The Bird Massengale Presents: The Future is Up 2 Us, but the Sky is Falling

For all of my dancer friends. This just straight hit me tonite 💋

LET ME DANCE FOR YOU A song from the movie - A Chorus LineA Chorus Line is a 1985 American musical film directed by Richard Attenborough, starring Michael Douglas. The screenplay...

https://gizmodo.com/report-facebook-chose-not-to-take-down-militia-group-t-1844861311

Report: Facebook Chose Not to Take Down Militia Group That Brought Guns to Kenosha Protests Facebook received reports in advance about the Kenosha Guard, a self-proclaimed militia that urged gun owners to “defend” Kenosha, Wisconsin against Black Lives Matter protesters on Tuesday. It chose not to do anything, according to a report by the Verge, until nine hours after one of the armed ...

This is what we are up against in 2020 and what is at stake in the next presidency:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/trump-secessionist-top/615847/

Trump Is a Secessionist From the Top The president proved once again that he regards himself as a wartime leader of Red America against Blue America.

Black people? Are you just going to let Trump and the GOP take your s**t? The media, especially Black Media, has and MUST play a role in helping African Americans understand what is happening on the political landscape. This is not a joke; the time for jokes and no woke folks is over. If you thought Life for African Americans Ain’t Been No Crystal Stair, Imagine Your Black Life in a Dictatorship. This is: A CALL FOR BLACK PEOPLE TO WAKE THE F**K UP.
Let me tell you a little story!
“No one cherishes freedom more than those who have not had it. And to this day, black Americans, more than any other group, embrace the democratic ideals of a common good. We are the most likely to support programs like universal health care and a higher minimum wage, and to oppose programs that harm the most vulnerable. For instance, black Americans suffer the most from violent crime, yet we are the most opposed to capital punishment. Our unemployment rate is nearly twice that of white Americans, yet we are still the most likely of all groups to say this nation should take in refugees.

The truth is that as much democracy as this nation has today, it has been borne on the backs of black resistance. Our founding fathers may not have actually believed in the ideals they espoused, but black people did. As one scholar, Joe R. Feagin, put it, “Enslaved African-Americans have been among the foremost freedom-fighters this country has produced.” For generations, we have believed in this country with a faith it did not deserve. Black people have seen the worst of America, yet, somehow, we still believe in its best.

They say our people were born on the water.” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html

Wake up! It is August 31, 2020, and Democracy in the United States has fallen. Now, imagine it is September 1, 2020, the day after democracy died, and African Americans all over this country: celebrities, journalists, politicians, athletes, entertainers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, children, parents, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters - all of us woke up re-enslaved. We are no longer free citizens of this country because democracy has died and we didn’t care, did nothing to stop it, or were too oblivious to know anything was happening. Indeed, you thought slavery ended long ago, that it could never happen again in the United States, but it has.
Imagine waking up re-enslaved and you are no longer sleeping in your own bed; you are no longer near anything you ever knew, instead, you are now living, if it can be called that, in a concentrated command center made just for you and people who look like you. Holy s**t! Yes! Yes! It was happening to brown people on the border, but now it is happening to you. It has happened to you. You wake up and your primary function, your ONLY function is to serve the people in power, white people, again, for free. The president has called a national emergency because the treasury has dried up; there is no more money, and the people in power need free labor to keep the country going til things get right again. Who better to do it than the people who initially built this country for free and so, here we are.
You serve the people in need, you serve their wants and their children’s and children’s’ children wants and desires and you do it all for free. You do it when they tell you to do it and how they tell you to do it. If you do not, you are whipped, r***d, tortured or hung. This is happening to people all around you, to the people you love, to your mother and your father, to your children, your lovers, husbands, best friends. Then imagine that if you or any other Black person tried to speak up about anything, you would be sent to a hotbox or summarily executed. . This is our life until the end of time in the country our people helped build for free!
Now, imagine what could have happened if Black people had been woke for it all. Imagine what could have happened if Black people had written their congress members en masse, had set aside time and worked out schedules for sustained protests and boycotts en masse, had constructed plays and democracy-aid concerts around the country to let people know what was coming, what was already happening? Imagine if Black entertainers and athletes and musicians and artists and every-day creative black citizens had acted. For lack of action, there are no more Black entertainers and athletes and musicians and artists and politicians and every-day creative black citizens, cause there aint no more Black and Free anything.
“Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.” How then do we let a race of people, led by the most ignorant racist malignant narcissist take what we fought so hard for away?
Now, it is your job to tell this story, this imagery, this life to our black people so that we can ACT now! There is no more time left, and there is nothing you can do once it is all said and done, AND THE ONLY PEOPLE WE CAN BLAME IS OURSELVES.

America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. For generations, black Americans have fought to make them true.

There is something happening in American that has been 30 years in the making, if you are interested in understanding at least a bit of it, take a read. This is what trump and the GOP are working from: https://www.nationalists.org/pdf/political_correctness_a_short_history_of_an_ideology.pdf

www.nationalists.org

These are the other small happenings of the day:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/14/michael-flynn-william-barr-appoints-outside-prosecutor-review-russia-case/4761959002/

Barr appoints outside prosecutor to review criminal case against Michael Flynn The development caps off a controversial week for the Justice Department as the agency faces allegations of political meddling in criminal cases.

Lot's goin on, but we can handle anything!

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/one-year-after-trumps-election-revisiting-autocracy-rules-for-survival

One Year After Trump’s Election, Revisiting “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” What I got right, what I missed, and the one rule I need to amend.

The Seven Commandments of Fake NEWS, some things help us understand what we don't know we don't know:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000006188102/what-is-pizzagate.html?action=click&module=video-series-bar®ion=header&pgtype=Article&playlistId=video/opinion

Opinion | The Seven Commandments of Fake News The Pizzagate playbook: Same tactics, new technologies. How the seven rules of Soviet disinformation are being used to create today’s fake news stories. Pizza anyone?

Good morning yall! You know this page is my political page and people keep asking me to post, so today, these are things I believe we should be focused on:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000006154922/fascism-leaders-america-trump.html

Opinion | If You’re Not Scared About Fascism in the U.S., You Should Be When fascism starts to feel normal, we’re all in trouble.

Important:
https://www.justsecurity.org/51592/one-year-later/

One Year Later - New Remarks by Senior State Dep't Official Discharged by Trump - Just Security [Introduction by Ryan Goodman, co-editor-in-chief: One year ago, Thomas Countryman delivered Farewell Remarks to his colleagues at the State Department. Days before, he and five other top State Department officials had been suddenly discharged by the Trump White House. Countryman’s farewell powerf...

Random posts as a voice in the void for democracy and against the racist dictator :

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/

An Oral History of Trump’s Bigotry His racism and intolerance have always been in evidence; only slowly did he begin to understand how to use them to his advantage.

AND THIS:
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/dems-are-the-only-thing-between-the-u-s-and-the-abyss-says-james-carville-78481477802?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Dems are the 'only' thing between the U.S. and 'the abyss', says James Carville Democratic strategist James Carville gives his take on what's at stake in the 2020 election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/08/trumps-friday-night-massacre-is-just-beginning-i-fear-whats-come/

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Friday night massacre’ is just the beginning. I fear what’s to come. Trump is making an example of everyone who exposed him in the past so he can get away with worse in the future.

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/02/i-fear-for-our-future-conservative-writer-terrified-over-crimes-unchained-and-unhinged-trump-will-commit-next/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3684

‘I Fear for Our Future’: Conservative Writer Terrified Over Crimes ‘Unchained and Unhinged’ Trump Will Commit Next President Donald Trump is likely to escalate his wrongdoing following his impeachment acquittal, conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot explained on Saturday. “Twice in the past year he has barely survived scandals that should have doomed his presidency: once after the Mueller report was ...

LOT'S GOING ON TODAY, SO I WILL POST ON MY SOAPBOX PAGE;-):

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/barr-makes-himself-gatekeeper-of-investigations-of-campaigns-78211653847?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Barr makes himself gatekeeper of investigations of campaigns Rachel Maddow reports on a new DOJ memo from Bill Barr to US attorneys requiring any investigations of candidates or campaigns get his personal approval first.

All in a days work, January 23, 2020

From now until November 2020, I am writing for one audience only: those who care about being free and understand how very close we are to losing our democracy. You should "prolly" unfriend me if you're looking for me to be my generally laughable, funny, easygoing, critical as a hawk;-) self during this time (though I may send up a funky good time balloon every now and then). When you see me out, then, let's have a ball, but, till then, I am fondly yours in the struggle:

Below is an article written in 2007. At the time, Bush was president. The article was a strong warning about emerging authoritarianism which americans accepted with little to no resistance. At the time, there was a sense we were fighting a common enemy: "a base" known as AL QAEDA.

Today, the US has its own “base”; it is the trump/republican base. It is 1/3 of the country, backed by the courts, the executive branch and the senate. It has a charismatic self-described white nationalist leader who has seized upon the: ignorance of its people, poverty of the collective mind, paucity of expertise in the media to fight this level of f**kery, extreme racial divide in the country, and lackluster creativity of it citizens to solve complex problems.

As for we the people, americans have very little understanding of democracy and we are generally unwilling to fight for it. "We" assume we will be free because we have “always been free”? It is a mistake to think this way. I hope we have the agile strength and mental and physical nimbleness to never find out what lies beyond the once hopeful experiment of democracy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment

Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps From Hi**er to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all.

All in day's revolution. Here is where we are headed if we are not vigilant, no MORE vigilant. I am no screaming town crier. Democracy doesn't die with tanks; it dies with inaction:

https://50quotesof.com/50-wise-joseph-goebbels-sayings-about-life/

What did you do when the time came?

50 Wise Joseph Goebbels Sayings about Life - 50QuotesOf Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German N**i politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of N**i Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hi**er's closest and most devoted associates, and was known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitis...

Authoritarianism is here. I tried to warn my friends and family....

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/16/1911984/-Intelligence-leaders-ask-Congress-to-cancel-national-security-hearings-to-avoid-angering-Trump

Intelligence leaders ask Congress to cancel national security hearings to avoid angering Trump This is unbelievable—and yet not. United States intelligence officials are "quietly" asking the House and Senate to cancel public hearings on this year's World Wide Threats Assessment, the report outlining the major risks to United States security as...

We new it was bad, but is way worse. I am not sure it even matters given the american people's apathy:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/review-very-stable-genius-donald-trump-philip-rucker-carol-leonnig.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

A Meticulous Account of Trump’s Tenure Reads Like a Comic Horror Story “A Very Stable Genius,” by the Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s time in office to date.

This:

One of the many damaging consequences of Trump is that there is now a prevailing view that getting rid of him is so important that even if he is replaced by someone merely decent, merely competent, merely honest, that will somehow be enough. We will discover quickly it is not.
The apparatus that put Trump in power will remain. His supporters will remain. The 40 yrs of active undermining of our democracy, of fueling gross inequality, of over-empowering the few will not be undone. Addressing those issues will require new ideas, strong leadership, vision.
Absent those attributes, an administration of the merely adequate, focusing on a return to a status quo that never existed,will become not just unable to drive the change we must have if our country is to survive and thrive it will actually create new opportunities for the right.
Settling for "better than Trump" is a formula for ensuring a brighter future for Trumpism and all the manifold and profound dangers that go with it.""

The most oppressed people in this country (outside of NATIVE AMERICANS) are some of the smartest people in the country. How could we not be? Whites brought us here, enslaved and r***d us, and destroyed our culture, all of it deliberately and for their service and needs. We fought and broke the chains of slavery, we fight the chains of oppression today. Trump has heightened this hatred and suffering, but we rebuke him, full stop:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/black-americans-deeply-pessimistic-about-country-under-president-who-more-than-8-in-10-describe-as-a-racist-post-ipsos-poll-finds/2020/01/16/134b705c-37de-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html

Black Americans are deeply pessimistic about the country under Trump, whom more than 8 in 10 describe as ‘a racist,’ Post-Ipsos poll finds Nearly two-thirds said it is a “bad time” to be a black person in America.

Why would people from other countries come here when this is how we treat our own people. If I loved elsewhere, I would NEVER come here.The country treats blacks poorly and is too dumb to know how truly ignorant it is. Sorry, but it's the truth.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-trumps-threats-turned-a-respected-diplomats-american-dream-into-a/

Opinion: Why the Trump impeachment hearings need to go beyond Ukraine The U.S. president is waging a ceaseless and brutal assault on the values that sustain democracy: truth, accountability and service to country over party.

If DJT is stupid, which he is, we are stupid as s**te for voting for him:

https://freedomcenter.org/voice/trump-and-history-ignorance-and-denial

Trump and History: Ignorance and Denial | National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Ever since Donald Trump became President I have believed his greatest threat to our society and to our democracy is not necessarily his authoritarianism, but his essential ignorance - of history, of policy, of political process, of the Constitution. Saying that if Andrew Jackson had been around we m...

This hurt to the core: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/north-dakota-native-americans-votes-stolen.html

The Native Americans Disenfranchised in North Dakota Are Back in Court. Their Stories Are Maddening. Native Americans’ ability to vote should not hinge on the competence of random officials like “Kurt.”

The most frustrating thing about living during these times is African Americans really don't realize how close we are to becoming re-enslaved. Full stop:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sean-wilentz-why-we-must-impeach-donald-trump-897246/

Why We Must Impeach The president’s abuse of power has surpassed any we’ve seen in our history — and Congress must act

Thank you. All I want to be able to tell the world from the black grave is that I warned as many people as possible before the end came.

This is the United States now, the question is will it always be and what are the steps for moving forward in a democracy where so much injustice occurs and so much ignorance abounds:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-weaponization-of-national-belonging-from-nazi-germany-to-trump

The Weaponization of National Belonging, from N**i Germany to Trump By turning unspoken assumptions about outsiders into hateful rally chants, Donald Trump has initiated a radical renegotiation of what it means to belong in this country.

Should anyone doubt Trump should be impeached, or you just want a simple and clean explanation of all of the charges against him:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/the-full-case-for-trump-impeachment.html

The (Full) Case for Impeachment A menu of high crimes and misdemeanors.

There are days I read at least a book a day. There is so much going on, I am afraid I will miss the pieces of the puzzle that will let me know when a red line has been crossed. Dismantling the government has long been a goal of Trump and Bannon. Here are twenty issues on the chopping block - be clear, that is not all:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/11/us/politics/what-trump-wants-to-change.html

20 Things Donald Trump Said He Wanted to Get Rid of as President Some of the parts of the government that Mr. Trump promised to dismantle if he was elected.

Nothing can be said of this article other than it is important:

https://medium.com//kleptofascism-and-you-f8121a8141ce #.8v9ywtx09

Kleptofascism and You “It is beyond our power to fathom,