fascism – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Armenian Genocide

David Posnett — Sun, 02 May 2021 21:29:46 +0000

Letters to the Editor: Finally, an end to a century of U.S. complicity in Armenian genocide denial published in the L.A. Times

People from the Armenian community celebrate President Biden’s decision to formally recognize the Armenian genocide in Beverly Hills on April 24.

(Los Angeles Times)

APRIL 26, 2021 1:03 PM PT

To the editor: The Turkish government’s denial of the Armenian genocide compounds the tragedy. This policy kills the victims twice — first the actual murders, then the murder of their memory. Adolf Hitler is reported to have justified his genocidal intent by asking just before World War II, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Biden has displayed courage by taking this moral stand. The Holocaust was the next genocide. Perhaps if the free world had spoken out against the Armenian genocide, millions of lives could have been saved.

Steven Ludsin, East Hampton, N.Y. The writer was a member of the first U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which created the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

A Letter to Lee Zeldin

David Posnett — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 23:00:17 +0000

https://www.britannica.com/event/Kristallnacht

I tried to leave a message for Zeldin at the Patchogue office but the answering machine instructed constituents to email his office with a comment. I share the comments I emailed to Zeldin with you. I hope many take advantage of the opportunity to express our serious reservations of Zeldin’s positions. Steve Ludsin

Dear Congressman Zeldin,
I must protest your vote to challenge the electoral college and then send an email dated January 9, 2021 where you stated that you returned home from our nation’s Capitol after witnessing firsthand from inside the House chamber on Wednesday the best of America clash with some of the worst of it in a moment of your life you will never forget. I agree with your view that the vandalism and loss of life at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was totally unacceptable and there must be ZERO tolerance for violence in any form.
Sadly your constant support of the electoral college challenge due to an alleged rigged election encourages the very violence you condemn. You need to rethink your position.
Thank you for considering a constituent’s viewpoint. We both served on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council at different times. The attack on the Capitol was similar to Kristallnacht and we know what the results of that attack became.

Steve Ludsin

The Days After Election Day

David Posnett — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 15:30:32 +0000

As our democracy hangs by a rapidly fraying thread, it is critical that each of us do everything we can to ensure that Donald Trump is voted out of office, and once voted out of office, that he actually LEAVES office.

“The Day After Election Day,” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/opinion/trump-election-officials.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage an article in The New York Times, is an account of officials and aides who are worried the president will use the power of the government to keep himself in office. Following are highlights (lowlights is probably a more accurate term) from the article for those who can’t access it:

“Even though they can’t predict exactly what will happen, their concerns range from the president welcoming, then leveraging, foreign interference in the election, to encouraging havoc that grows into conflagrations that would merit his calling upon U.S. forces.

“I think the biggest shock he had — ’cause his assumption was the generals, ‘my generals,’ as he used to say and it used to make us cringe — was he …just assumed that generals would be completely loyal to the kaiser….And when we weren’t, that was a huge shock to him….

“This shock, and his first two-plus years of struggle with seasoned, expert advisers, led to an insight for Mr. Trump. It all came back to loyalty. He needed to get rid of any advisers or senior officials who vowed loyalty to the Constitution over personal loyalty to him. Which is pretty much what he proceeded to do.

“….Having loyalists at both the Department of Justice and D.N.I….allows him, potentially, to coordinate two key agencies of the government — secret intelligence and prosecution — toward his own political ends.

“Key officials in several parts of the government told me how they thought the progression from the 3rd to the 4th might go down.

“…Disruption would most likely begin on Election Day morning somewhere on the East Coast, where polls open first….A group could just directly attack a polling place, injuring poll workers of both parties, and creating a powerful visual — an American polling place in flames, like the ballot box in Massachusetts that was burned earlier this week — that would immediately circle the globe.

“Violence and conflict throughout that day at the polls would surely affect turnout, allowing Mr. Trump to claim that the in-person vote had been corrupted….There are many scenarios that might unfold from here, nearly all of them entailing weeks or even months of conflict, and giving an advantage to the person who already runs the U.S. government. There will likely be some reckoning of the in-person vote drawn from vote tallies and exit polls. If Joe Biden is way ahead in these projections…Mr. Trump may find himself having to claim fraud or suppression that amounts to too large a share of votes to seem reasonable. Inside the Biden campaign they are calling this “too big to rig.

“No matter how the votes split, there’s an expectation among officials that Mr. Trump will claim some kind of victory on Nov. 4, even if it’s a victory he claims was hijacked by fraud….If the streets then fill with outraged people, he can easily summon, or prompt, or encourage troublemakers among his loyalists to turn a peaceful crowd into a sea of mayhem.

“…But across the government, another official argues that citizens may yet manage to rise to the challenge of this difficult election, in a time of division.

“The last line of defense in elections is the American voter,” he told me. “This is the most vulnerable phase,” now and the days immediately after Election Day, “where we’re so eager to have an outcome, that actors both foreign and domestic are going to exploit that interest, that thirst, that need for resolution to the drama.”

And there you have it. The days and weeks after the election are likely to be a referendum – not on Donald Trump, but on each and every one of us. When everything is on the line, it’s time to do everything you can. Stay tuned.

Are we Ready?

David Posnett — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 14:52:55 +0000

The Love – Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Hudson

“the choice could not be more clear”

Caravans in Suffolk County

David Posnett — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:05:34 +0000

Trump car rally participant

From Shoshona Hershkowitz on Saturday’s rally on Long Island New York:

Yesterday, people where I live, we were harassed by the Trump caravan. This group with covered license plates, screaming slurs out of their bullhorns at intersections, calling for the Secret Service to shoot people I know, were out in full force, invading my town. They came with flags, including 3% and Q Anon flags alongside their Trump cult flags. When they came to Port Jefferson, they called friends of mine homophobic and racial slurs. They harassed people on the street, including children. They told my friend’s child, a child of color, to “go home”. If you want to know what modern day white supremacy looks like, you didn’t need to look any further than Port Jefferson yesterday.

Let’s be clear. There is no equivalent to this on the left. No one I know has attempted to cough unmasked on people. No one I know engages in calling people “faggots”. This is full on Trump white supremacy cult.

I’ll say one more thing. Republicans, you own this. You need to call your dogs off and stop it. Congressman Lee Zeldin, this is your base. These are your supporters. Your voters. Tell them to stop. Ed Romaine, you’ve said that Brookhaven is built on diversity. Stand up to the members of your party, the Republican Party, infiltrating Brookhaven, and making it unsafe for the residents.

The lines are clearly drawn at this point. You’re either with the white supremacists, or you’re not. And elected officials, failure to condemn and put a stop to this renders you complicit. Pick your side. Are you with the neo Nazis, or with the rest of us?

Last but not least, we’re going to be voting and making a real choice this election. Do we want to let these white supremacists win? Do we want to let their preferred candidates like Lee Zeldin win? I don’t. We need to send a message that #HateHasNoHomeHere , and that we will never allow white supremacists to gain this much of a foothold in America, ever again. So I ask you, #VoteThemAllOut. Destroy white supremacy and those who enable it. I’m looking at you, Lee Zeldin.

ALSO:

A woman was injured in a hit-and-run on Route 25A near North Country Road at around 12:45 p.m., police said. The parade was organized by the Setauket Patriots, an online group that supports Trump and conservative values. James Robitsek, founder of the Setauket Patriots Facebook page, led the caravan and said his car was not involved in the hit-and-run.

William Ferraro, a former Brookhaven town supervisor Democratic candidate, shared on Facebook a photo of a car with a flag reading “TRUMP 2020 F— Your Feelings” covering its license plate.

“Port Jeff is for families, not Trump rallies,” Ferraro, co-president of the Central Brookhaven Democratic Club, said. “Several of my friends were down port at the time, and witnessed obscenities on flags, cars swerving, coughing on people in mockery of COVID-19 – it really brought out the worst element.

Amy Klobuchar: the Cruz Hypocrisy regarding SCOTUS

David Posnett — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 12:58:06 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtyrrtM7iME&feature=youtu.be

People are already voting and they don’t buy in to phony Republican arguments for replacing Justice Ginsburg as soon as possible to insure enough Trump support on SCOTUS to overturn the election results if needed. Trump is not hiding his intent. This would be the death of democracy and the birth of tyranny.

We need an uprising from the majority of American voters. A revolution against tyranny. Yes, when the minority uses their ill begotten power to suppress the will of the people, that is tyranny and wide spread protests will ultimately happen.

If you are still hesitating about whether we are heading to a dictatorship, read this from Dana Milbank about the parallels between the present day Trump regime and the burning of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933!

Now lets go do our part: Phonebank! Text! Letters! Postcards!

Is it Fascism yet?

David Posnett — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 20:50:27 +0000

LETTER in the Boston Globe
How fascist is it?
Updated September 24, 2020, 1 hour ago

The cult demands allegiance
“Is it fascism yet?” by Renée Graham (Opinion, Sept. 23) reinforced my fears about how dangerous Donald J. Trump is. The American carnage he vowed to remove from our country was actually his goal. The pandemic mismanagement confirms that chaos is his modus operandi. The cult of Trump enjoys the binary approach that Trump advocates. Threats, intimidation, and violence make them feel good. Trump struts on stage with the smug arrogance displayed by Benito Mussolini. The divisive rhetoric has echoes of Adolf Hitler. Trump may not be a dictator, but that is his goal. The walk across the street from the White House with a show of force to highlight the Charlton Heston moment with a Bible in hand sent an unmistakable message. The cult of Trump requires blind allegiance. Trump lies and people die, and the refusal to wear masks shows us how bald-faced the strategy is. It gives true meaning to “in your face.” I am reminded of the warning at the entrance to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum where an American liberator of a concentration camp says these things just don’t happen. Unfortunately, they did.

Steven A. Ludsin

SPLC under attack

David Posnett — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:28:53 +0000

This past weekend, the Republican National Committee caved to white supremacist and other hate groups by adopting a resolution titled Refuting the Legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center to Identify Hate Groups.

https://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do

The focus of the resolution is that “the SPLC is a radical organization” that harms conservative organizations and voices through our hate group designations.

This attack on our work is an attempt to excuse the Trump administration’s pattern and practice of working with individuals and organizations that malign entire groups of people — immigrants, Muslims and the LGBTQ community — while promoting policies that undermine their very existence. It comes from the same vein as Trump’s claim that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Simply put, it’s an audacious attempt by Trump and the GOP to paper over the bigotry and racism that has been allowed to infect their policies.

This resolution comes at a moment when Trump will argue at the Republican National Convention that he will combat hate and bigotry, despite welcoming the support of QAnon. It also comes days after the indictment of Stephen Bannon, reminding us that Bannon was once the White House chief strategist and senior counselor and CEO of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And it comes just after our special investigation shined a light on One America News Network’s Jack Posobiec, a reporter at Trump’s favorite network who is aligned with white supremacy and has used his platform to further hate speech and propaganda.

Trump should sever these ties to hate groups and extremists instead of doubling down through this RNC resolution.

The Trump administration has filled its ranks and consulted with alumni and allies from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigrant hate group that has ties to white supremacist groups and eugenicists. They include Julie Kirchner, Kris Kobach, Jeff Sessions and, most notably, Stephen Miller.

The Trump administration has worked with hate groups like the Family Research Council (FRC) to roll back LGBTQ rights. FRC was designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group for decades of demonizing LGBTQ people and spreading harmful pseudoscience about them. Over the years, the organization has published books, reports and brochures that have linked being LGBTQ to pedophilia, claimed that LGBTQ people are dangerous to children and claimed that LGBTQ people are promiscuous and violent.

Anti-Muslim groups have also been welcomed into the administration, including the Center for Security Policy (CSP). Fred Fleitz, a longtime staffer, was appointed the executive secretary and chief of staff of the National Security Council. For decades, CSP has peddled absurd accusations that shadowy Muslim Brotherhood operatives have infiltrated all levels of government.

These extremists are seeking a license to continue spreading their bigotry and will do anything to undermine those — like the SPLC, which tracks and monitors hate groups — who expose their extremist views and oppose their attacks on communities. With this resolution, Trump and members of the GOP (including Lee ZELDIN*) have shown the extent to which they will carry their water.

This past weekend, the RNC also released a resolution titled Resolution to Conserve History and Combat Prejudice – Christopher Columbus. It’s a remarkably transparent statement that hate and bigotry stem from Black Lives Matter protesters. The RNC and Trump did not denounce organizations that promote antisemitism, Islamophobia, neo-Nazis, anti-LGBTQ sentiment or racism. It only criticized the SPLC for challenging those groups.

Outraged? Here are two ways to take action today:

Sign up for our next Power Hour Virtual Phone Bank on August 27. We’ll be calling likely unregistered voters of color in Georgia to share information on how they can register to vote.
Listen and subscribe to our new podcast, Sounds Like Hate. Episode 2 is about the connections between extremists and the Trump administration.

Onward,

Margaret Huang
SPLC President & CEO

added by D. Posnett

Huge Crowd in Bridgehampton: Justice for Floyd

David Posnett — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:15:33 +0000

This was easily the largest rally I have ever seen on the South Fork or in Suffolk County. Official estimate according to the Patch.com about 1000 people. Just imagine Main street (Rte 27) filled on both sides and on the sidewalks with protestors: from the Bridgehampton Community House to the Monument. We marched the distance and back, twice.

The chants included: “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot”, “Black Lives Matter”, “Justice for Floyd,” “Silence = Violence”, “Be the Change”, “I can’t breathe.” And the crowd lay on the street face down and hands in the back for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the time that Floyd begged for help.

The videos on the Patch.com are telling. The story is also covered by the East Hampton Star.

Protesting the Callous Murder of George Floyd right here in Bridgehampton

David Posnett — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:05:58 +0000

PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE IN ITS ENTIRETY

We are moved to action after the vicious and callous murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters all over the country who demand an end to racist policing. We call on all appropriate agencies to arrest the other three officers who watched former officer Derek Chauvin kneel on Mr. Floyd’s neck and ignored his cries for help. We also remember two other recent victims of deadly racism Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and the sadly all too long list of other victims.

On Tuesday, June 2nd at 5pm, we will meet at the Bridgehampton Community House (2368 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, 11932). Please wear masks and social distance as possible. Bring signs.

We will then march from the community house to the monument. We will either do this once or twice depending on how many of us there are.

During the final part of the march, for those who are able, we will lay in the road on our stomachs with our hands behind our backs and repeat I can’t breathe for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time George Floyd had a knee crushing his neck.

We know this is a difficult time and realize some would like to participate, but are at a higher risk for coronavirus….don’t worry, we got you! Please park your car on Montauk highway in Bridgehampton between the community house and the monument in either direction and put your sign outside your car facing the road. We would also ask marchers to do the same!
Black Lives Matter!

Note from Lisa Votino – All are welcome. Yes I am bringing my child. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at LMVotino@gmail.com.