Actionable Resistance

[mallorys_camera]

Here is the dinky little video I made of the April 5th protests in Middletown, New York:

Watch on YouTube

BB had the creeping crud plus it was raining, so we merely showed up for half an hour or so, long enough for our bodies to be counted (we hope!) before dashing off to a strange little café, apparently run by members of the Falun Gong sect that served passable chai lattes, brewed espresso drinks, and pastries like these adorable fish, filled with red bean paste:



The place was crammed! And the people at the various tables, dressed very differently as they were, all seemed to be signaling to each other with secret signs.

"I wonder what their stories are," I said to BB.

"I don't have a clue," BB said cheerfully. "And I'm not much interested. But that's what makes you a writer."

Every now & then, the protesters & their signs made the circuit of the shabby downtown street where the café was located. I studied the Falun Gong cult members' faces carefully to see if there was any sympathy. There wasn't. At the table kitty-corner to ours, a quartet of determined 30-ish women raised their eyebrows disparagingly, made remarks to one another that I couldn't quite hear.

Back in 2016, my beloved Summer explained to me why Trump is so overwhelmingly popular with Chinese expatriates in the U.S.: "They think he has luck. They think he is phenomenally lucky. And luck is the thing we revere and want above all else."

###

When we were done with our drinks & pastries, BB led me to a fabulous Chinese store where all sorts of fabulous groceries were for sale:







To think that all these wondrous things are a mere five-block walk from the Y where I work out two or three times a week and that I had never visited them before!

###

Back at the casa, I labored on Adrienne's website, aligning links & graphics and embellishing it with fulsome prose like, When Adrienne moved to Wallkill 16 years ago, she immediately looked for ways to support the hamlet she’d fallen in love with..
.
(Yes, I know, gag-worthy, but trust me: It will work for the voters of Wallkill.)

I should finish the damn thing today.

It is far from perfect, but the important thing is that it is.

If Brian the fresh-faced little campaign manager—who's actually getting paid—wants me to tweak stuff, I will simply tell him, Find someone else.

I never actually told Adrienne I would design her a website. I told her I would help her with social media. So, you know.

###

There's no accurate reporting yet on the number of protesters who turned out yesterday. 500,000 signed up in advance with the various Hands Off, Move On, etc. organizations, so I'm thinking probably twice as many showed up. Maybe more. The numbers will be underreported by the mainstream media who are all Trump suck-ups. Fuck the mainstream media.

###

Also, I am dead serious about launching an initiative whereby we help people obtain those documents (birth certificates, marriage licenses for women) that prove citizenship & thereby protect the right to vote.

Of course, this kind of stuff doesn't matter in New York State, which doesn't require proof of citizenship at the polls, but my old LJ friend cah1470 actually lives in the North Carolina district where 65,000 votes are about to be tossed because North Carolina! Home to Mayberry, gerrymandering, and the Ku Klux Klan!

I totally believe that the next federal election will be lost unless we make sure our votes can't be thrown out. People in red states will need to vote early and in person, bring identification, voter cards, make sure their signatures are exactly the same as they are on the voter cards, etc, etc, etc.

I don't have the foggiest notion at this point how to liaise with organizations in the states that do require proof of citizenship at the polls. Plus we'd need money—obtaining govt documents costs. So maybe I need to figure out how to set up a 501 (c) (3)??? I dunno. This is all in a very preliminary stage in my head right now.

Anyway, I've got Adrienne talking to the heads of the Democratic Party here in New York—a thoroughly useless endeavor, I'm sure. Democrats are hopeless.

And I am gonna lean on RTT when I see him in NYC this week to try and set up some sort of meeting for me with the Soros-financed People for the American Way to see if they might be willing to be sponsors.

It's actionable resistance!

That means I'm gonna have to draft some sort of policy proposal in the next two weeks.

Busy, busy, busy!

Comments

[halfmoon_mollie1]

lblanchard participated in the one in Philly yesterday, she and her Rollator. She took a picture of a sign very similar to yours. LOVE your little vid.

Those fish pastry took good!

Go YOU!

[mallorys_camera]

Thanks! 😊

[rebeccmeister]

Arizona and Texas are both voter-suppression states.

Arizona is really weird because your driver's license doesn't expire until age 65, but if you use your license as your photo ID to vote at the polls, and your address differs from what your license shows (even if what's online is correct), you need 2 other pieces of mail with your name on them as proof of residency in order to vote.

Super complicated. The other pieces of mail have to be bills or bank statements. If you aren't the person in the household getting the bills, and if your bank convinced you to switch to electronic statements, you're basically hosed.

That experience has made me paranoid about always ensuring I receive paper bills with my name on them, everywhere else I've lived.

In Texas there seems to be a strategy of not talking about election dates, and obscuring information about where to go to vote, and obscuring information about candidates and other measures to reduce confidence about voting.

Also, super terrible information about what to bring with you to the DMV, and exceptionally long lines once you're there.


Here's a list of groups that have partnered with Pizza to the Polls, which might be a starting point for organizations to work with:
https://polls.pizza/partners

[mallorys_camera]

Excellent information. Thanks! 😀

[asakiyume]

I admire you to pieces. The video is fab, as is the sign.

They make those red-bean-paste-filled fish in Japan, too. Over there they're called tai-yaki (tai for the kind of fish, yaki meaning fried)

[mallorys_camera]

The fish were almost cute enough to try, but red bean paste is one of those tastes I just can't develop. 😀

[smokingboot]

You're amazing!

[mallorys_camera]

Not really. But thanks! 😀

[smokingboot]

You're doing, taking action, and observing and story-making all together. I am in awe!

[puddleshark]

Love, love, love that top photo! It says it all.

And I loved this post. Fascinating as always! Thank you.