Bill Ayers

http://www.kzoo.edu/praxis/hope-is-a-choice/

Step 46: On the last day of 2016, Donald Trump tweeted his unique New Year’s greeting to the nation: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”

Step 47: On December 30 Donald Trump had his private security force remove Harry Hurt III, author of the 1993 biography, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, from the golf course at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Hurt’s book is unflattering, to be sure, and among the bits he documents is Ivana Trump’s allegation in a sworn deposition that Trump had “raped” her during their divorce battle. Hurt was a guest of the notorious billionaire David. H. Koch, a club member. You’re fired!

Step 48: I’m on the Trump/Pence email list as a result of having gotten a ticket online to the notorious Trump rally in Chicago during the campaign. I get fund-raising pitches constantly, and this one arrived at the start of the new year: “Friend, With Inauguration Day just weeks away, we’re launching an Inaugural Collection of special-edition merchandise to commemorate this historic day in American history. First among the Inaugural Collection is a set of two Made-in-America 16-ounce pint glasses decorated with a special seal honoring the 45th president. Get your Official Inauguration Pint Glass Set now to celebrate the swearing in of President-Elect Trump.” Cheap.

Step 49: One hundred corporate CEOs possess company retirement funds totaling $4.7 billion—this is equivalent to the entire retirement savings of 41% of US families. Donald Trump’s pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget says: “We must end Medicare as we know it.”

Step 50: The new Republican-led Congress voted behind closed doors to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, dismantling reforms adopted in the wake of a previous Republican ethics scandal. The measure would take away authority and independence from the investigative body and give more power to lawmakers to self-monitor—the good old days. A firestorm of opposition—much of it raising the specter of Donald Trump’s embedded conflicts of interest and pending kleptocracy—forced an almost immediate reversal.

Pay attention! Resist and be heard!

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/trump-zionism-israel-palestine-zoa-free-speech-sjp-activism/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/31/israel-palestine-two-state-solution-flaws-john-kerry-plan

I know, I know: the word  has become an electrifying political pejorative, stripped of substance, and further, it’s so historically freighted and so overused and misused that the word can seem wildly inappropriate if one hopes to speak plainly. But “fascism” does have a precise meaning beyond the optics of swastikas and jack-booted SS men. Fascism is not consigned to a particular place or a specific moment—Europe in the mid-Twentieth Century, for example; fascism is not necessarily the result of a coup or a military putsch, and in fact the most notorious fascist regime in history came to power through a legal and democratic process. It’s long been said that if fascism ever came to America it would come with a familiar face wrapped in an American flag. YIPES!

So, yes, let’s talk about fascism.

Simply put, fascism is a right-wing form of government that opposes liberal democracy, Marxism, socialism, and anarchism, and attempts to forge national unity under an autocratic leader with a totalitarian program advocating  stability, law and order, and more and more centralized power, claiming all of this is necessary in order to defend the homeland, and to respond effectively to economic instability. Fascist states attempt to mobilize a mass base through deliberately constructed fear and hatred as they prepare for armed conflict and permanent war by appealing to patriotic nationalism and militarizing all aspects of society. Fascists agitate “popular” movements in the streets, apparently spontaneous but in reality well funded and highly organized, based on bigotry, intolerance, and the threat of violence, all of it fueled by the demonization of targeted, distinct racial, religious, or gendered vulnerable populations and the creation of convenient sacrificial scapegoats who are repeatedly  blamed for every social or economic problem people experience. Fascist regimes promote disdain for the arts, for intellectual life, for reason and evidence, as well as deep contempt for the necessary back and forth of serious argument or discussion. And fascist states favor protectionist and interventionist economic policies as they entangle corporations with the state.

That’s fascism.

Step 41: The US—breaking a shameful historical precedent with a significant (if entirely inadequate given US culpability) half-step— abstained from vetoing a UN Security Council vote condemning the Israeli settlement movement, in effect allowing the rest of the world a voice to state the obvious: Israel is an illegal occupier. The next day Secretary of State John Kerry (too little/too late) noted that Israel’s practice of seizing Palestinian land while denying Palestinian people equal rights cannot continue indefinitely; that occupation and democracy are incompatible; and that criticism of Israel’s racist and murderous policies is not anti-semitism. But Israel has no incentive to comply with Kerry’s moderate talking points—the US had just committed billions more in military aid, and that aid was greeted with unrestrained settlement construction. Donald Trump tweeted, “Stay strong Israel, January 20 is fast approaching.” Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been in full tantrum mode, stomping his feet and issuing threats, replied with a gushing thank you note, and the bromance escalated.

Step 42: When the Obama administration expelled Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions in retaliation for an alleged hacking incident involving the US national elections, Vladimir Putin had an unexpected response, announcing he would not respond in kind, descending to the level of squabbling, but would await a more reasonable Trump administration. Donald Trump tweeted that it was a “great move” by Putin. “I always knew he was smart.”

Step 43:  Donald Trump (with the full support of the incoming Republican leadership) has proposed a giant tax cut with YUGE benefits to the “makers” and the “job creators” (aka the richest Americans) with an average cut of at least $1,100,000 to the richest 0.1%.

Step 44: The Donald J. Trump Foundation announced that it planned to dissolve itself, but the New York attorney general’s office said, in effect, not so fast: “The Trump Foundation is still under investigation…and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete.”

Step 45: Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son, announced that he will have no role in the new administration and will immediately cease his practice of attending high-level business and political meetings—while he would still talk to his father about many matters, they would never discuss or even mention business affairs again, since Eric will be running the Trump businesses with his brother, Donald, Jr. and their dad is the conflicts-of-interest are staggering.

January 20 is close at hand, it’s true. No time like the present to rise up and resist.

In order to combat anguished feelings of powerlessness, overwhelming sadness, or a sense of wretched hopelessness, organize a meeting in your work place, your classroom, your building or residential block. Gather together in the spirit of dialogue, speaking with the hope of being heard, and listening with the possibility of being changed. Serve cookies to your neighbors, students, friends, and fellow workers. Initiate a conversation in which folks name this political moment and talk about what is to be done now. Sanctuary, solidarity, resistance, rising up. History has surprised us before, and history can surprise us again—and, who knows?—perhaps we will be the agents of that surprise!