12-30-24 Newsletter

 

Join us in facing the challenges in the year ahead with hope, unity, determination, and resilience. Also with wisdom and laughs. And with clever memes. And with you! Let's savor the good times and the good people we get to work with.  -- INCO Leadership Team Beeb, Carmen, Eric, Julia, Ken, Laurie, Lee, Lynn, Mary Beth, Teresa STRONGER TOGETHER Surviving the Next Four Years A practical guide for coping with and getting through Trump 2.0 INCO encourages you to read these suggestions from Jay Kuo and The Big Picture, December 24, 2024. Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024: Our 39th President and a life of service "WE ARE NOT ALONE" "We may be on our own, but we are not alone. We truly are in this together. We have each other, a community of like-minded people who care about democracy, and although that may seem like a slender thread right now, it’s how we’re going to get through this. Trump may try to turn our nation into an illiberal democracy—a country where existing democratic institutions are used to cloak undemocratic processes in a veneer of legitimacy—but we will not let him. At a minimum, though, we can make sure he doesn’t do it under the cover of darkness. There are people who will be willing to shine a light and expose what’s happening. So, gather your resources and gather your courage. We don’t know exactly how this will play out, which of the horribles will come first, and whether any guardrails might reemerge. It feels like a plan for the worst and hope for the best moment. Inevitably, with this level of uncertainty, we are going to be building the airplane while we are flying it. But there are a lot of people included in that “we,” and they bring many different talents and resources to the fight. We will not succumb to illiberal democracy. -- Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, December 23, 2024; includes chicken cookies and a recipe for rugelach! Yummy! SAVE THE DATE INCO Community Meeting Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 11-12:30 Astoria Senior Center, 11th at Exchange, Astoria We enjoyed meeting in this bright, spacious room and look forward to seeing you in 2025! INTRO TO THE LEGISLATIVE WATCH TEAM The COIN Legislative Watch Team is holding a Zoom event to introduce new volunteers and those who are considering volunteering. It is scheduled for Tuesday, January 7 at 11:00am, via Zoom.  Contact Cheryl Conway at conwayct2007@hotmail.com for the Zoom link. POWER "First, forget politics as you’ve come to see it as electoral contests between Democrats and Republicans. Think power. The underlying contest is between a small minority who have gained power over the system, and the vast majority who have little or none. ".... Seeing the system for what it is will empower you to join with others to change it for the better." INCO encourages you to read the rest of Robert Reich's article of December 29, 2024. SCIENCE AND SCIENCE'S PRETENDERS This chart might be hard to read on your phone. If you'd like a clearer copy of this chart, please contact incoregon@gmail.com, and Laurie will email you a copy. PROTECT PEOPLE Monday, January 13th from 6-7:30 PM PST, via Zoom  Hosted by the Rural Organizing Project (ROP) From ROP: "Rural Oregon is getting in formation to protect immigrants, the bodily autonomy of trans people and women, and any of our neighbors whose basic rights and freedom come under attack! ....Our ability to protect people starts with having a strong and healthy group, so let’s build those skills together."  REGISTER HERE.  STAYING IN THE FIGHT "Even though Donald Trump hasn’t become the president yet, it’s already a daily swamp, and it’s hard to keep it at bay. The crazy will become the new normal if we let it, and of course we can’t. A president’s violation of his oath of office and the trust of the American people, even when predictable, can’t become normalized. There can’t be any looking away or any giving up—the people with the ability and the comfort to look away are precisely the people who have to stay in the fight to protect others and protect the country." -- Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, December 27, 2024 PERSPECTIVE:  AFRICA IS HUGE! Partial color key: United States, China, the UK is lower right; Eastern Europe is top right; India is center right; Spain, France, Germany, and Italy are along the top; Japan is at the bottom. If you'd like the entire document, which includes text and more information, contact incoregon@gmail.com, and Laurie will email it to you. LESSONS 16 - 20 From ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 16. Learn from peers in other countries. 17. Listen for dangerous words. 18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. 19. Be a patriot. 20. Be as courageous as you can. Historian Timothy Snyder wrote ON TYRANNY after Trump's election in 2016. INCO encourages you to read this brief important book.   The GOP's Project 2025 is the game plan for Trump tyranny.  • Project 2025 Explained -- An in-depth analysis of the MAGA playbook by Indivisible • A long list of major features of Project 2025 from Robert Hubbell in his Today's Edition newsletter • The 920-page Project 2025 document is here. Find a topic that interests you in the Project 2025 table of contents.   FUN STUFF INCO INSIGHTS “He made harmony and banished gravity for a living. He never stopped insisting on delight.”   --- unsigned obituary of Adolph Green, American lyricist and playwright, The New Yorker, November 4, 2002   Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter  •  December 30, 2024 Website Email Facebook Copyright © 2024 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or signed up at a community group meeting. Our mailing address is: *|766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103:HTML|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

12-23-24 Newsletter

 

"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." —  Margaret J. Wheatley We are grateful for this opportunity to work with you to make our country and communities better. Let's celebrate each other and all we can accomplish. Our best wishes for your holiday season! The INCO Leadership Team Beeb, Carme, Eric, Julia, Ken, Laurie, Lee, Lynn, Mary Beth, Teresa SAVE THE DATE INCO Community Meeting Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 11-12:30 Astoria Senior Center, 11th at Exchange, Astoria We enjoyed meeting in this bright, spacious room and look forward to working with you in 2025! LEGISLATIVE WATCH TEAM INTRO The COIN Legislative Watch Team is holding a Zoom event to introduce new volunteers and those who are considering volunteering. It is scheduled for Tuesday, January 7 at 11:00am, via Zoom.  Contact Cheryl Conway at conwayct2007@hotmail.com for the Zoom link. PROTECT PEOPLE Monday, January 13th from 6-7:30 PM PST, via Zoom  Hosted by the Rural Organizing Project (ROP) "Rural Oregon is getting in formation to protect immigrants, the bodily autonomy of trans people and women, and any of our neighbors whose basic rights and freedom come under attack! We are preparing for Trump’s Inauguration and the first 100 days of his presidency, building groups for safety and power, growing our numbers to meet growing authoritarianism, and sharing skills and strategies to meet the moment. Our ability to protect people starts with having a strong and healthy group, so let’s build those skills together."  REGISTER HERE.  ORGANIZERS WANTED "ROP is looking to round out our team with one to two new community organizers. We have more Human Dignity Groups (92!) than we’ve ever had before and they are spread across ALL 35 rural counties in our state. In order to accomplish our big goals, we need more statewide organizers. If this is the right moment for you to step into a new role at ROP, check out the job posting on our website, and please apply!" OREGON SANCTUARY INFORMATION The Oregon Attorney General rolls out sanctuary information for immigrants before Trump takes office. The article from Oregon Capital Insider is here. SURPRISE BINGO "I will say it again: Whatever anyone expected after Trump's victory, the complete and utter collapse of the nation’s billionaire class and corporate America was not on anyone’s bingo card. The media has lost its courage and its moral compass, and the most reasonable interpretation of ABC’s settlement is that it, too, has collapsed before Trump. "So, in addition to re-grouping and tending to our wounds, we must replace a legacy media environment that not only surrendered and collapsed but became complicit in promoting his propaganda. We must do so by amplifying voices that speak the truth and challenging those that spread falsehoods. You don’t have to become a combatant on the social media battlefield but amplifying the voices who are is one way to overcome the current bias that is infecting the information ecosystem." -- Robert Hubbell, Today's Edition, December 16, 2024 MUSK + TRUMP = MUMP REGIME "As I explained in the last post, "Mump regime," Musk+Trump, keeps the two men who currently matter the most, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, in the proper order. "Musk matters more than Trump. He is the one with the money, the one to whom Trump owes debts. Musk also has a much more lively sense of his own interests and more energy generally. When the two men's ideas clash, as over China in the recent shutdown dispute, Musk gets his way." -- Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, December 22, 2024  LESSONS 11-15 From ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 11. Investigate.                12. Make eye contact and small talk. 13. Practice corporeal politics. "Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen." 14. Establish a private life.  15. Contribute to good causes. Check out other experts on authoritarianism and tyranny. INCO recommends authors Anne Applebaum and Ruth Ben-Ghiat, both writing on Substack and elsewhere. Other books about authoritarianism are listed here. Elon Musk is a new and sinister force in American politics, according to Ben-Ghiat. Read her December 20 Lucid Substack here.   The overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad reminds us that tyranny is not inevitable and endless. Historian Timothy Snyder wrote ON TYRANNY following Trump's election in 2016. INCO encourages you to read this brief important book.   The GOP's Project 2025 is the game plan for Trump tyranny.  • Project 2025 Explained -- An in-depth analysis of the MAGA playbook by Indivisible • A long list of major features of Project 2025 from Robert Hubbell in his Today's Edition newsletter • The 920-page Project 2025 document is here. Find a topic that interests you in the Project 2025 table of contents.   CAVING LESSONS "Getting everyone to bend the knee is the goal of the autocrat, who gets a special pleasure when the most powerful bow to him and say: I will make your path forward as smooth as possible. I will decline to counter your fictions with inconvenient facts, and I will help you to cleanse your world of critics.  "Those who enter into alliances with Trump forget the lessons of history. This portrait in a 1931 book by journalist Curzio Malaparte of how Adolf Hitler treated those who were helping him get into power reminds us that such alliances often end badly.  “He channels his brutality into humbling their pride, crushing their freedom of conscience, diminishing their individual merits and transforming his supporters into flunkeys stripped of all dignity. Like all dictators, Hitler loves only those whom he can despise.” -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid on Substack, December 17, 2024 FUN STUFF Randy Rainbow sings about Trump's cabinet nominees - a match made on Broadway. INCO INSIGHTS "At night the sky is pure astronomy."   -- Nicole Krauss, MAN WALKS INTO A ROOM Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter  •  December 23, 2024 Website Email Facebook Copyright © 2024 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or signed up at a community group meeting. Our mailing address is: *|766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103:HTML|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.