Journalist Sarah Kendzior explains that the end of net neutrality may also signal the end of the resistance against Donald Trump.

Courtesy of the the Globe and Mail: 

We Americans may be a captive audience to our reality-TV star who thinks he's an authoritarian, but we are a chatty audience, and our loquaciousness has been our salvation. For nearly a year, we have exercised First Amendment rights like we were working a defibrillator on democracy's damaged heart. We debunked lies, catalogued crimes, demanded justice and created a vast, informal movement dedicated to the pursuit of truth over alternative facts. 

But that may be about to end. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission announced it was planning a sweeping rollback of net neutrality, allowing corporations to decide what content is available online while pricing most citizens out of equal access to information. 

For nearly a year, America has stood at the crossroads of a damaged democracy and a burgeoning autocracy. If net neutrality is destroyed, we will cross firmly into the latter, and our return is unlikely. 

The threat to net neutrality highlights the reliance on social media and an independent press for political organizing in the digital age. Should net neutrality be eliminated, those avenues will likely become curtailed for much of the public or driven out of business due to loss of revenue. Without the means to freely communicate online, citizens will be far less able to challenge the administration. It doesn't matter what cause someone prioritizes: The elimination of net neutrality will impede the ability to understand the cause, discuss it and organize around it.

She's not wrong.

The best bulwark we have against fascism is our 1st Amendment which has now evolved to include our ability to communicate online in a variety of social media platforms.

Including this one.

This is one of those moments in history where a people are confronted with a choice which may determine the survival of their society as it exists in the present.

Just imagine for a moment what it would be like if Donald Trump and his cronies were able to use their connections to big telecom companies to put the squeeze on CNN, MSNBC, Raw Story, Mother Jones, Politico, etc., and quiet their voices to a low murmur in the background.

If you do not think that is ultimately the plan then you have not been paying attention.

P.S. For those of you who do not know who Sarah Kendzior is, here is video of her going off on a representative from Breitbart.

This video went viral again, so a little context. It's from a late Nov 2016 panel at the News XChange conference in Denmark. I was responding to Matthew Boyle of Breitbart, who is seated at the end of the row. https://t.co/OCMuaglwvD

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) November 26, 2017

We are dealing with a lot of important issues right now, but arguably net neutrality is one of the MOST important.

The Resistance lives!

200 members of Indivisible San Pedro form the word RESIST! Sat. at Trump National Golf Course, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. #standindivisible pic.twitter.com/QoRDWsdrkT

— Indivisible SanPedro (@indivisible_sp) May 13, 2017

Trump better just learn to live with this, because this is his life now.

Hillary Clinton to launch new political group to help fund The Resistance.

Courtesy of Politico:

Six months after losing the presidential election, Hillary Clinton is ready to wade back into politics. 

The former secretary of state is building a new political group to fund organizations working on the resistance to President Donald Trump’s agenda, spending recent weeks in Washington, New York City, and Chappaqua, N.Y., meeting with donors and potential groups to invest in, and recruiting individuals for the group’s board of directors, multiple people close to the two-time White House hopeful and people familiar with the group’s planning told POLITICO. 

She is looking to launch the group, expected to be called Onward Together — a nod to her campaign slogan, Stronger Together — as soon as next week, they say. Clinton’s spokesman declined to comment for this story.

This is good news for progressives, and definitely bad news for the Trumpsters.

Hillary has proven herself as a fund raiser, and if she gets her husband involved there is really no limit to the money they can pull in to help fund candidates, ad campaigns, and activist organizations.

Somebody actually had the temerity to compare this to Sarah Palin's "all about me" PAC. As if because they are both women these two people would have ANYTHING in common.

This organization will have a board of directors, and trust me when I say that all of its actions will be aggressively scrutinized by the media, so the possibility that it would be some vanity operation designed to fill Hillary's pantsuit pockets with free cash is ridiculous on its face.

And remember Bernie Sanders and Barack and Michelle Obama are launching similar enterprises and nobody seems to have a problem with that.

He's back! Barack Obama is about to reenter the world stage and the timing could not be better.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Barack Obama will make the first public appearance of his post-presidency life on Monday. 

Obama will join young leaders to discuss community organizing and civic engagement at the University of Chicago, the school where he once was a law professor. The former president began his career as a community organizer on the city’s South Side and is in the process of building his presidential library there. 

“This event is part of President Obama’s post-presidency goal to encourage and support the next generation of leaders driven by strengthening communities around the country and the world,” Obama’s office said in a statement, adding that students from schools in the Chicago area had been invited to the event.

This is just the first of many appearances that the former President has planned.

And this includes a visit with the current de facto leader of the free world, German Chancellor Angela Merkel:  

Former President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Germany is scheduled to coincide with President Donald Trump’s first meeting abroad with foreign leaders, potentially complicating the kick-off of Trump’s summer tour of Europe. Obama will arrive in Germany on May 25 to participate in celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. 

He’ll appear alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a panel discussion titled, “Being Involved in Democracy: Taking on Responsibility Locally and Globally.” Obama and Merkel will talk on stage in front of the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of European unity where Obama spoke in 2013. 

There has been some recent talk lately as to who is the leader of the Democratic party, but I think I agree with his former Deputy Chief of Staff that it remains Barack Obama.

Former WH Dep. Chief of Staff @AlyssaMastro44 says @barackobama "probably still the leader of the Democratic party" https://t.co/ehWHSran4X

— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) April 22, 2017

And yes despite what people may want to think Bernie Sanders DID just publicly reiterate that he is still an Independent and NOT a Democrat.

In order to lead the Democratic party you have to actually BE a Democrat. That is something that Bernie Sanders is not, and that Barack Obama definitely is. 

It appears that Obama is planning to play things cool, by offering advice to Democrats and young people in private while resisting the urge to take Trump on in public.

However considering what seems be coming down the pike for Donald Trump, and many of his associates, I am not at all sure that the former president will be able to stay on the sidelines for long.

Harvard students launch "Resistance School" to provide instruction on how to battle back against the Trump presidency.

Courtesy of Time Magazine:  

For more than 15,000 students across the country, Wednesday marked the first day of Resistance School — a program where the educational focus is mobilizing against President Donald Trump's administration. 

"Each one of us has people in our lives who were disturbed by the outcome of the election and saw it as a call to action," said Joe Breen, one of the Resistance School co-founders. He's a third-year student in a joint degree program at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School. "We recognized that we had the opportunity to help them develop the skills that they would need to get involved in political action." 

Resistance School organizers — a group of Harvard graduate students — said a couple hundred people participated in the first lesson in person at the Ivy League campus in Boston on Wednesday, while about 15,000 people of all ages tuned in via livestream from 50 states and 20 countries. They estimated the total participation was even larger because students were encouraged to host watch parties in groups.

I love it.

Though somehow I doubt this will help convince any of Trump's supporters that universities are not liberal tools for the indoctrination of young people.

But then again if we have more programs like this perhaps there won't BE so many damn Trump supporters.

The message is spreading. Even to ballparks.

Protesters unfurl giant "Impeach Trump" sign at Washington Nationals game https://t.co/GPz6JpXn0Q pic.twitter.com/xn5Hw5C4yJ

— The Hill (@thehill) April 4, 2017

By the way Massachusetts city became the latest municipality around the country to call for an impeachment investigation into the Trump presidency.

And again, the noose gets a little tighter. 

Hillary Clinton comes out of the woods ready to fight.

Courtesy of SF Gate:  

In the latest sign that she is ready to come “out of the woods” politically, Hillary Clinton offered a mantra Tuesday in San Francisco to those opposing the Trump administration: “Resist. Persist. Insist. Enlist.” 

Clinton appeared on stage for about an hour Tuesday at the Professional BusinessWomen of California Conference at Moscone Center West, with most of her remarks focusing on the struggles women face in the workplace. 

Resist actions that go against our values as Americans, she said. Insist that we can all do better. Persist, as Clinton said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., did when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to prevent her from quoting Coretta Scott King on the Senate floor during the debate over Jeff Sessions’ appointment as attorney general. 

Then bring that “passion we’ve seen in the last few weeks,” to the voting booth in 2018. “Show up and vote, for goodness sakes.” And enlist in the resistance effort — “get in the arena,” she said, by running for office or starting a business that is supportive of your employees. 

What Clinton found “so maddening” during was the recent health care debate was that Republicans were not showing empathy to the people they represented. 

“Really? Take away maternity care?” Clinton said. “Really? Take away mental health and substance abuse care? Who do these people talk to? Do they not have any idea about the suffering that goes on?”

It is nice to see the People's President again.

I think she provides an important voice for the resistance and that she can help rally the troops and keep them fired up for the battle ahead.

Well this is my damn response.

Source

I hate it when people say to give Trump a chance.

Like why in the world would I ever give a Kremlin puppet a chance?

Keith Olbermann uses Donald Trump's own tweets to show that Russia will be his undoing.

Yeah you really don't need to rely on unverified reports or poorly sourced articles to demonstrate Trump's unsavory relationship with Russia, he tells you all about it in his tweets.

Keith Olbermann's newest video for The Resistance. Update!

NEW VIDEO: His claims about the Russians hacking our election: What Did Trump Know And When Did He Stop Knowing It? pic.twitter.com/PXxDLTsRzw

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) January 4, 2017

I have heard a couple of you calling on me to lead an underground movement of sorts to oppose Donald Trump and to obtain and disseminate information that will hopefully undermine his presidency and sabotage his plans for the country.

Okay, I'm on board.

But I cannot do it alone.

Remember I am a solo gig all the way up here in Alaska so I need comrades in arms. Others who are just as fed up with what is happening as I am. Others who have resources that I do not.

One of those others must certainly be Keith Olbermann, who, to his credit, has been banging the drum for opposition against Donald Trump since even before the election.

I dearly love Rachel Maddow, and have great respect for some of the hosts on MSNBC, CNN, and other news outlets, but THEY are hampered by the corporations they work for and the need for advertising dollars.

Keith Olbermann is free to say just about anything he wants to about Donald Trump, the state of the country, and what we need to do to fight back against tyranny.

So as far as I can tell he may be the perfect front man for this resistance.

He was a hero of mine during the Bush years and he may be the very hero we need during these trying times as well. 

So with that piece in place, let's start recruiting others to join with us in opposing Donald Trump, and hopefully with enough help we can work to minimize the damage that he will surely do before wrenching back control and putting it into more competent hands.

Viva la Resistance!

Update: Well it looks as if I may have underestimated Rachel Maddow.

She had one of the authors of "The Indivisible, A Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda." She essentially advertised what was in the guide while also promoting the fact that it has inspired numerous groups around the country.

I have received that link a number of times, and read what it says. But now it looks as if it has actually inspired a following, and is becoming the blueprint for the resistance movement.

Now we're cooking with gas.