Are you going to work Monday/1?
In a lot of the world, International Workers Day is a holiday, but not in the US. This year, it’s going to be a big day of protest, including a call for a general strike.
It’s also another Day Without Immigrants event.
There’s a lot more going on, for people who can get away for a while and help make a statement.
It starts at 8am, with what I expect will be a large, loud protest outside the SF headquarters of the Immigration Control and Enforcement office at 630 Sansome. An hour later, the ILWU holds a rally at 400 North Point.
Then everyone will meet at Justin Herman Plaza on the Embarcadero, for a march to Civic Center. The rallies and protests will go on all day.
According to Buzzfeed, both Google and Facebook have said, in essence, that employees can take the day off with no consequences. So I wonder if there will be a suspension in the Google Buses so the drivers can also protest.
This is part of a national movement to turn this International Workers Day into a massive repudiation of the Trump Administration.
When George W. Bush launched the Iraq War, which became one of the longest, most pointless wars in US history (and we are still paying for it today), the streets of San Francisco, and the world, were full. I was there; the entire city shut down. It was, worldwide, the largest protest in history.
Today, we don’t have a single moment like that to spark mass protests; the entire Trump presidency has been a series of catastrophes, and it’s hard to put them all into one box, one event that captures the intersection of all the things that are wrong with the worst presidency of my life (and I was alive through Nixon and Reagan).
That’s part of our problem: We want to protest so many things, so many days, so many issues, that protest fatigue can set in. There have been so many marches – including a big national rally demanding that Trump produce his tax returns, which is a fine idea but is nowhere near as important as stopping his current tax plan that will give away trillions not just to him but to the 1 percent all over the land.
Everything in Washington is wrong. It’s so bad that even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is basically a Republican who happened to register D because she lives in San Francisco, is starting to look good.
But there can be no going back. I don’t know what the strategic answer is; I’m not an organizer. But I think it’s pretty clear that the resistance continues to grow (and when a whole bunch of middle-class people who voted for Trump realize he is going to raise their taxes, it will grow even more).
See you in the streets.
Agreed.
To clarify: Tolerance isn’t an absolute. Tolerance is a principle that is derived from the values of humanism and egalitarianism. Tolerance doesn’t imply/require an acceptance of any and all behaviors.
Nobody is claiming Brace is a jihadist.
I’d like to be clear – are you telling me there is an absolute “principle of tolerance?”
You previously supported a call to arms for “global justice,” and now you’re giving me this drivel about fundamental values and egalitarianism after citing an imaginary conversation.
You seem to be implying that PPG was fighting with the jihadists, which isn’t the case. He was embedded with the Kurdish resistance in Rojava, who are basically secular leftists trying to establish a socialist state in their ancestral lands. ISIS are the main people they’re fighting. You can argue the merits of traveling to a foreign country to fight for communism (it seems pretty insane to me) but its more than a little disingenuous to compare it to jihadism.
Its not dangerous because it’s unnecessary to elaborate on justice in this instance. The stated goals of “jihadists” isn’t justice, its in the same vein as Trump’s reactionary nationalism “Make Islam Great Again”. Again, just because someone states they are seeking justice that isn’t a blanket pass for whatever else they do. You want to confuse tolerance of diverse opinion with absolute acceptance of any opinion and thus make it seem “dangerous”.
Conservatives often try to “trap” liberals with the bogus argument (paraphrased) “You claim tolerance is your lived ideal but refuse to tolerate my hate speech. So that makes you a hypocrite.” That BS. The argument is bogus because it denies that the principle of tolerance isn’t a absolute, its based on fundamental values of humanism and egalitarianism.
My point is that your take is dangerous. There are no scientific equations for philosophical questions, and jihadist certainly think they are pursuing justice. Do you want to tell me what justice is, truly?
Trump is a prevaricator and I’ve pulled zero of my philosophical or ethical beliefs from his playbook.
You’re simply taking a page from Trump’s book. We can have different opinions but not different facts. Saying a lie is true doesn’t make it so. Waging a “holy war” for the purpose of expunging non-believers isn’t pursuit of justice, no matter how it is framed or what rationalization is presented.
Ah, but he followed his principles and sacrificed his securities for what he thought would serve a greater global justice. Your rhetoric is nebulous and any jihadist would think they fit the “example” perfectly.
He’s hardly an example of principled sacrifice for global justice.
Thanks, you’re correct. I knew the right numbers but confused them with a different statistic. 80/20 is the Pareto Principle.
Your point is correct but your numbers are all wrong. The US is about 5% of the world population and consumes about 25% of the world energy.
I know a guy from town who just up and went to fight in Syria last year. I can’t say I share his view on revolution, but I still give him the nod on this one. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/brace-belden-pisspiggranddad-syria-isis.html
Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. would not agree. There is no place for sabotage and armed insurrection in resisting our own government, and boycotts and strikes are not warfare.
According to JP Morgan the Trump tax proposal will be “virtually impossible” to get through Congress. Different political analysts may give it different odds, but the general consensus among reliable and unbiased sources is that it won’t happen.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-26/jpmorgan-trumps-tax-plan-will-be-virtually-impossible-pass-through-congress.
Plus Congress passed a budget resolution yesterday with absolutely no allowance for even a single brick for a US Mexican border wall.
The bad news is that the Trump Slump has appeared, and it only took a couple of months for an economic downturn. GDP growth slumped to .7% in the first quarter of 2017 down from 2.1% in the last quarter of 2016. Its not hard to understand why. Business and corporate leaders who make decisions about capital expenditures are holding off on plans for future expansion.
Not only does Google & FB bring them in their a/c’d Google buses but also picks them up….and transports them back to work after a time. They also are “able” to go at a certain time to be picked up by the buses then picked back up by the buses to work. That is some “day off for protesting” lol
So many things to protest so little time!
I don’t think Tim realizes that when Google & Facebook “allow” their workers to protest, they bring them in the google buses to the protests…..lol.
Yes, but then no one really wants to personally sacrifice much simply for global justice. Its largely symbolic feelgoodism. Mostly by folks who trust their lives will remain secure and comfortable as long as they cooperate. By peacefully supporting the status quo, they expect to continue to be rewarded with the American privilege of consuming 80% of the world’s resources while being 20% of the population. And having the luxury to consider their lifestyles to be “normal”.
Marching and protesting–aka moral sanction–is fine, but technically it is not resistance. Resistance is warfare, i.e. boycotts, strikes, sabotage, armed insurrection.
Dispersing political power–now concentrated in the financial elite–was Bernie’s message, and we need to keep working on that. Dissent without resistance is a form of consent.