. It didn’t improve as those who remained on the Capitol stairs were arrested one-by-one and handcuffed with zip ties. It didn’t improve as the final protester, a person in a wheelchair, was pushed away toward the paddy wagon (even though we cheered wildly for their courage). It didn’t improve as we checked in on Twitter to hear of the bullshit arguments against every law-breaking activity perpetrated by trump being made by his shill cavalry of sell-out “lawyers.” Does no one care about oath? Rules? Right?

just before the arrest

that’s me, fist raised

It never improved. Is it democracy when a peaceful protester’s Demand Democracy sign is ripped from his hands as he’s walked away and arrested? As another protester is dragged down the stairs, mouth covered?

This evening, I held my boys tight, helped with homework, played with the cats, served dinner. Keep calling, acting, defending, fighting. She’s worth it.

#SwarmTheCapitol Day of Action :: 1/29/20

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan 29, #SwarmTheSenate, the Center for Popular Democracy, the Poor People’s Campaign (led by Reverend William Barber), Women’s March, MoveOn, Remove 45, and many more are co-hosting a day of action. Running from 10am-4pm (with volunteer marshal training at 9), the post-training action will commence in the Hart Senate Building Atrium at noon. At 1pm, we will move on to the Capitol.

All protests will be peaceful acts of civil disobedience, but we will make our demand for a fair impeachment trial clearly known. You can find more detailed information and register here.

In the meantime, please continue to call your and other senators asking that they call witnesses like John Bolton, add the incredible amount of new evidence to the overall case for impeachment and removal, and conduct a fair trial befitting our country and their oaths of office.