Greetings from the Old Pueblo
And welcome to another Baja Arizona Kossacks Open Thread. Big doins' in Tucson this weekend. Bernie Sanders was in town and plans have been finalized for a big November Meet-Up of the Baja Kossacks. Click through for some pictures, impressions and discussion of these momentous events.
The Sanders Rally Was Yooj
Was it 7,000, 10,000, more ? Who knows ? It was more than I've ever seen at that band shell, more than the Blues Festival, more than the Labor Day Picnic. A whole lotta' people showed up to see Bernie speak and take part in his political revolution. There was a lot of hope and a lot of energy in the crowd that night. I sure hope they're all registered to vote. At least a dozen Baja Arizona Kossacks were in the crowd. Mind you, these are just the ones I know and have met. There my well have been 25 or 30 if we include lurkers and people who joined the group at one time but don't read the site much anymore or members who don't go to Meet-Ups.
The Bisbee Chapter made a Bisbee for Bernie sign and I was hoping we could find each other by looking for the sign and clotting in that vicinity. It didn't work out that way since the sign was hard to see after dark and it was Standing-Room-Only making it very difficult to move through the crowd.
The Bisbee sign was cool and beautifully done but when it comes to the message, it's hard to beat this one:
Bernie may be getting on in years, as are many of us, but much of the crowd was younger and the first part of the program belonged to the kids. After a High-School Mariachi band warmed up the crowd, Derechos Humanos founder Isabel Garcia introduced two bright, young speakers. Their speeches were obviously heart-felt and the crowd was moved.The first was a Chiricahua Apache girl who spoke about the importance of saving Oak Flat.
Apache-Stronghold.com
The second speaker was Bobby de la Rosa whose family was featured in the Star's series Divided by Law.
Baja's own Raúl Grijalva introduced Senator Sanders. This is only fitting since Raúl is co-chair of Congressional Progressive Caucus, an organization that Bernie co-founded back when he was in the House. Grijalva delivered part of his introduction in Spanish. I follow Spanish pretty well. Most of the people who have lived around here for a coupla' decades manage to pick up a few words, unless they're complete idiots. One word that I kept hearing from Raúl was justa, meaning fair or just. The noun is justicia and it's not that hard to understand his call for una economia justa, reforma migratoria justa and democracia justa. Then it was time for the main event.
Bernie's speech was, as usual, honest and straight-forward. I wish he had spoken in more depth about the evils of Neoliberal economics, but I realize I'm in the minority. Bernie's rousing applause lines, "No, billionaires, you can't have it all," "Medicare for all" and "15 bucks an hour" probably reach more people than a Michael Hudson-style discussion of the TPP, ISDS, the IMF and imperialism via debt-entrapment. It's not that he doesn't understand this stuff, I'm sure he does. It's just that most of his audience, most Americans, don't get into that subject the way I do. I'll get over it.There wasn't much talk about regime-change either, which is an element of Neoliberalism. I hope to hear more from Bernie on this subject in the debates.
The Big November Meet-Up
Over the years the Baja Arizona Kossacks have fallen into a pattern of a major meet-up in the fall and then the annual picnic in the spring. This year's fall meet-up will take place on Saturday, November 14 at Zayna Mediterranean on Speedway. I've checked it out. The food smelled delish and the prices are reasonable. Only one problem, Zayna doesn't take reservations. Since it's first come first served and the place fills up on Saturdays, we are left with only one way to be sure we all get seated. We'll have to arrive early and enter as a group. They'll let us push tables together or open their banquet room if necessary. I suggest we arrive at 5 pm.
OK, that's it for this edition of the BAK Open Thread. You can RSVP here or in the messages. I like to have a few RSVPs before I send it to navajo for an announcement in CUA. Talk to me ...