Brene Brown and words to live by

Don't know whether any of you are Brene Brown fans, but this is a manifesto she wrote which I love:

" There is no greater threat to the critics and cynics and fearmongers
than those of us who are willing to fall because we have learned how to rise.
With skinned knees and bruised hearts;
we choose owning our stories of struggle, over hiding, over hustling, over pretending.
When we deny our stories, they define us. When we run from struggle, we are never free. So we turn toward truth and look it in the eye.
We will not be characters in our stories. Not villains, not victims, not even heroes.
We are the authors of our lives. We write our own daring endings.
We craft love from heartbreak, compassion from shame, grace from disappointment, courage from failure.
Showing up is our power.
Story is our way home. Truth is our song. We are the brave and brokenhearted.
We are rising strong." AMEN!

Meanwhile in the Ukraine this just happened

KIEV—Exit polls show a television comedian backed by a shadowy billionaire has won Ukraine’s presidential elections with a crushing majority that may ultimately be greater than 70 percent.

Zelenskiy is a clown whose humor is, to say the least, broad. Not long before election day, in one of his comedy skits that aired on Ukrainian television, Zelenskiy played a sex-obsessed middle-aged husband so overwhelmed by the sight of a popular young singer’s breasts that he dared not stand up. “It’s as if I am stabbed with a sword,” he told his wife, alluding to his unwanted erection.
Not so funny, really, but the now soon-to-be president of Ukraine does not care if his old jokes were a little crude and more than a little salty. He knows people love him.

Gov. Inslee's request to his state

100% Clean Electricity (Now 2nd Substitute with amendments)
Prime Sponsors – Senator Carlyle (D, 36th District, NW Seattle) (At the Governor’s request.) bolding mine
Current status –
In the Senate (Passed)
Had a hearing before the Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee on January 17th. A substitute bill was amended and passed out of committee January 29th. Had a hearing before the Senate Ways and Means Committee February 12th. Second substitute passed out of committee February 18th, with significant amendments. Placed on 2nd reading by Rules Committee, February 26th. Amended on the floor; passed by the Senate March 1st.
In the House (Passed)
Had a hearing in the House Committee on Environment and Energy March 5th. Replaced by a striker and then amended in minor ways; passed out of committee March 19th. Had a hearing in the House Committee on Finance March 21st. Passed out of Finance with further amendments April 2nd. Referred to Appropriations; had a hearing April 6th. Replaced by another striker and passed out of committee April 8th. Referred to Rules. Sent to the floor, amended in minor ways, and passed by the House April 11th.
Next step is – Consent by Senate and Governor’s signature.

The Guardian article on the

posse of hatred at the New Mexico border

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/18/new-mexico-migrants-armed-militia-detained

Several videos taken at the border in New Mexico this week appeared to show men belonging to a group that calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots approaching migrant families and children, ordering them to sit down, calling federal agents on them, and at one point potentially misrepresenting themselves by saying “border patrol” as they approached.
“The Trump administration’s vile racism has emboldened white nationalists and fascists to flagrantly violate the law,” the ACLU of New Mexico said in a letter to the state’s governor and attorney general, urging them to “immediately investigate this atrocious and unlawful conduct”.

File this under "It's a free country"

Right-Wing Psychiatry, Love-Me Liberals

and the Anti-Authoritarian Left
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/22/right-wing-psychiatry-love-me-liberals-and-the-anti-authoritarian-left/?fbclid=IwAR18uf-CMb7tMq-epDObJjPr5aIkgGuEYoAKI4W1-PFK7hgWsLRwHUAfyTE


I found this to be a very interesting read, especially since this board seems to be a varied site with people who all claim to be Liberal but have different ideas to what that means. It talks about Erich Fromm who according to this article, occupied a prominent place in US society offering an ideological perspective that today would result in his complete marginalization by mainstream media.


This I found striking: from Phil Och's love me liberals need to believe they are completely tolerant and cannot admit they are intolerant when it comes to certain kinds of defiance

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
And I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I’d lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

For those who don't remember

Bill Clinton had a whole Nightline, (remember journalism?) dedicated to this letter
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/etc/draftletter.html