So, as you may have heard, Senate Republicans voted to shut down a speech by Senator Elizabeth Warren last night, using an old and generally unenforced rule banning Senators from impugning one another on the Senate floor.
The Senator that Warren was allegedly impugning was one Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Trump’s pick for attorney general, and Warren was in the midst of reading a letter from Coretta Scott King, written in 1986 in opposition to his nomination to a federal court. (He didn’t get the job.)
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell justified this dick move by declaring that she had been “warned” that she was breaking the rule. “She was given an explanation,” he continued. “Nevertheless, she persisted.”
That last phrase stuck in the minds of many of those who heard it, some of whom started using the hashtag #ThePersistence alongside the standard #TheResistance; others adopted the simple #LetLizSpeak.
All of which is a long preface to saying: CALL YOUR SENATORS ABOUT JEFF SESSIONS. And maybe mention the silencing of Elizabeth Warren while you’re at it. If your senator was one of the 49 Republicans who voted to shut her down, maybe share your thoughts on that as well.
Get your Senators’ phone number (and some suggestions of other issues to call about) on 5Calls. See my posts here and here for information and advice on how to make your calls and emails effective. If making these sorts of calls is tough for you, here’s some advice on calling politicians if you have social anxiety. But emails are also fine.
Resistance is a good start. But persistence is what gets things done.
@PI
Not to give him the benefit of the doubt but when the next senator started reading it could also have been a “It was at this moment that Mitch knew he fucked up” deal.
I haven’t been in the calling for a few days because of emotional energy issues, but not because I haven’t been keeping an eye out for what other dreadful shit is coming down the pike. Going to start in on it again, however. Both for we US citizens and for the poor people that are literally freezing themselves trying to get from us to somewhere safe in Canada. The thought that the USA is no longer safe…
Rage gives me fuel.
And Warren just gave me another rallying point.
Persisting FTW.
augh
@JoeB, please label your videos! I was not prepared to see someone get a concussion :p
I find if kind of amusing how much contempt I can hear from my senators’ office staff when I call them to oppose various Trump atrocities. It’s kind of comforting to know that people in power with views similar to yours are just as pissed off as you.
Speaking as a now-former 25-year resident of Alabama under Jeff Sessions’ tenure: fuck. That. Guy.
My bad, really didn’t think to. I’ll be more careful about it.
You need to be placing your focus where it truly matters.
Well, Sessions was confirmed.
The ACLU says they’re prepared to sue if he violates the Constitution.
@PeeVee
Sigh. I’m really not surprised after DeVos. Disappointed, angry, but not surprised.
@kupo,
I’m not, either. I was pissed at the DeVos confirmation, though. I couldn’t believe they sold out the future of our kids like that.
@Victorious,
I have a feeling the ACLU is going to be very busy for the next four years.
@kupo: I’m so sorry you don’t feel safe in this country anymore. On the other hand, I have an old friend in Nevada trying to put together a business selling both ‘she persisted’ shirts and ‘nasty woman’ gear. Is it OK to post the FB page here, or should I email it to Dave?
I’ll sign up for this thread so I can follow it.
I just messaged him for permission to post this. He’s planning on putting a kickstarter together next week:
https://m.facebook.com/jeff.depaoli1/albums/10209496941833611/
Sinkable John: I grew up with tons of Bourgeois who were poor farmers, Gallants who were kind of assholes, Duguay who were straight, Haché who had never chopped a log in their lives. The Leblancs were indeed generally white at least. And I did have a M. Mallin teach me math, who really was a nasty man.
Signal-boosting Scildfreja: Canada is seeing a surge in refugees right now, when the polar vortex is basically over the great plains. So far a pair have lost their fingers; short term the worry is someone will freeze to death (or, perhaps, already has and will be found in the spring).
Long term the worry is that a couple dozen a week at this crossing, and probably an equal number elsewhere around the country (near Montreal is another common crossing point), will turn into hundreds when the weather gets better.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/22-refugees-enter-manitoba-1.3969874
Victorious Parasol:
I’m sure they meant *when*. And by that, they probably mean *tomorrow* they’ll name him on some lawsuits.
Nobody Special* skrev:
Do you think Warren Ellis knew about that when he called Transmetropolitan‘s self-styled “Alien Love Messiah” Fred Christ?
* Not to be confused with Nobody Natural, who was Czar in 1923. (As per Walt Kelly’s “The Man from Suffern on the Steppes, or 1984 and All That: a Russian tale of Madisonav.” The Pogo Peek-a-Book. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1955.)
Thank you, Scildfreja Unnýðnes
McConnell gives turtles everywhere a bad name.
<3 Jules! Thank you!
@MGTOW Shroder, I can think of no greater use of attention than calling attention to the anti-scientific, anti-human, destructive policies and persons of the Trump administration. What do you think deserves greater attention than that?
@MGTOW Shroeder:
I’ll bite. What in your opinion “truly matters”? Judging by the presence of a certain acronym in your handle, I guess it’s how straight, white males are oppressed (despite holding all the levers of power) by the evil feminists who want to create a thousand other genders while shafting them with false rape accusations and child support.
@Austin Loomis
That was the first thing that jumped to my mind, too.
Where is Spider Jerusalem, now we need him more than ever?
Or at least his three-faced cat and his bowel disruptor gun – they were awesome.
@Scildfreja Unnýðnes
Thank you for that post. It’s good to be reminded that our opponents are capable of feeling tiredness and our efforts aren’t just some flash in the pan to be forgotten by the media.
@MGTOW Shroder
So what should we focus on? I’m really interested to see what’s more important to focus on than Trump’s Administration and every bad thing they do.
http://i.imgur.com/3y1AOFt.jpg
(I know that’s Beauregarde with an E on the end, but it’s been stuck in my head ever since I first heard about it.)
Re: what truly matters
Gonna have a beer with Dealer-Guy in a bit. That’s what matters.
Or at least it matters a hell of a lot more than the concerns of a MGTOW, because it pertains to actual issues. At least my sleeplessness and current craving for a beer are, y’know, real. Unlike the gynocracy.
DanHolme:
“Help! The President’s shat himself!” – one of the greatest lines in comics.
I think it’s time to re-read Transmetropolitan. Despite all the awfulness of the world it depicts, it has optimism, and we all need that right now.