Presidents Day AM. The news says Savannah Guthrie PLEADS for release of her mother. Could someone please point this out: why are SOME people's lives worth more than others?? Everyone weeping over the Guthrie situation: There are THOUSANDS of immigrant elderly women, children, men, young women MISSING in this country RIGHT NOW!! Some, without their MEDICINE. THEIR FAMILIES don't know where/how they are. They are precious too! But I'm not seeing weeping on the news or outrage. We KNOW who did this! Our own govt did it. That's the NEWS STORY I'm concerned about.
This is sort of personal. Had to put my credit card on freeze because I won’t order from Amazon. The result I’ve discovered is that Amazon, Walmart, and Target seem to have cornered the market. So I went to an independent retailer, merrily gave my credit card number, and never received the order. So, I will never abandon you. Just waiting to see if there is unverified activity on credit card. Getting a new card is such a major hassle, and curious if other people have also noticed this.
When media loses its immune system, truth becomes a private practice. Appreciate the focus on structural power. Democracy survives when people stay awake.
Qasim - you’ve been great introducing us to new candidates!! Thank you 😊 Please have on the 4 Independents who are running for the senate. I think people will be excited to have an Independent caucus in the Senate. This is the announcement vid for Ty Pinkins for Mississippi.
I signed up to support Minocqua Brewing to expand their digital sales platforms. I really like those guys in Minnesota. I saw their article where they talked with you - very positive feedback.
Those of you who cannot afford a paid subscription or otherwise feel helpless: you CAN help with your boots on the ground. Here are a few ideas I cribbed from Reddit:
"This isn't a Marvel movie. No one is coming to save the day.
There is no Steve Rogers working behind the scenes. There won't be some grand call-to-action where you'll finally decide to help or just keep doomscrolling wondering why things get worse. No helicarriers rising and falling from the sky, no peace after the one big villain is thwarted, no clear "hey, we're evil" that you will finally point to as a step too far. Your rights will remain with you until you realize they have left. Your life will stay calm and peaceful, until it isn't.
Many people say that nothing can be done or that any action is futile. If this is the case, your action is further demanded. If change is impossible, then there is an insufficient degree of effort being applied. There is power in collective action. You are already being watched. You are already being threatened. You are already being killed. Believing that ineffectiveness justifies inaction makes you like cattle, undisturbed by seeing those in front of you in line get slaughtered.
You have a duty to protect the rights of the citizenry, not merely your own comfort. The alienation of any person's rights is an alienation of your own, merely delayed by distance, demographic, laziness, or cowardice. I've seen the "and then there was no one to speak for me" poem posted more times than I can count and yet there seems this bizarre unearned comfort that sharing the words of someone else is sufficient action of your own. It is not.
Your rights and personhood are threatened. Start building a wall around them and stand guard against their siege. This does not mean to be violent or that the only action is street-level protesting. Not all action need be so direct or public to be effective. Many of you possess skill sets through work, hobbies, or other life experience. Make use of them.
If you need a few examples to get your bearings, have some:
Software engineering: My field and avenue of action. Many of you are builders. I've seen great things be built and amass wealth for many of those who now seek your oppression. Build something new that helps. Work together with your network. Make it open source with a clear mission statement and avenue for contribution. Leverage the Al that would displace you to build the tools that will ensure your protection. What am I doing? Working on a modern unionizing and striking platform; I will be looking for contributors once a workable baseline is reached.
Educators: You shape the minds of the rising change agents. You have a wide array of useful knowledge: how to compose a good argument, what the true history of something is, how to analyze media and think critically about it, and how to test and retest the falsifiable claims presented to you. Teach these skills to anyone who will give you their time, beyond just your students. Make a concerted, deliberate effort with an explicit invitation of learning. Have uncomfortable conversations; they are how people grow. Or use the skills directly: document, blog, philosophize, research.
Trades & logistics: You have power over our material world. By action, you can make things function. By inaction, you may cause them to fall apart. Build shelters for your community. Contribute materials to protests to build signs or platforms. Teach others the basics of your trade so that they might be independently productive. Many of you are unionized. Teach your fellow union members the hard-won, historically grounded benefits of unionization. Show them that anti-union is anti-them. Encourage them that their abilities, if withheld, can cripple a system no longer working for them.
Medical professionals: Provide care to harmed protesters. Teach first aid to them. Encourage new or strengthened policies at your place of work to protect groups you know to be vulnerable. Many of you took the Hippocratic Oath. When an environment becomes sufficiently hostile, a lack of care becomes harm.
Legal professionals: You know how THE system works and that proper engagement with it can be difficult and costly. Provide services (pro bono or merely affordable) to those in need. Teach others about their rights and how to best protect them. Consult with organizers on which actions are legally available and those that are not. Contribute your efforts to specializations that may not be your expertise and accept potentially needed humility in the available work. Observe the systems that are under attack and make the attacks known and digestible for those without your expertise.
Those with "boring" office jobs: you know how groups function.
Organization, accounting, and large scale systems are necessary for large movements. Find one and move. If you are able, leverage the slow processes you hate to disempower the policies you know to be immoral. Quiet-quitting is not a pejorative or merely a tool to use when unappreciated. It is a fundamental unit of dissent.
Those with money but little time: Fund those that possess the time you do not. Enable the charities, aid groups, or your own network that show they are working towards a tomorrow you want to see. If money is now speech, make your voice heard.
Those with only a phone: Call politicians and demand you be heard. Record those violating your rights. Shame those who support that violation; the discomfort is imposed by their violation of your rights, not you calling it out. Serve on the suicide hotline. Volunteer for outreach programs for politicians you favor. Make noise, but aim that noise toward a specific, named goal.
Anyone else: not being listed above is not statement that you have no worthwhile skills in this effort. Figure out what you're good for and do it, even if you consider it small. Vote. Vote in primaries, off-season elections, and the general. Encourage others to do the same and inform each other on who you are voting for and why. You know your capabilities. Use them."
Excellent comment Angie. You remind me of a Substacker called Your Weirdo Friend. She is a community college educator & she’s trying to get people to act now, to get organized to be able to protect themselves & the most vulnerable in their neighborhoods & communities. She has a post talking about The Daisy Chain that sounds very similar to the point you were making. I have been recommending her to everyone as often as I can.
All you say, Qasim, is spot-on. So many comments I read on social media are people saying , as I am, that they are changing the way they decide whom to vote for. We will stay in this abhorrent pattern we're in unless we do things differently. I will NOT vote for AIPAC-pals-of-America ever (for example). I will write a candidate in if I have to. No more just taking what they give me. And to that end, MSM is no help whatsoever. If they have to cave to big money--go ahead. And don't whine when you become obsolete. Your MO doesn't work anymore. It got us to this Hell!!
I'm not a Texan, but I reside in Texas, moving here to be near my aging parents.
As you and readers know, Texas is one of the worst LIARS in these United States. john cornyn is running on "Texans don't want Sharia Law." ..... ????? No one even talked about Sharia Law, before his political commercials! Dems have always been here, and fighting, ... but driven by the brave Minnesotans, we really have momentum here. Things going on, not just on weekends, but all during week. Local is important, not just for us, but for the nation, in Congressional numbers.
Yes 👍 absolutely 💯 I was born & raised in Texas, but moved to the mountains of southern New Mexico in 1986. I care about helping to turn Texas blue by supporting good candidates there, & all across the nation. Let’s get behind the Democrats running in TX-33 Zeeshan Hafeez. He is more of a Progressive than Colin Allred & it’s a solidly blue district, so whomever wins the primary will win the general. I don’t know if you saw Qasim’s interview with him, it’s on here, but a while back. I just found it today.
Presidents Day AM. The news says Savannah Guthrie PLEADS for release of her mother. Could someone please point this out: why are SOME people's lives worth more than others?? Everyone weeping over the Guthrie situation: There are THOUSANDS of immigrant elderly women, children, men, young women MISSING in this country RIGHT NOW!! Some, without their MEDICINE. THEIR FAMILIES don't know where/how they are. They are precious too! But I'm not seeing weeping on the news or outrage. We KNOW who did this! Our own govt did it. That's the NEWS STORY I'm concerned about.
Hi, Qasim. I love this idea. I’m a paid subscriber already. Can I make a donation to the new effort as well?
This is sort of personal. Had to put my credit card on freeze because I won’t order from Amazon. The result I’ve discovered is that Amazon, Walmart, and Target seem to have cornered the market. So I went to an independent retailer, merrily gave my credit card number, and never received the order. So, I will never abandon you. Just waiting to see if there is unverified activity on credit card. Getting a new card is such a major hassle, and curious if other people have also noticed this.
When media loses its immune system, truth becomes a private practice. Appreciate the focus on structural power. Democracy survives when people stay awake.
Qasim - you’ve been great introducing us to new candidates!! Thank you 😊 Please have on the 4 Independents who are running for the senate. I think people will be excited to have an Independent caucus in the Senate. This is the announcement vid for Ty Pinkins for Mississippi.
https://youtu.be/PWoQNAlofpg?si=SvACvpB7mBBfZBT9
When do you sleep, Qasim?
I signed up to support Minocqua Brewing to expand their digital sales platforms. I really like those guys in Minnesota. I saw their article where they talked with you - very positive feedback.
Have you considered partnerships e.g. with Bridge Michigan? https://bridgemi.com/
Thank you for courageously standing up to this administration is many different ways.
Those of you who cannot afford a paid subscription or otherwise feel helpless: you CAN help with your boots on the ground. Here are a few ideas I cribbed from Reddit:
"This isn't a Marvel movie. No one is coming to save the day.
There is no Steve Rogers working behind the scenes. There won't be some grand call-to-action where you'll finally decide to help or just keep doomscrolling wondering why things get worse. No helicarriers rising and falling from the sky, no peace after the one big villain is thwarted, no clear "hey, we're evil" that you will finally point to as a step too far. Your rights will remain with you until you realize they have left. Your life will stay calm and peaceful, until it isn't.
Many people say that nothing can be done or that any action is futile. If this is the case, your action is further demanded. If change is impossible, then there is an insufficient degree of effort being applied. There is power in collective action. You are already being watched. You are already being threatened. You are already being killed. Believing that ineffectiveness justifies inaction makes you like cattle, undisturbed by seeing those in front of you in line get slaughtered.
You have a duty to protect the rights of the citizenry, not merely your own comfort. The alienation of any person's rights is an alienation of your own, merely delayed by distance, demographic, laziness, or cowardice. I've seen the "and then there was no one to speak for me" poem posted more times than I can count and yet there seems this bizarre unearned comfort that sharing the words of someone else is sufficient action of your own. It is not.
Your rights and personhood are threatened. Start building a wall around them and stand guard against their siege. This does not mean to be violent or that the only action is street-level protesting. Not all action need be so direct or public to be effective. Many of you possess skill sets through work, hobbies, or other life experience. Make use of them.
If you need a few examples to get your bearings, have some:
Software engineering: My field and avenue of action. Many of you are builders. I've seen great things be built and amass wealth for many of those who now seek your oppression. Build something new that helps. Work together with your network. Make it open source with a clear mission statement and avenue for contribution. Leverage the Al that would displace you to build the tools that will ensure your protection. What am I doing? Working on a modern unionizing and striking platform; I will be looking for contributors once a workable baseline is reached.
Educators: You shape the minds of the rising change agents. You have a wide array of useful knowledge: how to compose a good argument, what the true history of something is, how to analyze media and think critically about it, and how to test and retest the falsifiable claims presented to you. Teach these skills to anyone who will give you their time, beyond just your students. Make a concerted, deliberate effort with an explicit invitation of learning. Have uncomfortable conversations; they are how people grow. Or use the skills directly: document, blog, philosophize, research.
Trades & logistics: You have power over our material world. By action, you can make things function. By inaction, you may cause them to fall apart. Build shelters for your community. Contribute materials to protests to build signs or platforms. Teach others the basics of your trade so that they might be independently productive. Many of you are unionized. Teach your fellow union members the hard-won, historically grounded benefits of unionization. Show them that anti-union is anti-them. Encourage them that their abilities, if withheld, can cripple a system no longer working for them.
Medical professionals: Provide care to harmed protesters. Teach first aid to them. Encourage new or strengthened policies at your place of work to protect groups you know to be vulnerable. Many of you took the Hippocratic Oath. When an environment becomes sufficiently hostile, a lack of care becomes harm.
Legal professionals: You know how THE system works and that proper engagement with it can be difficult and costly. Provide services (pro bono or merely affordable) to those in need. Teach others about their rights and how to best protect them. Consult with organizers on which actions are legally available and those that are not. Contribute your efforts to specializations that may not be your expertise and accept potentially needed humility in the available work. Observe the systems that are under attack and make the attacks known and digestible for those without your expertise.
Those with "boring" office jobs: you know how groups function.
Organization, accounting, and large scale systems are necessary for large movements. Find one and move. If you are able, leverage the slow processes you hate to disempower the policies you know to be immoral. Quiet-quitting is not a pejorative or merely a tool to use when unappreciated. It is a fundamental unit of dissent.
Those with money but little time: Fund those that possess the time you do not. Enable the charities, aid groups, or your own network that show they are working towards a tomorrow you want to see. If money is now speech, make your voice heard.
Those with only a phone: Call politicians and demand you be heard. Record those violating your rights. Shame those who support that violation; the discomfort is imposed by their violation of your rights, not you calling it out. Serve on the suicide hotline. Volunteer for outreach programs for politicians you favor. Make noise, but aim that noise toward a specific, named goal.
Anyone else: not being listed above is not statement that you have no worthwhile skills in this effort. Figure out what you're good for and do it, even if you consider it small. Vote. Vote in primaries, off-season elections, and the general. Encourage others to do the same and inform each other on who you are voting for and why. You know your capabilities. Use them."
Excellent comment Angie. You remind me of a Substacker called Your Weirdo Friend. She is a community college educator & she’s trying to get people to act now, to get organized to be able to protect themselves & the most vulnerable in their neighborhoods & communities. She has a post talking about The Daisy Chain that sounds very similar to the point you were making. I have been recommending her to everyone as often as I can.
Done! Happy to upgrade. I love the work you're doing. WE'RE doing!
Right on! Thank you for all the work you do!
Thanks, Qasim, keep your voice strong holding the powerful to account Republican or Democratic.
All you say, Qasim, is spot-on. So many comments I read on social media are people saying , as I am, that they are changing the way they decide whom to vote for. We will stay in this abhorrent pattern we're in unless we do things differently. I will NOT vote for AIPAC-pals-of-America ever (for example). I will write a candidate in if I have to. No more just taking what they give me. And to that end, MSM is no help whatsoever. If they have to cave to big money--go ahead. And don't whine when you become obsolete. Your MO doesn't work anymore. It got us to this Hell!!
Thanks always for your wisdom, Qasim.
This sounds like a great idea, Qasim. I hope I’ll be able to contribute in some small way.
I'm not a Texan, but I reside in Texas, moving here to be near my aging parents.
As you and readers know, Texas is one of the worst LIARS in these United States. john cornyn is running on "Texans don't want Sharia Law." ..... ????? No one even talked about Sharia Law, before his political commercials! Dems have always been here, and fighting, ... but driven by the brave Minnesotans, we really have momentum here. Things going on, not just on weekends, but all during week. Local is important, not just for us, but for the nation, in Congressional numbers.
Yes 👍 absolutely 💯 I was born & raised in Texas, but moved to the mountains of southern New Mexico in 1986. I care about helping to turn Texas blue by supporting good candidates there, & all across the nation. Let’s get behind the Democrats running in TX-33 Zeeshan Hafeez. He is more of a Progressive than Colin Allred & it’s a solidly blue district, so whomever wins the primary will win the general. I don’t know if you saw Qasim’s interview with him, it’s on here, but a while back. I just found it today.
thanks, I'll look for interview.