Today is a suggested action day in the U.S.  There are many suggestions.  I’ll repost one I’ve received from a couple of directions at the end.  I plan to follow through with doing no business on Friday, period.  Every little bit….

On other fronts, for the weekend:

There have been several interesting comments to the Ukraine post, here.

Zero Day on Netflix is highly recommended by myself, my spouse, my sister and doubtless others.  Of course, since it is a political thriller, there are differences of opinion.  I watched it as a citizen – if such a thing possible: how would people react if this really happened (definitely more than a theoretical possibility).  Much to think about.  Spoiler alert: here is Netflix commentary about the film.  Suggest you not look at this till after you see the six episodes, but your choice.

You are probably aware of the fragile nature of Pope Francis’ health.  If you haven’t seen Conclave, the movie, make it a point to do so.  The film is up for Academy Awards.  Catholic Cardinals, all under 80 years of age, will select the next Pope, whenever.  Of course, the official Catholic Church isn’t a democracy.  At the same time, the designated leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope, is an important opinion leader.  In my opinion, Pope Francis has been a great Pope.  He was elected in 2013, and is in his late 80s.

Strictly Personal:   By my count we’re at day 39 of the first 100 days of #47, and it is apparent that the only protected class in the U.S. are the already filthy rich.  All of the rest of us are disposable, and this will become more and more visible.

There are, of course, already endless numbers of legitimate issues everywhere.

There is a tendency to withdraw – hide – from engagement in times of crisis, such as the one we are now in.  However it is described, “chaos”, “shock and awe”, or whatever, has an adverse impact on everyone, and it is intended by the perpetrators.  I have felt hopeless before, and actually wrote my feelings about this in 1996.  If you are interested, here is what I wrote, then: Politics 1996.  I have the same tendency as anyone else to withdraw from engagement.  But that is self-destructive.  I encourage working through the resistance and doing something, anything as part of the politics of this country.  There are endless ways of engaging.  We, the people, are, after all, “politics”, period.  Politics is not them; it is all of us.  At minimum, there are over 75,000,000 of us who did not vote for what we are now experiencing.  It is our problem as much as it is theirs.

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I have noticed what I think is a deliberate intent to mislead by throwing around big numbers like millions and billions and trillions.  Here’s something I put together sometime ago about numbers:

(I noted the price of a single egg yesterday at the local supermarket.  Depending on size, it was roughly between 60 and 70 cents an egg.  They were out of organic eggs.  I was at another restaurant yesterday morning.  One egg on the menu was $1.95.)

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ONE ACTION IDEA FOR THE 24 HOURS OF FEBRUARY 28, 2025.

The 24 hour Economic Blackout

For one day we show them who really holds the power

 

WHEN:

Thursday February 27th from Midnight till Friday The 28th Midnight

(A full 24 hours of the 28th)

12:00 AM to 12:00 AM

 

WHAT NOT TO DO:

Do not make any purchases

Do not shop online, or in-store

No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy

Nowhere!

Do not spend money on:

Fast Food

Gas

Major Retailers

Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non-essential spending

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Only buy essentials if absolutely necessary 

(Food, Medicine, Emergency Supplies)

If you must spend, ONLY support small, local businesses.

 

SPREAD THE MESSAGE

Talk about it, post about it, and document your actions that day!

 

WHY THIS MATTERS!

~ Corporations and banks only care about their bottom line.

~ If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message.

~ If they don’t listen (they won’t) we make the next blackout longer (we will).

 

This is our first action.

This is how we make history. 

February 28th

The 24 Hour Economic Blackout Begins.

forwarded by Kathy V:

COMMENTS:

from Ken: Zero Day was a great view. We enjoyed it very much. It sure made you think!  Lots of plot twists.

from Chuck:  Love your movie selections and math.  Zero Day…OMG….Love the line about the difference between freedom and liberty.  It made it well worth the 5 hrs of sitting on my butt.;-)

[Below is link to] a 30 minute YouTube video I sure you will appreciate and share with others.  Just over a year old…but OMG what a great thinker and analyst of where we are, and where we are heading.

LIVING IN THE METACRISIS with Jonathan Rowson. [Note: you need to sign in to YouTube and then search word Jonathan Rowson to access this.  But it is easy to access]

In the Making    3.65K subscribers     20,678 views    Oct 19, 2023    #perspectiva   #metacrisis

Jonathan Rowson is co-founder and Director of Perspective and author of the Joyous Struggle on Substack.  He was previously Director of the Social Brain Centre at the RSA where he authored a range of influential research reports on behavioral change, climate change and spirituality. Jonathan is an applied philosopher with degrees from Oxford, Harvard and Bristol Universities. In a former life he was a chess Grandmaster and British Champion and views the game as a continuing source of insight and inspiration. His book, “The Moves that Matter – A Grandmaster on the Game of Life” was published by Bloomsbury in 2019.

Now I don’t feel pressured to finish the book I’ve been working on for 26 years. 😊 This wise intellectual captures most of the basics….(except the need for current world actions?).   I’m curious if his perspective on Project 250 – would consider it to be a potential pivot point for humanities mind/body, spirit transformation. Our awakening to our irreversible global interdependence.

from Dick: I just watched “In the Making” (above).  It is about 34 minutes and very worthwhile to help generate personal thought

from Sue: Thank you Dick. I have started the spending boycott. Zero Day was excellent. Your thoughts are welcome.

By my count, today is day 32 of the first 100 days of what more and more seems like an attempted bloodless coup d’etat.

I am simply one of the peasants wondering what to do – if I can do anything.  I can’t sit idly by.  There are at least 75,000,000 of us that did not ask for this fate, and the mantra “Do something” comes to mind.  I’ve made my choice; I urge you to make yours.  100 days is somewhere around May 1.  Focus on what you can do, not on what something someone else should do, or should have done.  This is our country and our world.  Don’t let it be stolen from us.

Yesterday I heard about a just-released series on Netflix entitled Zero Day.  Its first episode was last night.  I haven’t watched it yet, but will.

[Feb. 22: I did watch the first segment, and it is well worth the time.  Feb 22, Marion wrote: “Thanks for the Netflix tip!“.  Last night we watched episodes 2 and 3 (of 5), and found the film very worthwhile. We’ll probably watch the rest today.  It is a learning and reflection opportunity at a time of genuine crisis in our country.]

Simply put in search words Zero Day, starring Robert DeNiro.  It is political fiction, set in the present day, and production began in 2022, and you can doubtless find, already, any number of reviews, from must see to don’t bother.  The story line, as I understand it, is plausible.  Worthy of thought.  That’s all I’ll say.

I’m going to watch it from a citizen point of view – where do I fit into this picture, now and in the coming days, months and years.  The only advantage I have is that I listened to a few minute segment featuring the producer and the two folks integral to developing the concept and the production itself.  I’ll say no more about the film.  Whether you subscribe to Netflix or not, you can pay per view, and watch on your home computer.  You don’t have to go out.  Take the risk.

A companion book might be the new one from Chris Hayes, “The Sirens’ Call“, a New York Times bestseller.

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Separate news, locally.  The candidate nominated by Gov. Walz for chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) will  be in Woodbury at 7:30 p.m. Monday Feb 24, 2025.  E-mail me if you wish further information.  An rsvp will be requested.

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There is an immense amount of credible factual information available about the implications of the ongoing ‘shock and awe’ emanating from the White House.  It seems redundant to pass the play-y-play along.  I have previously indicated sources which I consider very knowledgable and credible in this time of a daily avalanche of truly fake news, where rumors are passed along as fact.  For those specifically requesting, I’ll send along a list of those sources which I consider well worth your time.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Mary:  I am not one of those many Americans who see the current scenarios as ‘blips’ with a good outcome eventually-amaller government, transparency, increased respect in the world, better living for most of us, etc.  We are all in for a world of hurt.

Feb. 12 was Abe Lincoln’s birthday, and Feb 17 is the official President’s Day this year, and George Washington’s Birthday is the 17th and Valentine’s Day is today.  So it goes, Happy All of Them to Everybody.  Here’s Wikipedia’s interesting recitation on Presidents Day.

The cards, as usual, are from the Busch farm trove in the early 1900s, when my grandparents, my mother’s parents, were newlyweds in their 20s, hundreds of miles from their home country in southwest Wisconsin; part of the land rush to North Dakota in the early 1900s.  (There was an earlier settlement phase in Dakota Territory including my Dad’s family in the 1870s, but the real boom time came after statehood (1889), the railroad network, etc.  It was exciting times, and lonely times.  A letter from home was cherished.

They received lots of cards like the below, sometimes as postcards, sometimes as inserts with separate letters.  They kept them all, and I use them frequently here.  The originals related to history are with the North Dakota Historical Society; the others, like valentines,  were parceled out to the Busch family.

Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States when my grandparents moved west in 1905.  In the farm basement was a badly damaged portrait of all the President till Teddy Roosevelt.  Here is a photo I took of the bedraggled picture years ago:

The U.S. presidents and the U.S. Capitol, 1905. All Presidents shown up to and including Theodore Roosevelt. Found in the basement of the North Dakota farmhouse of my grandparents, who came to North Dakota in 1905.  George Washington (#1) front and center; Teddy (#26) is standing, front right.  Abraham Lincoln (#16) is standing front left.

POSTNOTE: Previous posts this week, if you wish, Feb 8 , 10, 11, 13.  Easy access through archive.  There is a lot of national news, of course.  You see the same things I do.  Be well informed and in action.

As I write, the Rule of Law ia under assault in this country of ours.  I have several times in this space referred to a 1959 52 page booklet released by the American Bar Association.  Here is a recent reference from May 5, 2024:

“In the course of developing the archival record of CGS MN.  I came across a very interesting booklet published by the American Bar Association booklet on the Rule of Law.  A pdf in four parts is here: Law Day Am Bar Assoc 1959 (c0ver through p. 17); Law Day (2) Am Bar Assoc 1959 (pages 18-24); Law Day (3) Am Bar Assoc 1959 (pages 25-43); Law Day (4) Am Bar Assoc 1959 (pp 45-52).

If I were to recommend a single page to read, it would be p. 49, “Law in a Treehouse World”.  The entire booklet is a timeless seminar for any novice in the law.”

If you haven’t read this before, give yourself the time to read these the remamining weeks of February, 2025.  The entire post is here.

This is your country under assault.  It is your responsibility – all of ours – to get engaged actively in saving it.

COMMENTS:

from Brian: Happy Valentine’s Day, Dick!    Thanks for posting.

from Judy: Thank you for these thoughts………….I cannot have imagined I would live any part of my life with the government operating as it is today.

from SAK:

Thanks Mr Bernard & I hope Valentine’s day was good for you,

We might also like to remember Saint Valentine who was martyred in the 3^rdcentury . . .

As you mention, p.49 of that document you kindly sent is impressive. I would also like to point out a bit from pp 46-47 [below]. Yes these days are different days from the Red scare days of the 1950s so allowance must be made for that. Yet it is good to keep in mind why some succeed while others fail & history rhymes even when it doesn’t repeat.

Law Above Man

Democratic government is government by law. Communist government is government by men. That, reduced to its essentials, is the difference between our way of life and that of Russia. It is therefore, singularly appropriate that May Day, the traditional day of Red celebration has been set aside in this country as Law Day.

It’s a lot harder to glamorize a law than it is to glamorize a man. Laws are by nature impersonal things. They are created by bodies of men who have been chosen by vote to represent all the citizens. They are by design expressions of the wishes of all these citizens as to how their affairs shall be regulated. They represent as nearly as possible what the majority of us feel and have felt in the past is the most just, wise and honorable way to regulate our society.

Law can’t be personalized. Legislators on any level from the national Congress to the Court of Common Council may achieve popularity or abuse through campaigns to get certain measures on the books. But once a bill becomes law, it’s bigger than and beyond the people who wrote it or voted for it. It’s bigger than those in the executive arm of government, be it the President or the dog warden, who administer it. It’s bigger than the enforcement officer, J. Edgar Hoover or the town constable. It’s bigger than the courts, from the Chief Justice in Washington to the part-time country justice of the peace.

Under communism a man—one man— is bigger than the law. His aims, his whims, his self-imposed need to stay in power are the final factors. He operates the system and changes it at will to suit his purposes; he does not operate under the system. He is above and beyond the law which works, in the last analysis, only to achieve his will. There is no law beyond the will of the dictator.

The guarantees of law, the assurance that all men are equal under the law, are the prime sources of the strength of the individual in a free society. In these days of contest with the Reds on many fronts this strength is being called upon as never before. Our celebration of Law Day is a reminder and a reinforcement of those strengths, upon which rest the hope and the confidence of the free world.

—Meriden Journal, Meriden, Conn.

Thanks again!

from Flo: All we are now facing in just the first month of the US President and his colleagues is the disaster they have brought with them to the whole world.  Mistakes happen even with the best of us, but most of us can at least apologize.

This is a note to the 75 million voters. for Harris/Walz on Nov. 5, and to the many others who now wish they had.

There are endless ways to peacefully and affirmatively act in solidarity.  Carol sent an idea on Feb. 10, which follows:

Previous posts this week February 3, 4 and 6.  Access at archive at right.  If you access Facebook, Molly offers a treat from Bob Dylan at Newport Folk Festival 1964.

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As I write these words on Friday, the prediction is for possibly 5-10 inches of snow overnight and Saturday morning.  So we might be temporarily snowbound – you don’t know when it happens.

Demo July 13, 2011

Tuesday, while looking for a photo of Ken Martin (Feb. 4 post), I found the above photo which I took at a small news moment at Minnesota State Capitol in the summer of 2011.  I took the photo.  Ken Martin is in the light suit at left in the picture.

I remember the demo.  I think it was organized by the DFL Senior Caucus and the DFL – I was in the founding group of DFLSC in 2006, and active for ten years.  The news event was an effort to publicize the needs of the marginalized in our society.  Martin was early in his term with DFL.

Note especially the lady at center front.  She’s hard to see.  I don’t know her disability but she’s confined to one of those motorized chairs, and I know she was active advocate at the time.

I’m intrigued by this photo because it exemplifies where the action always needs to be to make change: small groups, committed, working together for a better life, a better world.  They are, in a very real sense, all of us.  Specifically, they’re the 75,000,000 who voted for an alternative vision on Nov. 5, and are now facing an unprecedented crisis on the very future of the United States of America.  I am one of the 75,000,000, very concerned about the future of this county.

If you’re among the paralyzed in the 75,000,000 who says “I can’t do anything….”, rest assured you – and the rest of us – are the only solution.  Period.  Start with yourself.  Pick a single issue that energizes you, take a stand, aspire to make contact with at least one leader you perceive to be the next rung above you in the power pyramid (somebody like you pastor, a city councilman, a state legislator….)  Deal with your contacts as you’d want to be dealt with.  We live together, after all.

Escalate your activity.  Maybe one thing one time this week; maybe twice next week – etc.  But make it proactive.  We need to do more than learn more.  We need to share our concern in the many ways available to us.

This is not a rocket science business.  If you care, you’re going to have to be ‘on the court’