We Are The Candles

Hello Resisters,                                                                                                             

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.  (Attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi) 🕯️

We are the candles.  And we will not be extinguished.  Controlling the narrative and manipulating the media, ’Information Spectrum Dominance’ as one Trump staffer called it, is meant to exhaust us.  The noise and assault is everywhere, all the time.  Overwhelming and dominating information systems generates an unsustainable volume of controversial actions all at once.  It exhausts media capacity to thoroughly investigate any single issue.  It overwhelms our attention span, blurring the distinction between serious threats and political theater.  It distracts from fundamental institution changes. Which is why we must be the candles.  We cannot be exhausted and extinguished.    

World:

It happened again…in Romania.  Their pro-European Union presidential candidate Nicusor Dan won the country’s presidential election today.   He had a clear win over his rival hard -right candidate George Simon, a fan of Trump.   (58% and counting).  Over 10 million Romanians voted, choosing between East and West, rejecting the rise of Trump-style nationalism in Europe.  That’s 3 weeks in a row that elections in other countries have rejected Trumpism.  (Canada, Australia, Vatican Pope Leo plays Wordle) Four candles in the darkness, and another happy dance from me.  

National:  

Focus is still on demonstrating on 14 June, Flag Day, Trump’s Military Parade Day. The theme of the demonstration is “No Kings”.  In addition to signs, bring flags.  If out of town, search ‘50501’  on your browser to find a demonstration near you.   

‘5 Calls’ lists 59 issues to call about this week. Buried in the budget reconciliation bill is a proposed law State Governments from making or enforcing any laws regulating Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the next 10 years.  More than 30 states have passed laws regulating dangerous aspects of AI, such as creation of deepfakes and non consensual/child pornography.  These laws could not be enforced if the budget reconciliation bill passes with this language.  It also means states can’t protect you from algorithmic discrimination in hiring, housing, healthcare, or education.  No state laws against facial recognition, AI surveillance or data misuse.  No guardrails, no transparency, no accountability.  Who benefits? Elon Musk.  Make those calls to your two senators and representative.  Ask your friends in states with red elected representatives to call as well.  

The Episcopal Church stood up to Trump by refusing to help his administration resettle white South African “refugees,” ending a decades-long collaboration with the US Government on refugee resettlement.  This comes as 49 Afrikaners arrived in the United States last Monday as “refugees.”  Charles Kleinhaus, one of the 49  wrote on twitter in 2003 that Jews were untrustworthy, a dangerous group and not God’s chosen.  The same administration has used similar posts to deport pro-Palestinian activists and deny immigration requests.   

John Ewing Jr. was elected Omaha’s first Black mayor on Tuesday, defeating the city’s three term Republican mayor, Jean Stothert , in a race where Democrats sought to tie her to Trump’s unpopular agenda – another warning sign for Republicans in a critical battleground area.  Stothert had kept her seat over three terms by building a broad-based coalition that included the city’s many independent voters. (Candle in a swing state) 

State:  

Hugo Monteiro a Brazilian American form Revere was taken by ICE agents outside Cambridge District Court when they confused him for another person.  He was later released.  

I found this new app where you can report sighting of any ICE officers within a 5-mile vicinity. ICEBlock. The app is an illustrated logo featuring a melting ice cube.  It is only available on the iphone, does not require a formal account and is free. If other app users are located within that radius and have notifications turned on, they’ll get a heads-up push about the spotting.  No photo attachments or voice recordings are available on the app because it offers no storage system.  Reported sightings disappear from ICEBlock after 4 hours.  Obviously, this wouldn’t work here in Rochester, but if you frequent New Bedford, Worcester, Boston, or other major cities, consider downloading it.  Think of it as a candle. 

Local:

Rochester town clerk opened early voting for town elections.  Early voting is 19-22 May, 8:30-12:30 at town hall.  A group of 25 or more of us wrote postcards today to select registered voters reminding them to vote.  Vote Kristin Jimenez for RMS school committee. Nate Reece for parks commission.  Vote yes on hiring verses electing our town clerk.  A ‘yes’ vote ensures we get a qualified candidate who will go through a hiring process to fill the job.  In our last town wide election, we experienced a grievous mistake by the inexperienced clerk which skewed the election and cast doubt on several outcomes.  For this election, a candidate’s name is spelled incorrectly.  The demands and complexity of the job increase yearly with new laws reporting regulations and technical requirements.  We need a vetted qualified clerk, that goes through a hiring process ensuring they are up to the task.  

MAGA has come up with a web site ‘Public Square.”  They promote it as a “technology-enabled market place and payments ecosystem serving consumers and merchants who value life, family, and liberty.”  All you need to do, to find local businesses who embrace MAGA is go to this website, type in your zip code, and you’ll be rewarded with a map that highlights all the businesses that apparently meet MAGA standards. Businesses apply to be on the website, therefore you can rest assured, they are “red” businesses.    

If you want to ‘vote with your wallet’ an app and web site I use is “Goods Unite Us”. The data provided on the free website and app looks up the political giving of brands and companies. Search for a company or brand, and they will show you what percentage the company, its affiliates and its senior management and executives collectively donate to Republicans and Democrats.   

My Two Cents:

We are about 3 lines deep into the “first they came for” poem.  It’s not a very long poem.

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s was arrested by Capitol Police after demonstrating in the Capitol  You  know what to buy when you stock up on ice cream for the summer.   

In case you were wondering why Librarian of Congress  Dr. Carla Hayden, and Registrar of Copyrights Shira Hayden were fired last week, they both refused to rubber stamp Musk’s requests to use copyrighted works to train AI models. When Trump appointees, which include his former defense attorney, tried to access the library, the library staff and legal counsel stood firm denying appointed access, calling in Capitol Police, refusing to recognize their authority without explicit direction from Congress.  (More candles) 

There is so much more I could include in this email.  One of the hardest parts is deciding what to keep and what to ignore.  I don’t want it to be overwhelming with doom and gloom. We are already inundated with that Information Spectrum Dominance.  Please continue to keep making phone calls, attend demonstrations, donate money if you can, share this email, vote with your wallet, and partake in forms of good trouble. We can be a thousand candles.   

I know some of you probably notice I repeat some of the stuff I write about.  That is because our address list keeps growing.  New emails are added each week.  Sometime in the future, I will change where this email generates from.  It will probably have a fancy political name, if I can come up with one, and it’s not already taken.  Suggestions welcome.  

Until next week.