Welcome once again to a $27-group / The Political Revolution open thread — a weekly place where you can sit back, relax, enjoy some inspiring quotes and good music, and (most importantly) spend time gazing at a picture or two of foresterbob’s cat Noble Fur.
As usual I’m running late and short on time. Not enough time to look up or include all the good quotes which were said this week, but let’s see how many I can squeeze in…
It's time for the Pentagon to come clean. The American people deserve to know the full scope of our operations assisting Saudi Arabia in Yemen. We need to hold our partners -- and ourselves -- accountable.
~ Elizabeth Warren
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When I asked the Pentagon if they tracked US fuel and bombs used in Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, they said no. But new reports show that information was available to us all along. The reality is, US supported airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians.
~ Elizabeth Warren
I am grateful to Elizabeth Warren and others who continue to speak out about what the US has been doing in the world.
US foreign policy was bad in the 1950s with our irrational willingness to support brutal regimes so long as they opposed Communism. Our willingness to support brutal regimes (so long as they oppose our current bete noir) has continued into the 21st century. The bete noir changes periodically, but the willingness to support oppressive regimes hasn’t. It has continued under Republicans and it has continued under Democrats.
Supporting murderous tyrants is not what the US should be about — and assisting them in the slaughter of civilians needs to be recognized (and dealt with) as the crime that it is.
Thankfully, some Democrats have been willing to speak out — and their number now seems to be growing.
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Tonight’s title quote is from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
This time a year ago, I was bartending while running a long-shot campaign for Congress.
That time felt so dark and yet so hopeful at the same time. Our odds were dismal and I was dismissed, but we felt that fighting hard for what’s right -- even uphill -- was worth it.
Keep going.
~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
She also said:
We should aim to work for an America where developing our potential through college or vocational education isn’t a gift or luxury, but a matter of course guaranteed by society. Just like kindergarten through 12th grade.
~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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And while she didn’t say what’s in the embedded video, it is something she posted on twitter because she agrees strongly with the message Greta Thunberg has for the world:
x“Until you start focusing on what needs to be done, rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope.If solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.â€Â- @GretaThunbergA must-watch.pic.twitter.com/RboPxtIIEj
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 16, 2018This next quote’s not by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but it is about her. (And I was tempted to use the last sentence of this quote as tonight’s title quote.)
“Democrats, take notes!”Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal has redefined what’s politically possible.
Two years ago, Obama wouldn’t even try for a carbon tax. Now, the #2 Senate Republican is advocating for it as an alternative to the GND.
Bold progressivism shifts the goalposts. Democrats, take notes.
~ Emma Vigeland
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I’m keeping it simple: Listen when I need to. Speak loudly and stand firm when I need to do that.
The fight for women’s rights, workers’ rights and the preservation of the planet call on us to start good trouble and work like hell to get things done.
~ Ilhan Omar
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We make a mistake when we think of climate change as one of many political issues.
It isn’t. It’s the whole thing.
Our planet is our only home.
If we don’t limit further harm, alter our behavior and develop resilience as the climate changes, we doom our species.
That means that as we fight for solutions, we have to remember to use an intersectional lens.
The people most impacted by the effects of climate change will be the same who suffer now.
People of color. Indigenous people. Refugees and victims of war. The poor.~ Ilhan Omar
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Environmental regulations shouldn't be made based on backroom promises to major campaign donors.
It's just plain wrong to sell away the future of our land and water to the highest bidder.
~ Ilhan Omar
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“After a a second migrant child died in U.S. custody in just two weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is responding to criticism by announcing new medical check procedures for children crossing the U.S. border.”
[NPR Politics]
Saying that you’ll make a few surface-level changes in an oppressive system that criminalizes children is like throwing a teacup of water on a burning building.
A second child died in our custody.
There’s no worthy excuse.
~ Ilhan Omar
If it is just "bi-partisan politics" to spend some $700 billion a year on the military, more than the next ten nations combined, why is it a "radical" idea to lower student debt and make public colleges and universities tuition-free?
~ Bernie Sanders
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The fossil fuel industry is now the equivalent of the tobacco industry. It creates death and destruction, and then spends billions denying its responsibility.
We must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
~ Bernie Sanders
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One of the great crises facing our democracy is power of the billionaire class over our political process. The needs of ordinary people are ignored when the very rich and their Super PACs buy elections. We need to overturn Citizens United and move to public funding of elections.
~ Bernie Sanders
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As we enter the new year let us not forget that while the very rich become much richer, millions of Americans are unable to afford health care, housing, prescription drugs or education. In 2019 we can do better. We must do better.
The extraordinary power of the corporate establishment is not just over our economy and political life, it is over our imagination and our ability to envision a different kind of world.
~ Bernie Sanders
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The six largest banks now have over $10 trillion in assets—54% of GDP. We must break up these huge financial institutions. If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.
~ Bernie Sanders
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There will no real social progress in this country unless we have the courage to take on Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the military-industrial complex, the fossil fuel industry, the prison industry and all the other forces of greed.
~ Bernie Sanders
x YouTube Video.
No real change in American history — not the labor, civil rights, women’s, gay rights, environmental, nor any other movement for social justice — has ever succeeded without grassroots activism, without millions of people engaged in the struggle for justice.
~ Bernie Sanders
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It is an international embarrassment that we have more people locked up in jail than any other country on earth. That has got to end. We must become the country in the world which invests in jobs and education, not in more jails and incarceration.
~ Bernie Sanders
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No one should have to work 120 hours a week or 5 jobs to be able to get the health care they need. We need a health care system that puts people before profits. We need a Medicare for all, single-payer system.
~ Bernie Sanders
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We must rebuild the American labor movement and make it easier, not harder, for workers to join unions. We must recommit ourselves to bringing all working people together in the fight for a just and humane world.
~ Bernie Sanders
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As we celebrate Christmas and the holiday season, let us rededicate ourselves to a world of peace -- and economic, social, racial and environmental justice.
~ Bernie Sanders
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The idea that corporations can bargain their taxes with government, but that people can’t bargain their labor with corporations is everything that’s wrong with our political system.
Corporations are not people. PEOPLE are people.
~ Abdul El-Sayed
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Regime-backed Saudi media is attacking three progressive, Muslim-American politicians as religious radicals — echoing the same talking points made by white nationalist extremists. Go ahead and read that sentence again.
One recent article from Al-Arabiya, a state-sponsored Saudi news agency, reported that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were part of a “Political Islamist Movement.” Youm7, an Egyptian news outlet, followed the same tired trope, linking me falsely to the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead of being proud of our strides forward, they echoed the bigotry of white supremacists to demonize us.
These are fascinating, if troubling, political times.
And strange political times make for stranger bedfellows — uniting America’s extreme right and the Middle Eastern despots they say they despise. To be sure, Representatives-elect Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and I have vociferously supported the women’s movement, LGBTQIA+ rights, religious freedom and the firm separation of church and state. After all, each of us knows what it’s like to be targeted for who we are. But our very existence as progressive Muslim-Americans aspiring to democratically elected leadership in our country strikes at the heart of arguments Middle Eastern despots and Rightwing extremists have both been peddling for a long time: We show that Muslims are wholly capable of pluralism and democracy.
When Representatives-elect Omar and Tlaib take their oaths of office next year, Tlaib in her traditional Palestinian gown, they will swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States — and do so with their right hands on a Qur’an. They will have been elected by diverse communities in Midwestern states, the vast majorities of whom are not Muslim, and will represent people from all walks of life. There are few greater testaments to the inclusive power of our democracy…
~ Abdul El-Sayed
That quote is from a recent article Abdul El-Sayed wrote for Time. Please click this link and read the entire piece. It’s well worth reading, and makes me regret that he is not currently holding elected office — but it also reminds me how pleased I am that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are, and how hopeful I am that we will see more candidates like them elected in 2020.
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We must end the growing concentration of ownership in agribusiness and fight to preserve and strengthen family based agriculture. The American people deserve high quality, locally grown food.~ Bernie Sanders
I set this quote aside and used a larger font for it because this one is especially meaningful to me. As someone who has harvested and eaten lots of different fruits, I know how good fruit which is picked when it is ready to be picked tastes. Agri-business crops are designed to look ripe when they’re nowhere close to ripe so they can be picked way too early, stored away, and shipped all cross the country. Fruits (and vegetables) picked that way will never have the real flavor it should have.
We need more family farms, but agri-business has been steadily squeezing out the family farms. Agri-business gets the subsidies, family farms get the shaft — and all of us suffer from it.
I had intended to include a quote from an article by John Nichols which will appear in the January 14th issue of The Nation and is available now on their website: The 2018 Progressive Honor Roll. I think I’ll wait and post it next week, but those of you who are Nation subscribers (or who haven’t used up your quota of free articles) might enjoy reading the article now. It’s a great way to end 2018 to realize how many really good people we have working to change the world for the better.