Tipping Points: The Best News Is Not News

eOz

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Saturday June 06, 2020 · 12:41 PM PDT

2020/06/06 · 12:41

As a fan of the Good News Roundup, I have been inoculated against despair daily by an amazing team of writers, led by Goodie. After getting my dose today, an observation nagging at me all week came into focus. Politics with a small “p” is not news to most media outlets. Good news is news, but doesn’t get as wide a play as bad news (the more violence and sex involved, the better).

But this week, around Monday, a tipping point was reached. Many tipping points, actually. Assumptions are falling like rain, and major media outlets are scrambling to get wet. All from subtle things, but important things, happening in the zeitgeist. Like many other tipping points of this kind, it started with death and violence on our screens (TV and computer) — but morphed into a rippling of consciousness raising on a global scale like seeing the Berlin Wall come down.

When not-news (in the cynical sense) spreads so fast and so far that major media change their angle, a tipping point is revealed. A week ago was cops vs. looters. Monday Trump and Cotton pushed the line too far, enabled by Barr and other yahoos. Their actions — and, more significantly, their inactions — brought a response tidal in nature and impossible to capture in journalistic reports.

This week? That could be the best kind of news of all.

eOz

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Thursday April 09, 2020 · 1:46 PM PDT

2020/04/09 · 13:46

1960s Political Revolution Image from Carnegiehall.org

I was for Bernie Sanders before I knew his name or heard him speak. I came of political age in the early 1970s. My first vote was against Nixon. I played in bands at protest rallies throughout the decade. I was proud to be voted Freak Of The Week the year we protested VP nominee Bush The Elder with snipers on the student union roof watching us lead protest songs against the coming regime. My compatriots and I envisioned a future where the things Bernie Sanders believes now were common wisdom, and we knew it was obvious the world would be better for it. The People were revolting. The prize was close to being won.

Then Reagan happened.

[Leary said,] “China is one half of the struggle happening on the planet right now. And the struggle is for the consciousness of the planet, a struggle between the mass centralization of China, which American corporate feudal lords aspire to, which breeds that Maoist, insectoid kind of suspicion (And sure enough, we find China today expending more effort in surveillance of the Internet than developing it usefully) the authoritarian Soviet-style state vs. the American sixties style self-realization movement toward individuality and self-evolution. The main battle is for the consciousness of the American people. It’s the biggest ballgame they will ever play. And it is being played for keeps between cultural outlaws and the repressive forces of military police court authority worshippers. During the Sixties an undeclared civil war took place and the right side won.”

“Yeah, my side,” says Liddy. “And we’re not about to let it happen again.”

Conversation between Timothy Leary and G. Gorden Liddy in 1982

The Ghosts Of Timothy Leary & H unter S. Thompson

By Joe Bageant

Counter Punch

MAY 16, 2007

(emphasis mine)

When Reagan came to power with a host of minions and sycophants our vision was pushed back vociferously. In the forty years since of wandering through the wilderness of their creation, Bernie evolved and moved up through the political levels. As I became aware of him, I recognized in him a hope that politicians could actually remember those simple and powerful ideas and was striving to keep fighting for them. And as Bernie evolved, I have been proud to stand with him whenever I could.

In this election; in this year; in this cusp of change, I stand with him in awe at the era he (and all of us who have stood against the Reagan Revolution knowing a People’s Revolution was inevitable or the Union would fall) are ushering in right now at a breathtaking pace.

eOz

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Wednesday February 05, 2020 · 1:03 PM PST

2020/02/05 · 13:03

The Sanders campaign fought hard for delegates from Iowa in 2016, and subsequently forced our state party to adopt the Presidential Preference Cards so we had to report a “popular vote” as well as a delegate count, making the best of the situation of campaigning in a caucus state. I just saw him say from New Hampshire that he had won the popular votes while Buttigieg is leading (so far) in the delegate count.

Such foresight on the part of a candidate is amazing to see played out. It makes the work that campaign did to get our state party to change how the caucus works an incredible feat of foresight unusual enough to warrant our attention and, in my case, praise. It may not play out once all results are in. It may not make a difference. But small victories should be noted and celebrated. Long games rarely work out so well.

Well played, sir. Well played.

eOz

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Saturday February 01, 2020 · 10:43 AM PST

2020/02/01 · 10:43

Senator Joni Ernst became famous in Iowa with her viral video ad talking about how she castrated baby pigs growing up. The mojo from that ad led to her “Making ‘Em Squeal” campaign motto. She even proposed a bill which was signed into law called the SQUEAL Act — a meaningless and petty cut of a tax break for living expenses for Congresspeople which adds nothing to anything. Indeed, that is the legacy of Senator Ernst for Iowa — adding nothing to anything real for Iowa’s citizens.

So now Joni has castrated herself, along with the rest of the herd of lemmings calling themselves Senators of the United States. They are taking the QAnon motto “Where we go one, we go all” to the ultimate lemming ideal — following Mitch McConnell right over a cliff into the abyss.

eOz

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Saturday October 27, 2018 · 1:31 PM PDT

2018/10/27 · 13:31

Woke Giant provides a variety of posters under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Support their work! — Only the People can stand for Our Constitution against tyranny and the agents of fear

As a pacifist, I have had to endure an inane question from people who rouse to violence instead of courage when provoked or incited to hate someone else for no other reason than that that other person is an object of derision instead of a living, breathing fellow passenger on this small planet. So many times, especially when our nation is “at war” with someone or another over oil or religion or greed, the retort to my saying I am against, not only this “war”, but war itself often has been, “what if a madman came into your house and killed your family, would you be a pacifist then?”.

Now We The People live in a time when such madmen are coming into Our house — the United States of America: a pact among citizens to rise to the mutual defense of one another against threats to our peace, our prosperity or our privacy to live in freedom. The Constitution is the cumulation of centuries of attempts, and failures, to achieve such a circle of trust and mutual power. Perfect? Hell, no. An amazing scientific experiment in self-government which has managed to survive two centuries and change? Hell, yes. So far, the attempts have gained over the failures. We have a long way to go, but the way is clear.

What is a pacifist to do?

eOz

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Monday April 30, 2018 · 8:48 PM PDT

2018/04/30 · 20:48

A story I’ve been following since last October may have more to do with why North Korea is opening to a treaty with South Korea than any political or diplomatic factors. At that time, several news sources were reporting that Mount Mantap, the site of North Korea’s underground nuclear tests, had partially collapsed. Although two other areas nearby are thought to be capable of continuing tests, two recent scientific papers, one published this month and one accepted for publication soon, indicate the damage to the main testing area is extensive, but carefully avoid speculating whether that damage means North Korea’s testing program is being forced to end, or scale back, because of the danger of radioactive exposure so near China and Russia.

Could President Trump be the beneficiary of dumb luck, like President Reagan did when the Soviet Union wanted out of the nuclear arms race in the 1980s? And, like Reagan, squander the magnitude of the opportunity due to his own short-sightedness?

Poll

56 votes Show Results

Why is North Korea in such a hurry to negotiate?

56 votes Vote Now!

Why is North Korea in such a hurry to negotiate?

Trump is just so bad everyone is scared into compliance

4 votes

Mother Nature has had enough

36 votes

Trump fell into a opportunity so big even he can see it

16 votes

ASDCT3 4/12: Digital Organizing With Social Media

eOz

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Saturday May 13, 2017 · 7:56 PM PDT

2017/05/13 · 19:56

J. Howard Miller created this poster for Westinghouse for use by the War Production Coordinating Committee in World War II. — Bring back the caucus so we can talk to each other again.

The fourth webinar in the Train The Trainer (T3) program of the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) expands on the email webinar into using social media to add clicks to knocks in our arsenal of democracy. With clicks, we have the opportunity to maximize our time, get people who can’t knock on doors involved in spreading the word and actually create new conversational opportunities. In short, revive what caucuses used to be for a new age of grassroots politics.

In a former age of the Democratic Party, caucuses were opportunities to gather like-minded people together to talk among themselves and hammer out differences so they could have a unified effect on the elections around them. We’ve lost touch with that neighbor-to-neighbor opportunity as more families are occupied with more activities which fragment our communities instead of unify them. The Democratic Party, in particular, is diminished by this fragmentation because we really do represent diverse communities; more so every election cycle.

As the Republican Party descends into single-minded devotion to their fascist moneybags and expect obedience from their chattel voters, we have the opportunity to redefine the caucus and the community with netroots activism. Social media tools provide us with the opportunity to do just that, and we must rise to this challenge for our national experiment called America to thrive in this new century.

eOz

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Thursday May 04, 2017 · 8:41 AM PDT

2017/05/04 · 08:41

The third webinar in the Train The Trainer (T3) program of the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) dives deep into using email as a medium, as a point of human contact and as a technological communications strategy. We use the term “email” in so many ways these days, it can be confusing to some people what it means in the heat of in-depth training. But the trainer, Brittany Switzer of the Texas State Democratic Party, is an excellent resource and presents the kind of email strategy that furthers the party’s message instead of just spams people to death.

Technology is a double-edged sword: it cuts through barriers among people and yet, handled clumsily, can cause people to put up defenses against it. There is a delicate, and very human, line between spamming someone and communicating with them when you are using email. In this webinar, Brittany does a very good job of showing how to find that line: to refine and plan your “asks” of the person with whom you are communicating so they give you feedback before you ask again. Starting with clicking on a petition, you can then invite them to a coffee; they attend the coffee, you ask them to attend a rally; they attend the rally you ask them to volunteer. And so on.

In all these technological stratagems, there is no avoiding the fact that you have to sit down and really think about what you want to say, and to say it in ways that don’t tax the reader too much or confuse them. Writing is hard work, always. Having powerful emailing technology does not change that fact. You still need to think through every word and image and button and link in the document and mean it, or leave it out.

eOz

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Sunday April 30, 2017 · 12:00 PM PDT

2017/04/30 · 12:00

no image description available — Can you hear me now?

The second webinar in the 12-part series of Train The Trainer (T3) by the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) is called Amplifying The Message. Democrats have facts and reality on our side, but that doesn’t necessarily do us much good in an age of infosmog so thick and toxic it can be fatal. That challenge becomes doubly tough because the very name Trump is itself a brand which has been heavily hyped and causes immediate reactions in people. The complexity of this situation is unprecedented. Like our Democratic forebears, we have no choice but to accept the reality of the challenge given to us and work through it for the sake of our children and children’s children.

This webinar was packed with information and insight, and included a particular section on Moving Your Neighbors Blue in red or purple areas given by former Missouri Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell. That section alone could support several diaries and discussions. He encourages us to be advocates as much as activists. We have to patient, and consistent. We have to for positive things and not push hard on negative things we are against.

T3-Session Two: Communications: Amplifying The Message

DNC Department: Communications

Outline:

Media Landscape

State & local papers
Wire services
Community paper
Constituency papers
Political blogs
Local TV
Social Media

Message Delivery Tactics

Press release
Statement
Press conference or event
Protest or petition delivery
Interview
Photo releases
Video releases or advertisements
Social media posts
Creative digital content

Best Practices

Best Practices for TV Coverage
Best Practices for Press Coverage
Make Press Releases Engaging
Best Practices for Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor
Best Practices: Drive-Time Radio
Use Real People & Appeal To Emotions
Best Practices for Talking About Trump
Better Practice: Talk About Ourselves (We The People)

Talking About Ourselves: Issues

Economic growth, fairness & opportunity
Effective government
Financial security
National security
Diversity & unity
Freedom, equality & justice
Taxes
Immigration
Jobs & wages
Personal & shared responsibility

Moving Your Neighbors Blue

Meet them where they are
Messages need to be based on values, not issues
Stay out of the trap

Tools the DNC Can Offer

Sign-up for the talking points list service
Daily clips
Regional and constituency press department
Relationships with national groups to enhance earned media events
Research, digital and video assets
Elevating local and state stories to national reporters
Training

Resources:

Video
Slides

Twitter: #ASDCT3

Email: asdc@dnc.org

For information on how to register for these webinars, see my introductory diary in this series.

eOz

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday April 29, 2017 · 3:17 PM PDT

2017/04/29 · 15:17

The first webinar in the 12-part Train The Trainer (T3) program of the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) is an introduction to the party organization. Representative Keith Ellison made opening remarks and discussed the overall hierarchy of the organization as well as our four main objectives:

Recruiting and training top talent
Maintaining and building our digital edge
Expanding access to the ballot box
Holding Republicans accountable and promoting the Democratic agenda

Sounds great. How the hell are we actually going to do all that?

eOz

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday April 29, 2017 · 12:52 PM PDT

2017/04/29 · 12:52

The Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) is conducting another Train The Trainer (T3) program this year at the beginning of our next megacycle as a party. This committee within the Democratic National Committee is focused on building the party’s state and local levels of organizing to be more effective.

The ASDCT3 program allows you to become certified as a resource to your state and local Democratic Party organizations. Any units you complete garner you a certification for that topic, and completing all 12 of them provides you the opportunity to be contacted and utilized by the party officials and candidates in your area. Your name and email address will be provided to your state’s Democratic Party, which will then make it available at the Congressional District and then the County Party levels.

If you are interested, you can jump on board the train before the end of May and learn a lot about the Democratic Party from another perspective, and let the Party know you want to chip in and rebuild the Party for the future. We focus a lot of energy and words on candidates, but the other side of the Party is building and renewing the party from the grassroots up, and it deserves more attention and time on our part.

Poll

4 votes Show Results

What are you planning to do to help Democrats win?

4 votes Vote Now!

What are you planning to do to help Democrats win?

Be a candidate

0 votes

Work for a candidate

0 votes

Build the party

4 votes

All of the above

0 votes

Grassley-Judge Debate: Iowa Nice to a fault, dammit!

eOz

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Thursday October 20, 2016 · 7:12 PM PDT

2016/10/20 · 19:12

Before the Thrilla In Las Vega last night, another debate was held in Sioux City, Iowa, between Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Patty Judge, his opponent for United States Senate. It was reported to be very civil, which was enhanced because Patty’s father had passed away the day before. Down in central Iowa, we haven’t had any ads for several weeks, and I have been wondering why. Although no one seems to think this race is in play, Grassley should at least be challenged by his insistence on supporting Trump and his malarkey about the fictional “Biden Rule” he and McConnell cooked up (or paid a word chef to create) to cover up — not doing his damn job.

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Grassley-Judge Debate: Iowa Nice to a fault, dammit!