Where is the Resistance? (post + podcast)

There were two major events yesterday (January 5, 2024) remembering the events of the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. A news conference was held by members of Congress:

President Joe Biden visited Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and gave a speech on the insurrection and other topics:

This excerpt from the Valley Forge speech emphasized that “democracy is on the ballot in 2024”:

On January 5th, 2024, the Supreme Court accepted the case to review the Colorado Supreme Court ruling that Donald Trump should be removed from the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado. With oral argument scheduled for February 8th, 2024, there should be some clarity soon as to whether the attempts to use the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution to keep Trump off the 2024 election ballot will succeed.

Other resources:

My liveblog of the events of January 6th
My assessment of the electoral vote count events
My remembrance of the second anniversary of the January 6th insurrection
CNN: Timeline of January 6th coup (published November 5, 2021)
CNN: January 6th coverage
CNN: In pictures: The January 6th Capitol Riot
NBC News: January 2022 remembrance events coverage (over 8 hr)
NPR: Audio timeline of January 6th events
Wikipedia: Timeline of the January 6th US Capitol Attack
CNN: Joe Biden speech on January 5, 2024: ‘Trump did nothing’: Biden reflects on January 6 insurrection
The Hill: Jan. 6 anniversary falls as experts sound alarm over risks to American democracy
Indivisible Project: January 6 Day of Action Guide (links to Google Doc)
US Dept. of Justice: Three Years Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol (update on prosecutions)

Followup on consumerism and activism

Ken Smith posted recently, continuing to riff on musical performances (here, being on Ed Sullivan) and also remembering his posts on Pete Seeger, and relating them to acts of activism. In the recent post, he notes how people go to concerts and are more disposed to spend money on things related to the concert/group they heard. As consumers, they already know how to spend money on things that they want. For a performance by a musical activist, there should be information/flyers/greeters at the end to communicate about “how to affiliate with others and help move the issue forward in our civic life” (my idea) (quote from Ken’s recent post).

For any issue, there are people for it and against it. Attending a concert where an activist performs could be considered an act of activism, but (as Ken Smith says) if there is no follow-through, the momentum/energy of the event fades away. So – what to do about it? Here, I think some distinction should be drawn between the person who is already an activist and a person who thinks they want to be an activist, but are not sure what to do. If a person is an activist, and is not having much success in promoting an issue or cause, perhaps one of the ideas from my Activism in Atlanta post is appropriate (find the organization that is already working on that problem). Hillary Rettig, in her book “The Lifelong Activist“, has an entire section on how to be more successful in pursuing activism ( the full text of the book is available as a free PDF). In a November 2022 post, Ken Smith lists 6 areas of what he calls the “activism toolkit” that could also apply here.

Announcing Portland Protest News

In July 2020, I created a news river to track what was going on in the Portland, Oregon area regarding the daily protests (George Floyd/Black Lives Matter). That river has been very helpful to me, but I felt that there was not a good place to capture the highlights of that river. After discussions with Ken Smith, professor of English at Indiana University-South Bend, I decided to start a project to collect those highlights, document them, and to try to provide some insights into the ongoing struggle in Portland regarding police brutality.

That project has created Portland Protest News, a news site summarizing the events in Portland related to the ongoing protests. The site publishes a daily list of links to articles and videos about the Portland protests. Users can sign up for a daily email with links of the day, subscribe via RSS, or go directly to the site. If you have any interest in following this topic, Portland Protest News is a valuable resource.