#StandWithPP: Domestic Terrorism is Domestic Terrorism ~ Even when Perpetuated Against Women...

"These doors stay open. Sending love and support to the staff and patients of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. We're standing with you."

You can share on Twitter here

Courtesy of Planned Parenthood's Action Facebook Page here one of many responses to the domestic terrorist act on Planned Parenthood in Colorado.

I want to keep this simple and I believe the headline and the meme leading into this 

informational/working blog makes the point quite pointedly, shall we say, so I'm going to keep what I have to say very brief and I am going to simply:

ONE

Share one of my simple philosophies: Re Roe v Wade: MYOB! (Mind your own business.)

TWO

Share one of my simple mantras: Elections have consequences -- constitutionally and otherwise. The #WarOnWomen is not a joke. Vote!

THREE

Share one of my simple calls to action: Speak up! Make those who are committing anti-U.S.-government actions via domestic terrorism the real minority in this country.

Moving on, clearly the ability to stand up takes various forms, dependent on various circumstances, but find a way because, seriously, it is almost too late.

You can begin today by simply sharing some of the information and/or memes found here with a simple retweet.

And you can expand on that by simply sharing material found on favorite social media platforms is created and/or posted by people you trust to make accuracy in their work a priority!

TY ~ for doing something!

I think it is important to define the terms, so to continue in the spirit of keeping it simple, I am going to first define the term terrorism (briefly!). I am also going to share a bit of immediate reaction, for informational and sharing purposes; I am going to leave a few of my favorite memes for retweeting; and I am going to leave a piece on Roe v Wade and a link to a page to get anyone started who would like more reading material.

A simple but powerful post, courtesy of fellow digital activist Laura Davila! She is a great activist to follow on Twitter and you can find her here 

Knowing who to read while an attack is active can be difficult to figure out, so my rule of thumb is usually: Watch. Listen. Give them a few days for the facts to filter out. But in this case I read two pieces as the attack was still happening and I'd like to share them because they both handled immediate reaction in such a responsible way their work can be a role model for all of us!

The first piece:

“White Gunman Opens Fire On Planned Parenthood: Still Scared Of Muslims? (VIDEO)

By Elisabeth Parker

...And even if the shooter turns out not to be what we think he is, GOP lawmakers carry much of the blame for the lax gun safety laws that forces us to live in a constant state of mass shootings and terror. ...”

You can read the piece in it's entirety here

You can share on Twitter here

The second piece:

"Motives behind the Colorado Springs murders? If we have to ask—let's start with Fox and Limbaugh

By Leslie Salzillo

...The motives are still unknown, but those of us who have witnessed the vicious, misleading, and contemptable right wing propaganda and media attacks against the healthcare center— we have a pretty good idea. … “

You can read the piece in its entirety here

You can share on Twitter here

Memes:

You can share on Twitter here

Courtesy of Point Counter Point 

You can share on Twitter here

Courtesy of The Marmel Page

Who also said:

“Is it still:

"Gunman" not "Terrorist."

"Mass Shooting" not "Terror Attack."

"Disturbed" not "Radicalized"

Then it's being reported wrong.”

Which you can share on Twitter here

You can share on Twitter here

Courtesy of We Are Woman

Roe v Waged informational:

Excerpted from Roe v. Wade - Then and Now

Justice Ginsberg authored a dissent joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Breyer, in which she wrote: "Today's decision is alarming. It refuses to take Casey and Stenberg seriously…And, for the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health."

Ginsburg’s words are, to say the least, an ominous sign for Roe's future. Without Roe, life for American women would be thrown more than 30 years in reverse, returning them to the days when women could not fully control the number and spacing of their children. Without the ability to make this key decision, women will be denied opportunities to realize their future and take advantage of educational and career opportunities.

The world is looking to the U.S. to establish a vision of justice for the 21st century. It is not a time for our political leaders to divide this nation by turning the clock back on women's human rights.

The excerpted link here

The page link here

Finally, you can show your support for Planned Parenthood by changing your Facebook and or Twitter photo:

The link to do it is here

G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/

where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! )

Frankly Speaking: Mid-Week Grievance ~ It's Important to my Political Mental Health that I Find 10 Things I can be Grateful for this Thanksgiving Day Holiday!

It really can be difficult to be a grateful Democratic activist in this environment flooded with GOP-anti-U.S.-Government hate but as one of those activists who can't give up on our representative government way of life it was important to my political mental health that I find 10 things I can be grateful for this Thanksgiving Holiday! And I did...

Ten

I am grateful I was born and raised just out side of Boston, Massachusetts, where, when I was child, pride in a revolution fought to put the goal of leaving an Aristocracy behind and striving to create a More Perfect Union was our assimilation. I always knew our history mattered.

Nine

I am grateful that I attended public schools, 12 years of them, taught by teachers who, primarily, understood the importance of steeping new citizens in a mix of academics and civics with a strong underlying belief in The Common Good as the glue that held us together.

Eight

I am grateful that as a young teen, I was able to watch John F. Kennedy run for the presidency and, in the process, teach us that everyone had a responsibility to be a good citizen and that everyone had something to offer ~ from serving in the Military to the Peace Corp to everything in between.

Seven

I am grateful that as an older teen, I was able to watch Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, despite losses endured when we lost Jack, Martin and Bobby, and see the passion and the sacrifice for their visions of what is possible touch my generation, deeply.

Six

I am grateful for my children and my grandchildren who I hope I have been able to instill some of our history as a People and the belief that we can always do better and that we should because, imperfect as they were, our Founding Fathers were on the right track.

Five

I am grateful that my husband and I have been able to introduce our children and our grandchildren to our Capitol City because it is still a place, despite all of the criticism it gets, that can architecturally reinforce the power of those whose shoulders we stand on.

Four

I am grateful to have had Senator Edward Kennedy as my Senator because now I know what a representative of The People is suppose to be ~ human, flawed and dedicated to the health and welfare of The People because the success of our nation depends on it.

Three

I am grateful that in 1992, I was able to attend, with 100's of 1000's of women, a pro-choice march in Washington, D.C., where choice crystallized for me as a way of life and where I first really recognized the power of women ~ if it could only be harnessed.

Two

I am grateful for my early work as a nurse's aide because it taught me that life is term limited; for my work as a journalist because it taught me responsibility goes with the work of informing and; for my work with women because it taught me that we can accomplish so much more as a village.

One

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to volunteer on behalf of our current President, Barack Obama, and I am grateful for the opportunity to volunteer on behalf of our next President, Hillary Clinton ~ two transformational public servants working to move us from one Century to another while keeping the best and leaving the rest even as the resistance rages on.

G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/

where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! )

Hello: The GOP is Dangerously Close to Obtaining ~ via the Electorate ~ the Capacity to Amend the U.S. Constitution no Matter Who Wins the White House in 2016

If you don't want to live under a GOP anti-United States-government find the Democrat nearest you with a high probability of winning and campaign for him or her and V-O-T-E and make sure a Republican is never, ever elected to a position of power in this nation again…

I've no idea what a final version of a GOP framework for the United States might look like if they keep Congress and if they win the White House in 2016 but I can make an educated guess based on their favorite parts of the Articles of Confederation ~ sovereign states, armed people and a federal government demoted, basically, to a mere solver of disputes between said states and their armed people.

Prior to the 2014 election and President Obama's rejection of the Keystone Pipeline, I wrote a similar piece and my example of what a national transaction under the GOP might look like in a first draft still stands:

Let’s take the Keystone XL Pipeline as a simple example ~ Canada wants the pipeline to run through the United States. Texas wants it to run through the United States, too. The problem is environmentalists believe the pipeline is hazardous to the health of the entire planet and a whole lot of citizens in Nebraska believe their water source is directly threatened so they are all fighting the building of the pipeline together.

In a Brand New GOP world this issue would still tick off Texas, Montana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, of course, so they would likely form a pro-KXL Pipeline Alliance, they would likely tell the environmentalists and the citizens of Nebraska to STFU! and with great glee they would likely send their State Militias out to secure the building of the pipeline ~ perhaps even changing state boundaries to reach their objective... what's to stop them?

Then what ~ you are probably asking right about now? Well, war between some of our states, of course. It's a natural GOP progression. 

(That should give you a pretty clear image... Survival of the fittest, codified! Plug in your own example and see where it takes you...)

So, how do they get it done?

^^^ Simple. IF the GOP is winning a super majority of states and if the GOP is winning a super majority in Congress ~ and they are ~ winning the White House in 2016 will just be the proverbial frosting on the proverbial cake! (Snippet, courtesy of the National Archives.)

To reiterate in the most simple of terms:

There are two ways to Amend the United States Constitution (and that would be to add to it and/or subtract from it!): 

One:

Two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate call for an Amendments Convention;

Two:

Two-thirds of the state legislatures call for an Amendments Convention;

But:

Proposed Amendments must be ratified by three-quarters of the states.

Clearly, real time political goings on around the possibility of more Syrian refugees coming to United States makes the case for the headline of this Blog: "The GOP is Dangerously Close to Obtaining ~ via the Electorate ~ the Capacity to Amend U.S. Constitution no Matter Who Wins the White House in 2016"  when 31 states, as of November 20, are attempting to reject Syrian refugees. 31!

It makes no difference to 30 GOP governors that the common denominator between the terrorists who attacked in Paris does not seem to be a Syrian heritage or that the ability to act on this declaration is not in their job description because juxtaposed with their hate of all others is their obsession with nullifying federal supremacy in favor of state supremacy.

 And, frankly, I've no idea what NH Governor Maggie Hassan is thinking, I can only hope she comes to her senses -- soon.

I encourage exploring Citizens for Self-Governance to gain more insight into the GOP effort to amend it's way to a pre-ratification of the United States Constitution state.  They actively work for an Article V Convention to amend. 

... In December 2013, nearly 100 legislators from 32 states met at Mount Vernon to talk about how to call a convention of states. According to Slate, "The meeting lasted four hours, ending when legislators agreed to meet again in the spring of 2014. That’s the most progress anyone’s made in decades toward a states-first constitutional amendment campaign."

In February 2014, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn announced that after his retirement from Congress, he would focus on promoting the Convention of States to state legislatures.[54]

As of July 2015, CSG's application for a Convention of States has been passed in four states: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Alaska. 

( Here is is a great jumping off place to read more about the process! You can also find the original map here )

G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/

where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! )

( *** Any direct discussion of an Article V Convention process is courtesy of 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_to_propose_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution )

Frankly Speaking: Mid-Week Grievance ~ Media's Misinformed Push to Satisfy its Drive for a War Story Reminds me we Need to Return to the Equal Time Rule...

SUMMARY:  Frankly Speaking: Mid-Week Grievance ~ Our media has become so self-serving and so ignorant and so incompetent (by choice!) the only way I can see the electorate standing a chance of getting the truth is to re-establish some semblance of the Equal Time Rule.

“ … Equal Time Rule

U.S. Broadcasting Regulatory Rule

It is the closest thing in broadcast content regulation to the "golden rule." …  

As it stands, it's old school for sure but imagine if, on a main stream media (MSM) segment the talk was about the terrorist attack in Paris and the talking heads were saying this and that and the other thing and they were using qualifying language and we could call for equal time for President Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice, for example, to appear on the show and respond to the talking heads Koffee Klatching! We'd be so much more civically astute!

( You can find a very brief introduction to the rule here )

, 

In case you can't tell, #ImSickOfIt

And, actually, that is quite sad to me because I am not anti-journalism. In fact, I am a former journalist who believes an informed electorate is critical to the success of our nation.

 Media is also critical to my work in supporting President Obama and Hillary Clinton and getting out the vote, primarily by prodding them to provide truth to the electorate, i. e. do their job, so the electorate can, in turn, do their job and vote responsibly.

I point out untruths , share truths and ask truths of MSM. Oftentimes, I am annoyingly purist about it because I do hold the messengers to a higher standard and if they don’t meet that standard their work is suspect to me – most notably, standards established by the Society of Professional Journalists ( SPR ). Some of them are:

I expect journalists to believe “public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.”

(It's a big job.)

I expect journalists to seek the truth and to provide fair, accurate and comprehensible accounts of that truth.

(And, for me, that means if you don’t have the truth don’t report.)

I expect journalists to source their information (and that would be from more than one source, thank you very much).

(I worked in a small community newspaper and our reporters had to have two sources or they had no story.)

I expect journalists to identify sources and to grant anonymity sparingly. (Speaks for itself.)

I expect journalists to give voice to the voiceless – official and unofficial. (At least sometimes!)

I expect journalists to disclose conflicts.

Call me naive but I believe MSM’s primary role is to perform a service that is capable of maintaining and preserving the United States of America.

Following fits and starts the U.S. Government elevated the importance of the press via the 1^st Amendment further enhance its status via preferential postal rates to spread of information.

I believe our Founding Fathers were clear on the important role communication played in organizing a revolution and a new form of government even if they may not have been as clear on the boundaries between truth, opinion, campaigning, etc.

But, by the late 19^th Century, the NYT’s owner declared news to be impartial; the Progressive Era ushered in watchdog journalism and; the early 20^th Century Communications Act set the tone for a MSM that served “the public interest, convenience and necessity.”

Today, when  a journalist (Cal Perry) notes on MSNBC, and I paraphrase here, that ISIL must thrilled with all of the propaganda it's getting, as well as with the idea of interjecting itself into a United States election ~ we've got a real problem.

MSM has lost clarity on the boundaries that separate truth, opinion, campaigning, advertising, entertainment, etc.. As a result, it is more important than it has ever been that we accept responsibility for critical thinking, for separating fact from fiction and for standing up and talking back to them!

G., aka Partisan Democrat

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Favorite Anti- GOP Shareables! Remembering Who the Real Threat to the United States is. And it is Not Hillary!

^^^ Additional commentary required!

FYI: This is a working Blog! because, it seems to me, Democrats need to be reminded who the real threat to the United States is and it is not Hillary.

 Please use the direct links provided and share and remind others of who the real threat is AND of what the GOP stands for.

For your own information, my personal habit is to save favorites on my Desktop during the week for later sharing. I create a GOP memes folder and drop them into the folder and when I have a block of about 15 minutes of time I share them all directly from that folder to my preferred social medium platforms.

 ( * Today I am providing direct Google, Facebook and Twitter links on which you can click and share with your friends. To share on other platforms, etc. you’ll have to do the annoying thing and download and save and re-post... ) 

Take the Best; Leave the Rest. But push the truth about the GOP war on us!

^^^ Based on observation and research, I am of the mind that the center of President Obama's foreign policy is a fundamental drive to shift the United States from 20th Century War 1st Thinking to 21st Century Engagement 1st Thinking, to only engage militarily as a last resort ~ not so GOP, just listen to them in light of devastating attack in France...

I very, very rarely share this meme because it can feel exploitative to me but sometimes it is exactly what is called for. The GOP always chooses war 1st.

(Frankly, it would be great to have seen them get so hyped up over Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting or any similar attack at home. But. Nope!)

Courtesy of Miss Revolutionaries. You can share the meme on Twitter here 

^^^ The floodgates of hate seemed to have opened the day a black man was elected to the Office of the President of the United States and the hate just keeps on coming!

Courtesy of Occupy Democrats. You can share the meme on Facebook here

^^^ This is kind of fun, back to back celebs!

Courtesy of Occupy Democrats. You can share the meme on Facebook here

^^^ Professor Reich is  a nicer person than I am because I just saying: 3 GOP Lies corrected.

Courtesy of the Snarky Pundit. You can share the meme on Google + here 

^^^ The GOP will never, ever get it!

Courtesy of Occupy Democrats. You can share the meme on Facebook here

^^^ It's really not funny when it's true, but people have to know!

Courtesy of Occupy Democrats. You can share the Facebook meme here

^^^ True!

Courtesy of Miss Revolutionaries. You can share the meme on Facebook here

^^^ Those two speak for themselves you can share them here (Facebook) and here , (Twitter) respectively.

Carson, courtesy of Miss Revolutionaries ; Trump unknown. (If anyone has a name for the Trump creator please drop in into the comments section so I can give credit. TY!)

G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/

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Frankly Speaking: Mid-Week Grievance ~ Still Talking About How We Could Have, Should Have, Would Have Won (in 2000) if Only This, That or Something Else...

I can not remember when I was not a Democrat activist.  But, I've not always been an official member of the Democratic Party. I went through what I call my "I believe in magic" years as a registered Independent and when I finally registered as a Democrat (following the landslide win of Ronald Reagan) and became "officially" involved in the local and state committee party infrastructure I struggled for a many years with long-time Democrats five to 10 years older than me who were completely stuck in what I call the "If only JFK hadn't been assassinated" years. 

I'm a worker bee and there was no moving forward in as big a way as I thought we needed to as long as the leadership was stuck, so I walked away from Democratic "officialdom" and freelanced my Democratic advocacy (pre-social media! Ugh!!!).

 I am a card carrying Democratic National Committee Democrat today but with the traveling I do I remain, technically speaking, more of a freelance digital Democratic activist than a campaign office one (post-social media! Yeah!!!)

I say all of that because I am sensitive to hearing Democrats who are stuck in the "how we should have won in 2000 ~ but, but, but," years and I am of the mind that we must recognize that if we lose it is more likely that we lose because of lack of voters and not because of a stolen state or, and this is a big one, an accomplice in the form of a Supreme Court.

So, let's just think about this:

Heads up: This is not a scientific study. Not even close. (In fact, if you are a numbers person you might even want to cover your eyes!) It's merely a big picture look at some of the numbers that say something to me, that make the point that we need to be thinking about:

 getting voters to the polls in 2016 and thereafter and not about what might have been.

Al Gore lost to George W. Bush by 5 electoral votes. 

Looking at the numbers, 19M votes were unaccounted for. Just checking one state that went to Bush with 21 electoral votes – Ohio – we can see that Gore lost that state by only 165,019 votes. Is it possible that some of those 19M people who didn't vote live in Ohio? Is it possible they could have pulled a win off for him? For us?

I think so.

We need to remember every single day that in the environment in which we live today, particularly with the addition of GOP led redistricting and GOP led voter suppressing identification laws, we need overwhelming numbers to go to the polls if we are to overcome!

We need to focus!

#

G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/

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