Bruce Dixon’s critique of Rev Barber’s sermon on militarism


Not surprising, but even so, still disappointing.  All content at BAR is listed as Creative Commons, so I’ll bring all of it.  ‘Barber’s Sermon on Militarism Reveals Philosophical & Political Limitations of the Poor Peoples Campaign’, Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor, 11 May 2018

“The 70 minute lecture on militarism by the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign earlier this month is no small thing both for who was talking, and for what was said. We would have liked to link directly to the video, as is our custom, but unfortunately it’s a Facebook video, shareable only to other Facebook pages. So you’ll have to check it out out here . There are several versions in circulation, but this is the best one, produced by Repairers of the Breach and the PPC’s own communications shop. It’s 2 hours and 20 minutes, all of it worth a serious listen, in order to get a sense of who and what the PCC and its world view are [sic] abd again, what they’re saying.

The organizational forces mustered behind Rev. Dr. William Barber and the Poor Peoples Campaign are nothing less than a broad swath of mainline and other US Protestant churches, backed by the generous gifts of a galaxy of foundations and individual wealthy contributors, supplemented by the bottom-up energy pulled from many thousands of church communities, their activists, and the innumerable good works they carry on. Rev. Barber speaks for the politically leftish wing of the Institutional Church in the US, which has pretty much anointed him the mantle of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s final year with a way bigger budget, and minus the burden King carried as one of the nation’s most hated, derided and despised public figures.

In a little over an hour, Rev. Barber’s sermon stakes out a number of anti-imperialist and anti-militarist positions on US and world history, and on current US imperial policy more explicit and more advanced than any the Church has issued in the past. He notes the foundational American crimes of Native American and African genocide, land theft and slavery, white supremacy and settler colonialism. Barber condemned Vietnam and scores of US interventions all over the planet since WW2 as illegal and immoral, and denounces environmental devastation as immoral too. He names the US empire’s military budget as the principal obstacle to human progress inside the US. These and other evolving positions reflect the fact that the Church is a field of contention too, in which a number of institutional and activist forces are vying for influence. Barber’s position makes him a kind of Church politician, and activists inside and outside the Church are pushing Barber and the PPC to the left.

But the limitations of the PPC are both philosophical and political.

Philosophically the PPC’s historical and current analysis blames everything on immoral persons and immoral policies, on a lack of moral depth and moral commitment , distorted moral narratives and moral analyses, to which Barber puts forth the remedies of “moral revival,” of a “massive moral reset” to be accomplished by “moral defense”, moral resistance,” by nonviolent direct action and in the line where he and his audience were most enthusiastic and at ease by rising up and “…voting like never before.” The problem here is that labeling your political opponents, their leaders, their misguided values and their persons as “immoral” is never a persuasive political tactic. It might make those already on your side feel nice and comfy to know they’re all moral and the other guys are not, but it’s functionally indistinguishable from Hillary appearing to call 60 million Trump voters a “basket of deplorables.” That kind of thing wasn’t respectful or persuasive coming from Hillary and it’s not any better coming from Barber and the PPC.

The PPC’s philosophical limitation becomes a political limitation because it excuses them from helping craft political messaging or strategies that might break the hold of Trump and the right upon tens of millions of Americans by somehow appealing to their class interest. The “immorality is the root of empire, war, economic injustice, environmental [destruction] and poverty” construct is at the very core of their political analysis, and it’s the nexus around which all their remedies revolve. Without a transcript I’d guess Barber’s 70 minute oration on militarism used the word “moral” a couple hundred times to explain the past and present but didn’t use the words capitalism, socialism, class or working class once. How we can explain, let alone solve economic injustice, environmental destruction, white supremacy and the rest without these concepts is a mystery that makes Barber’s and the PPC’s actual politics of change more than a little cloudy.

The lack of any political endgame for the Poor Peoples Campaign beyond “vote like never before” is telling. There’s an existing, a hegemonic structure of thought and belief, of received societal “wisdom” and common sense that takes over when you stop being politically specific about political outcomes, a force that bends them back into familiar channels with familiar results. This kind of political cloudiness is characteristic of a particular school of “nonviolent direct action” associated with Gene Sharpe , a curious apostle of nonviolence whose entire career, publications and training apparatus was bankrolled by the US national security state.

Policy-wise there are places where Barber, the PPC and the Institutional Church are unwilling to tread. Barber and company seem barely able to recognize domestic or international crimes when these are perpetrated by Democrats. It was Obama not Bush or Trump that started giving training, material support, ammo and logistics to every single army on the African continent except Libya, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Barber’s call for “a just two state solution” is utterly oblivious of the impossibility of anybody peacefully co-existing with or creating such a thing out of the nuclear armed apartheid ethnocracy that is today’s Israel. Barber’s sermon condemns drone warfare’s murder of innocents without noting that Barack Obama originated the policy. Barber’s sermon denounces the hateful and immoral border wall, without noting that 70% of it was built under Obama, who voted for it as a US senator, leaving less than 30% to be completed by Trump. All these are places where rank and file activists inside and outside the precincts of the Church-led movement must continue to press Barber, the PPC and the Institutional Church.

The PPC has other built in political limitations as well. While legally and nominally a non-partisan endeavor, its operatives, its organizational history and political ties are firmly to the Democratic Party. Barber comes out of the NAACP, which is firmly tied by blood, business, social, funding and legal networks to the Democratic party. For all of Barber’s career, and in his previous outfit, Moral Monday Barber was known for deploying his guns of moral outrage exclusively against Republicans. That’s a big problem when austerity, empire and militarism are bipartisan projects of both ruling class parties. And of course Rev. Barber doesn’t touch the Democrat’s craven obsession with blaming Russian meddling, Russian influence and Russian perfidy of all kinds for the Democrats’ loss in 2016, and maybe for their next losses too.

Finally, despite pretentions to nonpartisanship, Rev. Barber and friends historically tend not to play well with leftists outside the Democratic party. While Barber and the forces allied with him are grateful for leftists to pad their crowds at events, forces left of the Democratic party are never allowed mic time at any events whatsoever. If the good reverend and his friends ever find a way to publicly and collegially acknowledge the presence of leftists outside the Democratic party we could easily find ourselves marching a long way against war and imperialism alongside the church folks. We won’t be the block to this happening.

We can and ought to march alongside them. What we cannot do, as socialists, is consent to be led by their cramped vision, a vision which refuses to name capitalism as the problem, let alone consider building a 21st century socialism as the solution.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and a state committee member of the GA Green Party. He lives and works near Marietta GA and can be reached via email at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.

As Dixon didn’t have a link to any of the versions of Rev Barber’s sermons, including at the ‘this one’ I’d bolded at the top, and this version having been provided at BAR earlier, I’ll embed this Repairers of the Breach production here; not 2 hrs. 20 mins, but 1:20:09, and assume it’s what he’d meant.

Now Gene Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institute were actually about non-violent protests against communist and socialist nations and related uprisings, as was Otpor!  Critics of both were chewed to bits by supporters.  Here’s Thierry Meyssan’s ‘The Albert Einstein Institution: Non-Violence According to the CIA’, venezuelanalysis.com

‘Non violence as a political action technique can be used for anything. It’s been 15 years since CIA began using it to overthrow inflexible governments without provoking international outrage, and its ideological façade is philosopher Gene Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institution. Red Voltaire reveals its amazing activity, from Lithuania to Serbia, Venezuela and Ukraine.’

And yeppers, I was schmoozed enough by a Guardian piece featuring Sharpe a decade ago or two ago that I’d blogged about his ‘handbook of techniques’, etc’.  Here is the Guardian commemorating his death at the end of January this year.

You also may remember during the early days of OWS that there were a number of churches and social gospel ministers (maybe especially blacks) who had vocally supported the movement,.  Two whose names I’ve long forgotten had gottn on stage with one of the big stars of the movement, but on the following Sunday exhorted parishioners to ‘get out the vote for Obama’  Okay, I’ll bingle for the names, hang on…

Oh, crap, Glen Ford’s ‘Occupy Wall Street joins Occupy The Dream: Is It Cooptation, or Growing the Movement?’, Jan. 2012.  Meaning it happened again in 2012.

May I also ask again: What the fuck, Counterpunch?  ‘Another Aptly Anti-Assange Article’ by Simon Floth, May 11, 2018, CP

“The antithesis of all journalistic decency has finally come to the dead end which he has relentlessly pursued for more than a decade. Ecuador has withdrawn both Assange’s internet access and his accessibility to visitors for more than a month now. Naturally his enraged supporters are invoking a UN estimate of two weeks solitary confinement as torture. Yet most of my colleagues are celebrating the development, though leaving it to the less timid to do so in a professional capacity.

While his side disputes it, Ecuador maintains that Assange had promised to do no more political agitating when, for that reason, they cut off his internet once before. I don’t know about you, but if someone on a life support system that I oversee promises not to criticise my associates and then does precisely that, well, I am not about to go wobbly at the notion of pulling a tube or two, or perhaps mixing in a whiff of mustard gas with the oxygen for enhanced effect. I’m just kidding of course.”

And believe me, he gets far uglier from there, with ad hominem attacks and lies galore, not entirely unlike those at the Intercept, Atlantic, and Daily Beast, although he even imagines that Assange’s ‘(ill) health ploys are cons’, but this is so far beyond the pale to be imaginable:

“…I always did hope claims from visiting doctors were true and that Assange was suffering pain that could easily be treated in hospital. Is this enduring caricature of a psychotic vigilant really going to be quietly smothered beside Harrods? No loss if so, but he must have more entertainment potential left than that.

May I (ever so politely) suggest to Simon Floth that he should consider having a whiff or two of that mustard gas?  or, yanno…

Just kidding, of course, Simon.  Kiss.my.grits, you evil cretin.  Too bad you have so much company in your quest to kill an anti-Imperialist, anti-capitalist purveyor of true journalism.

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

is that while many call out amerikan imperialism around the globe as MLK did, how often critics are wont to note what the massive public (much less the hidden) US military budget expenditures could have been used toward bettering the common weal in amerika.

but how few note what the costs of US imperialism are for the ordinary citizens killed, maimed, generations maimed by DU, or in diaspora as refugees, 'democracy promotion' by the CIA front organizations (USAID, NED),and compromised 'human rights organizations'?

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QMS's picture

Socialistic policy helps the poor. Capitalistic policy does not. The democrat and elephant parties embrace capitalism. Capitalism thrives on war. Supporting peace efforts is good for everyone, including the poor. Therefore, capitalistic policies are good for war, not peace. The solution is to support socialistic policies.

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truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

wendy davis's picture

@QMS

influence rev barber's 'church politician' decisions, as dixon posits. #fake leftists, as in anti-imperialist save palestinians, assad, etc. (counterpunch is now full of them, including st. clair and joshua frank, tragically), or DSA reform capitalists are just status quo bloggers and politicians, imo. same for jacobin magazine in the main.

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Wink's picture

that "progressive." Or Socialist. But it fits nicely into what once was called the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. That is, it leans slightly Left, is mostly center Left, which is where most Americans are. Bernie would fit right in with what they're doing, and I'm sure PPC would embrace Bernie and his efforts. And that said, they are non partisan, or publicly purport to be, even with the wink and nod in the general direction of the Dimocratic party. PPC is run via Protestant churches (in which I was raised) which tend to lean Left, so... the church I was raised in is even More left leaning today than back in the day when my Rev. had me all but across the Canadian border (35-40 minutes away) should I wish to go, should I get drafted. And I was hardly the only one. So... so, these are the kinds of churches PPC is associated with, and it's not surprising that PPC leans left, a wink and nod in the general direction of the Dimocratic party. The "problem," of course, is the Dimocratic party no longer leans left, so the wink and nod really moot. PPC stands on its own, its message mostly, "America crooked, go vote."

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Meteor Man's picture

@Wink
I have to agree with the BAR critique. I think Rev. Barber I on more of a moral crusade than an economic/political crusade. He could probably benefit from watching the Jimmy Dore Interview of Peter Joseph that ggersh featured earlier this morning.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

wendy davis's picture

@Meteor Man

i might like what he says, the guests he has, if i had the patience (discipline?) to actually listen to him, but his voice and body movements grate like nails on a chalkboard to me, lol.

i did note the other day that the good journalist ann garrison whose columns BAR features also seems to like dore.

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Wink's picture

too often, and
@wendy davis
interrupts guests too often, but there are worse UToob hosts.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Wink

cenk uygur used to harsh my mellow in a similar way, mainly by yelling at full vol.

should i be surprised that no one has so far mentioned anything about the wot the fook aussie simon floth hit on assange?

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Wink's picture

@Meteor Man

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Wink

are most amerikans 'center left'? an what's left, even? if you're referring to polls, i'd be wary of them. as far as i'm concerned, all polls are push polls, and just about any result can be massaged by the questions asked. i'd also recommend digging into the internals of any polling result, since the top line 'results' aren't always what they appear to be. and yes, it's a drag to dig them up, arrggh.

but it's issues that matter, no? and how strongly does one feel about an issue?

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Wink's picture

seven of us are
@wendy davis
"center left," so that's more than half (refering to my six siblings and myself).
All, 'cept me, make well over $60,000 /yr., at least one a "Millionaire" (on paper), so... not an income thing. None were "born on 3rd base," so their political views didn't change much as their income went up.
The "center left" thing has been around since day one, 1776. Tories (wingers) stayed home or bailed to Canada. The Only way The Right wins is by cheating and duping most voters. They do it very well. Anyone making less than $50,000 (half the population) that votes Repub is a moron. There are too many morons out there. "We" not only have to outvote the Repubs, "we" have to outvote the dumb Dims that vote for them.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Wink

and had forgotten to add it. yes, bernie is a good fit, and even appeared with rev barber at duke university in mid-april. i'd thought a second time as well, but i couldn't find it. some detractors of his mississippi visit are featured here as well, but common dreams does have the video from duke if you care (i hadn't).

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Big Al's picture

"March along side of them"? I don't know about that. If the effort is being purposely funneled into democratic party circles with democratic party goals and agendas, why is that much different than walking along side those in a conservative movement?
How can an organization that fawns over Obama be a realistic effort against the oligarchy?
Lots of questions, I doubt they have the answers.

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Wink's picture

@Big Al
mostly an effort to "woke" people and get them off their dead asses and off to the polls. While there is a wink and a nod in the general direction of the Dim party, nobody tells anybody who to vote for. And as the next few cycles shake out "Labels" and "Team colors" won't matter. The Dim party will be lucky to survive the 2020 campaign if, as expected, they run the usual suspects. So... so, PPC is a mostly positive effort if for no other reason it wokes people that are otherwise clueless. The rest - electing more and better progressives - comes in due time. And sooner rather than later. But, no, it ain't happening this year or 2020. Could easily happen by 2022 though. And I expect it will.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Big Al's picture

@Wink base of recruitment to the democratic party.
Ever heard of COINTELPRO, I'm sure you have. It's not just something they used to do. The powers that be have many ways to infiltrate, coopt, steer, manipulate, etc., organizations and activist efforts to insure they don't get too close, that they stay in the duopoly box, that the radicals don't get their way and challenge their power.
That's all this is doing, it's not waking people, it's guiding people to a dead end.

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Wink's picture

off your dead ass"
@Big Al
and do something campaign. Even if all you do is vote.
And it will work. Bigly.
The only "political connection" is the ones individual activists make.
And many plan to make some.
But that's outside the campaign.
Still.... nobody else doing anything, so...
I'll take what I can get. PPC my "recruitment" vehicle?
Damn straight!

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

but it's hard to say exactly what he'd meant. save that 'socialists must have their day'. me i wouldn't march w/ them even if were able, but i'm also iffy on the 'women's march on the pentagon in october, given what popular resistance has featured so far. 'war is worse fr women', as angelina jolie coupled w/ NATO, for crissakes, had maintained. seeing jolie alongside nato's jens stoltenberg on twitter, then at the guardian, made me reach for the airsick bag. and yet...BAR's black alliance for peace is a signatory, including ajamu baraka (whose twit account blessedly no longer features the sell-out jill stein).

but bruce's 'what if non-deplorables' might bewaiting in the wingsfor an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist class message...could be heard? is at the core, even if one believes as you and i do, that voting at the federal level esp...means nothing. sorry for typos, i'm on a bit of a tear in 3 directions.

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Big Al's picture

@wendy davis to influence. Just questioning, I can't totally dismiss it. I think too many efforts are designed to end in a dead end without challenging the power. And this one clearly ends in the democratic party, the mother of all dead ends. Any efforts that don't challenge the power are pretty useless at this point.

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CS in AZ's picture

@Big Al

I think too many efforts are designed to end in a dead end without challenging the power. And this one clearly ends in the democratic party, the mother of all dead ends.

Although they claim to be nonpartisan, it is clearly a democratic party effort, but even if it’s not it’s unquestionably functioning to channel people’s energy and unrest into waiting on and placing all hope in politicians and elections. The mother of all dead ends, exactly. It’s like an inescapable black hole.

When I read that their plan to address all these immoral, unacceptable actions of our government is, can you believe it, to get out there and “vote like never before” — my first thought was oh no, not this shit again. Yet another energy sponge, specifically designed to prevent any real change. I’m sure most of those involved don’t see it that way, they are true believers. But nonetheless. It is what it is.

Then I read the editorial comment from the BAR article on this idea, and feel he nailed it.

The lack of any political endgame for the Poor Peoples Campaign beyond “vote like never before” is telling. There’s an existing, a hegemonic structure of thought and belief, of received societal “wisdom” and common sense that takes over when you stop being politically specific about political outcomes, a force that bends them back into familiar channels with familiar results.

Yes, exactly. It never ends. The pressures that are exerted on us all, pushing us from every side toward these “familiar channels with familiar results” is enormous. Other avenues are literally unthinkable, for almost everyone it seems. I have no idea how to fight against that.

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Big Al's picture

@CS in AZ because imo that's what the goal should be, to change the power structure, including this political system. There's one thing that almost everyone knows and understand, the rich and their banks and corporations rule over the rest of us. That has to change. I find it interesting how people like this PPC effort call for radical changes but none of them ever call for radical changes to this country's political system. That's very telling.

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CS in AZ's picture

@Big Al

because that term is subconsciously and consciously associated with violence, and major upheaval with unpredictable results. This is scary, in an immediate way that people do not fear the oligarchs that are bleeding us dry. Nobody can understand what revolution means unless it’s blood and fighting in the streets, and very, very few people are going to get on board with that. So I’m not sure revolution is a good word to use unless you can draw them a picture, so to speak, of what that might look like.

For me, it’s been about first, an internal, mental revolution — a radical change in my thinking, which leads to different beliefs and different choices. And your persistent, strong voice here did a lot to help turn the key Big Al. You did get through, eventually. I think it was the day you talked about, yes, morality. You said it’s immoral to support an evil, mass murdering, torturing, government if they will just give me healthcare, or whatever. You were right. I saw it plain as day, all of a sudden after years of hearing it without hearing it. Why? Who knows. But, thank you.

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Wink's picture

change" defined or enacted?
@CS in AZ
Outside of voting the only other option is violence.
"Real change" would be enacted if - If - over 60% of the Bottom 50% voted.
Bigly.
Which essentially is the whole point of PPC. "Poor People don't vote. What would happen if they did?"
This bull$h!t that "voting doesn't matter," and only "something OTHER than voting" is going to cure what ails us is just that. b.s. Becuz there is no "something other."
People are glued to Fox and MSLSD. You think "something other" is going to bring change?
What "other" you got?
PPC is one something other. It may not be the alpha nor omega of something other, but it's more than what many are calling for.
If this war is going to be won it's going to be won from both Inside and Outside the Establishment.
The inside part is voting.
The outside part - what many are calling for - is yet to be determined.
I would argue that PPC is part of the outside. Others argue it's "totally inside Establishment."
Whatever.... inside, outside, it's a part of the war.
I'm all for playing on the outside.
This war cannot be won strictly by playing inside the lines.
Will never happen from the inside.
But...
there is no outside. Yet. The only "outside" we got is those Berniecrats running, and many consider that just more of the same ol' lame ol' Inside game. Well, fine. Fine. Where's your outside game? What game ya got? 'cuz I see none. And until ya got one....
But if ya get one I'm more than willing to play!
Becuz it's likely going to take more than voting to win this game.
Me? I'm going to use PPC to get more players on "my" team.
Inside, Outside, I don't care how you define it, I just know the more players I got on "my" team, the better chances I have of winning.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Wink

photo? and bruce dixon said rev barber had used the term a couple hundred times to complete audience approbation. as mr. wd said: 'how fucking moral is it to skate right on by democrat war criminals?' and oh, yes, the berniecrats/our revolution seem to evidence similar morality: issues of war are barely mentioned, but 'moral economy' is. how do you square the two?

i expect those looking for a different system might be thinking as zeese and flowers of the oct. 2011 movement had: if enough of us were to show our mettle, as in:

'rise like lions from your slumber...
we are many, they are few'

...the government will resign, and we'll set the rules over again'. but of course, silly pipedream or not, it would be the time of demagogues to rise...and offer their brand/s of cohesion.

wsws wants a challenge by a working class party, of course, but a global one. but you really think that the PPC will help waking up people to that extent esp.w' no mention of class distinctions and socialism? i'm not seeing it, myownself. and what of the funders? is rev barber tailoring his sermons to accommodate them? i'd sure think so, but then, maybe's he's totally down with his own message. "don't rock the boat too much." vote dem.

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Wink's picture

ya got sumpthin',
@wendy davis
ya don't.
Personally I have no problem with their "morality message."
After all, it's the same message that got Moral Mondays started, and they've damn near flipped NC.
And, granted, the PPC presenter /activist could barely get the word out without choking, so I think most in attendance "get" that "message." wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
As I said, Inside, Outside, I don't care how you define PPC, don't make any difference to me. It's all part of the same war. And until the Outside crowd actually has an Outside game I'll play the Inside game, tyvm.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Wink

please say which war, then, and why you're so glad moral mondays flipped NC from red to blue.
cuz dems are so preferable?:

feb. 2018, whowhatwhy:
"Although there was bipartisan support to amend the bill with additional privacy safeguards — witness the joint efforts of Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — those amendments were defeated, and renewal was passed with the support of Democratic leaders like Californians Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi in the House, and Chuck Schumer (NY) and Dianne Feinstein (CA) in the Senate.

On November 16, the Senate passed a $700 billion military expansion bill — almost $40 billion more than what Trump had asked for. The vote was 89-8. Soon the Trump administration will ask for $716 billion for 2019, reflecting stated concerns to counter “the undermining of the international order” by China and Russia. It’s worth pointing out that the US military budget is more than that of the next eight countries combined."

60% Of House Democrats Vote For A Defense Budget Even Bigger than trump asked for' (forbes).

but it's okay, i'll leave you alone, wink,as you have your own standards, i have mine. i wonder how many of the 26 CIA dems running will win? dems love the CIA now because: muelller investigations, yes? (smile) and they hate...russia, putin, and julian assange.

on edit: i've long wondered why so many here laugh about the advisability of voting third party, and one Q that always comes to mind is: why weren't you bothered that sanders thre his votes to clinton, and even campaigned a bit for her. given that jill stein had asked him to join her green ticket, why not throw them to stein/baraka? know what i mean?

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Wink's picture

and Green party
@wendy davis
are b.s. "options." The Indie party, on the other hand, would be a consideration.
Bernie had and has his reasons.
That he has decided, apparently, to stick with the Dims... his and our loss.
Weekly Farmers Markets and 24 Hr. Laundromats are our targets.
The Car Wash a pastability too.
Inside game, Outside game.... just play one.
Like the Lottery, ya gotta be in it to win it. "Our" problem is there aren't enough in it.
We need more players. I see PPC as a place to get more. ymmv.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

@Wink

best of luck.

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

you and Dixon--Barber strikes me as a very fine and decent human being, but, my impression is that his mission is, partly, to funnel folks into the 'Dim' Party--as some folks here are wont to say.

Wink

BTW, thanks for the gorgeous 'nature' slideshow you posted some time ago. You have about the best one that I recall seeing on 'the Internets.'

Blue/Mollie


"In a world where you can be anything--be kind."~~Author Unknown

"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
~~Author Unknown

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

wendy davis's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

of the many names. and i agree, since i'd posted the critique whole. so nice to hear that you enjoyed my backyard photos. we've created an oxygen-heavy oasis here over the decades, trees and shrubs galore (203 at last count) that the critters find homey enough to come back to year after year. with climate chaos afoot, us in what amounts to 'existential drought on the US drought monitor, it's hard to imagine what comes next for us all (four-leggeds, two-leggeds, and wingeds alike).

the winds raged again today, hard to see the budding quakies in the la platas for the dust...or is it smoke from wildfires?

hope you and yours are doing well,
wd

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Wink's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

wendy davis's picture

we have a borrowed dvd of the royal shakespearean co. danish play w/ patrick stewart and david tenet to watch.

i’ve forgotten if i’d cross-posted paul haeder’s ‘Capitalism’s heroes are the people’s scoundrels’ or not. but this is immortal technique’s shorthand for haeder’s polemical essay on the homeless he serves:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt8T-Dl1tIo]

night, all.

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wendy davis's picture

ecuadorian embassy, this is dire news from wsws.org: ‘Ecuador hints it may hand over Julian Assange to Britain and the US’, James Cogan, 12 May 2018

“Julian Assange is in immense danger. Remarks made this week by Ecuador’s foreign minister suggest that her government may be preparing to renege on the political asylum it granted to the WikiLeaks editor in 2012 and hand him over to British and then American authorities.
On March 28, under immense pressure from the governments in the US, Britain and other powers, Ecuador imposed a complete ban on Assange having any Internet or phone contact with the outside world, and blocked his friends and supporters from physically visiting him. For 45 days, he has not been heard from.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa stated in a Spanish-language interview on Wednesday that her government and Britain “have the intention and the interest that this be resolved.” Moves were underway, she said, to reach a “definite agreement” on Assange.” he goes on and on that almost none of his former allies have said...a word. not even jeremy corbin.

now stir in this from the wikileaks team:
@wikileaks 17h17 hours ago ‘Contrary to speculation, Ecuador's isolation of @JulianAssange is unrelated to Skripal. Ecuador's demands follow pressure from the US State Dept in the context of Ecuador's bid for UNGA presidency and referenced Spain. Further, his comment was to call PM Theresa May "reasonable".

and yes, it's the self-same Maria Fernanda Espinosa who's bidding to be the prez of the UN general assembly.

And of course, april 26, 2028: ‘Ecuador Signs Security Deal with US, Military Presence Expectedtelesur english

“On the same day Chapman told El Telegrafo the U.S. is waiting for an “official request” by the Ecuadorean government for the return of a U.S. military team in charge of cooperation in security that was expelled from the country in 2014.

Former President Rafael Correa expelled the Office arguing it was “outrageous” to have foreign military presence in the country and accused them of infiltrating Ecuadorean institutions to conspire against his government.”

rafael correa must be livid. assange must be terrified w/ such a full-court press going on, most especially from the current amerikan regime.

On the same day Chapman told El Telegrafo the U.S. is waiting for an “official request” by the Ecuadorean government for the return of a U.S. military team in charge of cooperation in security that was expelled from the country in 2014.

Former President Rafael Correa expelled the Office arguing it was “outrageous” to have foreign military presence in the country and accused them of infiltrating Ecuadorean institutions to conspire against his government.

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"morality" are the bible and the character called "Jesus", I'll take a pass.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Barber should take on Tim Kaine for this...https://www.fcnl.org/updates/fcnl-opposes-new-blank-check-for-war-1375

If he doesn't, his 'moral' outrage is useless.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

wendy davis's picture

@Fishtroller 02

and how many dems will vote for that bill if the delays are ever forced? renee parsons' 'The Democratic Party’s War History and the AUMF of 2018April 26, 2018. consortium news. god's blood everything at CN is 'haspel, haspel' (such low-lying fruit is everywhere, bah)

anyway...thank you.

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@wendy davis

so thanks for the link. Some day I'm going to write an op-ed for the local paper about the million reasons I left the Democratic party.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

wendy davis's picture

@Fishtroller 02

our local rag hasn't printed my letters for over a decade, lol. renee used to be on the durango (30 miles east of here) city council; i adored her. she said she'll keep us up if the vote comes, iirc. i tried to discover when it might be, the most i could find was a synopsis/take on the bill at the lawfare blog, which is...brookings institute or whatever it's called. emptywheel.net folks love the place, of course. or at least her hall monitor bmaz does.

but no, i don't think jesus would have approved of barber's 'republican war crimes only immorality', and mr. wd had muttered something to that effect as he walked away. by all accounts, jesus knew what justice is, and spoke of it broadly. the bible? well, that's a whole 'nother story, imo, as in: human written and collated. which books were left out?

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@wendy davis

Jesus also spoke of and endorsed the concept of everlasting torture for people who simply didn't agree to follow his teachings or join his "kingdom". I don't see that as any kind of justice.

http://www.usbible.com/Jesus/hellfire_jesus.htm

As far as the bible it concerned, read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason or Dan Barker's God: The most unpleasant character in all fiction.....https://www.amazon.com/God-Most-Unpleasant-Character-Fiction/dp/1454918322

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin