STRATEGY ON 'MONDAY MORNING' AND ONWARD!

OK, everyone. We won a sizable victory last night, but now is not the time to rest on laurels by any means!
I suggest we're in a position like that of the Allies in September 1914 after the First Battle of the Marne (the 'miracle' of the Marne battle). We haven't won the war but just that battle: we have saved Paris from the Hun.
Let's be thankful that last night turned out to be analogous to September 1914 and not to June 1940 by all means but let's also remember that First Marne determined no more than that World War I would continue. Our enemies (and, yes, I use that term as, by whom and, more importantly, WHAT they've supported and continue to support they make themselves our enemies and the enemies of the best things in our common country) will retrench. They are still strong, still a host mighty in battle and still with utterly no scruples what they do to either take power and wealth or to hold on to it. We need mimic them only in pulling no punches, but they supply us with so much material we needn't lie about a thing; just lose no time in throwing all THEIR lies back in their teeth, exposing ALL their hypocrisies, hammering home the ramifications of everything THEY want for everyone and, also, marshalling images dear to most of us except maybe the hardcore racists. Remember the 7-9 million people who voted for Obama twice and then fell for Trump: we need to welcome them back. Don't waste time with trying to curry favor with those who, consciously or unconsciously, are ruled by their bigotries. Continue organizing, teaching and engaging people who have (and, mostly, not without good reason) grown disenchanted with the whole business of politics. Continue teaching others how to tell truth from lies and continue learning more of that ourselves. Some of you may need to ask yourselves if you've fallen for anything coming from Pallywood. It isn't that hard to swipe uniforms and weapons that at least look 'Israeli'. But that's all on that for now. The main point is, the war continues. Let's be thankful we won this battle (although I ACHE at losing four Southern elections--two gubernatorial and two senatorial--by whiskers even while I'm heartened our people only lost BY whiskers!) and prepare for the next ones, starting right now. Again: continue organizing, teaching and engaging! That's the best preparation for the coming fights!
God bless y'all; God save the United States and enable us to build democracy anew and extend its practice further than ever before!

THE THREE 'LEGS' OF REAL MANHOOD

I don't know if this administration is one of the last kicks of white male patriarchy, aka white male assholery, or whether it's a serious comeback. I want to believe the former! But in any case, I suggest that such assholery is the absolute negation of what I understand to be REAL manhood. And in this post I'll say a bit about what I understand to be the three legs of the tripod of true manhood.
1) INTEGRITY: Your habit is to speak what you have seen to be true and just. You speak out against bullies and speak out against those who bully others before yourself. If possible, settle the hash of such rotters yourself. But understand having your ignorance be made plain is NOT bullying you; then it befits you to ask questions as to what you may be missing! In NO CASE do you lie to a woman in order to lie with her or try to inebriate her to the same end! And remember: real men apologize if they've done wrong or have made mistakes. It's the overgrown frat BOYS who can't or won't do so! You make a habit of the truth--NEVER of lies!!
2) RESPONSIBILITY. You make a decision and abide the consequences. Real men may and should seek to mitigate the ill effects of a bad decision (especially to others) but don't make excuses--and learn the difference between excuses and real explanation! Acknowledge your part in mistakes without varnish. Again, real men apologize and do what they can to make real amends to others affected by such decisions. You do not build yourself up by tearing down others; rather when you build up others who are struggling you may find you build up yourself as well!
3) COURTESY. Unless someone has already shown his/her assholery already, let your language be civil and courteous to all--to a janitor as to a judge. The flip side of this is making it clear, when faced with assholery, that's what's happening. A real man does NOT allow his hormones to overrun someone else's stated boundaries but rather is master enough over his hormones even to the point of being able to halt them like braking a car just in time. But if you feel you're being dishonestly 'played with', especially by a girl or woman, civilly take your leave and GO. If they want to know why, tell them. If they still try to snow you, then leave. If they genuinely try to apologize or explain honestly, feel free to reconsider. Otherwise, withdraw! Take differences of race, ethnicity, orientation, etc., in stride and do what you can to bridge such gaps. This is done usually by careful listening and asking of questions with a frank acknowledgement of your own ignorance in the matter at hand.
This may be the beginning of something larger; I don't know if I'll have more to say on this matter, but suffice it for me to say: three things, and only ALL these three things together, make a man out of a boy, overgrown or otherwise: INTEGRITY, RESPONSIBILITY and COURTESY!

THOUGHTS & SHARINGS ON NONVIOLENCE

This is the first new post published on this site under its new name, L'Ami Du Peuple.
This time I've quite a bit to share and to ask. Allow me to begin by sharing two articles from Daily Kos which I think can have some significant bearing on the issues discussed here:
http://click.actionnetwork....
http://click.actionnetwork....
What looks to me like a sticking-point is when someone else (Nazis, Islamists, Christianist Talibans) declares their dignity and/or destiny fulfillment requires your extirpation and/or extermination. My understanding of the Sermon on the Mount has been shaped in large part by Walter Wink's masterwork, Engaging The Powers. He makes the point how the most 'difficult' parts of that sermon are actually ways to assert one's own human dignity while also respecting that of the other. But when that respect (according to them) mandates your absence from your land and, indeed, from the whole earth, what can one really do but defend oneself? This, by the way, has been the viewpoint of most 'Palestinians' toward Israel, including their leadership, but it's a viewpoint they'll only express in Arabic between themselves and after being as sure as possible that no Western bleeding hearts ('useful idiots' to them) can hear or understand.
On the other hand, that God has placed this dilemma before the Jews can be a wonderful riposte to the 'supersessionist' heresies: this is probably something humanity as a whole needs to learn, and guess who's learning it first? God's original 'pilot group'!
Jesus speaks to us to the extent that we can 'hear' him today; his meanings were and are primarily directed at that first crowd, nearly all of whom were in positions not where someone else's right or dignity demanded their genocide, but one where they endured a thousand daily slights from parents, husbands (let's be brutally honest), upper-class Jews and occupying Romans. The examples Jesus gives are meant as forms of moral jujitsu, where you use your opponent's weight to throw him/her.
Nonviolence of this kind is a way which can and should be used at every stage in fighting injustice short of actual genocide coming at one and one's marked group. But acknowledgement of the oppressor's humanity is a necessary part of it; otherwise it degenerates into a 'mask' for hate-fueled violence. This is why all the 'Palestinian' attempts at 'nonviolence' (at least most of those we hear about) have failed. When either party has no conscience to be touched, nonviolence short-circuits and cannot work.
I don't know if this is part of nonviolence training as yet, but I had an idea for an exercise: to look the adversary squarely in his/her eyes with openness and see what happens. If s/he looks away or 'halts', even for a New York nanosecond, you may have touched something alive in them. Now, it may be you will see death, or nothing alive, in their eyes. That, I think, will be either the sign of one with no conscience or a narcotized or broken one. I don't know even if there is a way to tell one from t'other, much less how to do so. But I guess that's a matter for further study and lots of prayer. God bless and keep you all and I hope I haven't ranted and rambled too much.

CAMPAIGN ADVICE FOR 2018 AND BEYOND

Chemi Shalev hits on something important today in his 'Chemisphere' briefing, something REALLY important for all us libs and progs: he points out, again, that our Sincere Virtue in opposing the right-wing program that I call Trumpery (it's an actual word; look it the f*** up!) won't gain us victory. Even money from me on that WITH our own positive message getting us there! What we need to get us over the top for real is getting AWAY from that awful pedagogical 'eat-your-veggies' style shared by WAY too many of us!
For an example: I supported Bernie two years ago in the primaries, but that was because of what he wanted to do and I was able to get past his personal style, which can charitably be described, I think (Sorry, Bern!) as 'clunky'. How many actual or possible voters EVER get past the personal style of candidates? We need uncompromising honesty about this!
We need more candidates who take THEMSELVES a lot less seriously. People who can campaign with more than a little personal pizzazz, who can leaven their speeches with interesting-sounding quotes, lyric lines or take-your-pick--people not afraid to laugh at themselves and with the courage to invite their audiences to join with them in doing so!
Yes, we need to take our platform seriously but for victory's sake don't be so dam'...heavy-faced about it. Take a clue or two from 'Scaramouche' as Sabatini wrote him up. Don't hold back on scaring our audiences with, say, the consequences of NOT tackling climate change or inequality further widening! I have at least a few ideas about such dystopian images; feel free to ask about 'em!
And on the same note I'd advise my brethren on the religious Left to, while I hope they preach and, far more importantly, LIVE love of all, to also edge--but ONLY edge--their sermons and speeches with a tongue or two of fire and the same number of whiffs of brimstone. I think it'll be good!
We also need to encourage people to contribute in non-monetary ways. I know I hate that candidates and organizations never stop begging for cash! But it's also important to have people see what they CAN pitch in with. We need to be much more Disraelis than Gladstones here. Less impressing others with OUR purported brilliance and more illumining the brilliance in members of our audiences. At any rate, let there be no more cause for us to wail the lament of Charlie Brown's ever-losing baseball team: "How could we lose? We were so SINCERE!" Puh-LEEZE!
Finally, when we DO need to 'teach', let's do so not in the oh-so-superior style of the most irritating teacher in the school, but in the style of a coach calling his players out for doing less of a good job than they could have done--and expecting that, thus chastised and instructed, they WILL do better!