Hello 2025

Where is Hope?

Many welcome the (Gregorian) New Year with fireworks, parties, and celebrations throughout the Western world. I have generally spent the time in quiet reflection while thinking about the road ahead.

Since the exhausting 2024 election cycle and the disastrous results, I've spent some of the time trying to focus on optimism and hope, however fragile, in which to cling for the arduous journey ahead. I think of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

While I find solace and inspiration in Dr. King’s powerful eloquence, the reality is that we must unite and bend the arc together.

Without a majority of educated, informed, and engaged people committed to justice, equality, and democracy bending the arc, the patterns of history teach us it bends toward greed, avarice, authoritarianism, vindictiveness, corruption, exploitation, and abuse.

As 2024 recedes in the rearview mirror there is conflict and tension throughout the planet. The horror perpetuated in Gaza, the criminal Putin’s continuing war on Ukraine, the tension in East Asia, and the rise of right-wing populist nationalism and isolationism increase the possibility of a cataclysmic World War that would cause death, destruction, and suffering on an unprecedented and potentially unsurvivable scale. All of this continues to unfold against a backdrop of human-caused climate change which has already led to destruction, death, mass extinction events, and suffering. Hurricanes, floods, sea-level rise, tornadoes, and raging firestorms are becoming more frequent.

Here are Some Hope Nuggets from 2024…

Politically, recent elections in the UK, Mexico, and Brazil have displaced right-wing leadership.

From a climate perspective the UK decommissioned its last coal-fired power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant in Nottinghamshire. China is making massive investments in renewable energy. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (an MIT startup) has announced plans for the first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia.

From an economic perspective, there were some important wins for labor unions by the United Auto Workers notably organizing workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Also, the United Food and Commercial Workers union led a large coalition to help block the proposed merger of Kroger & Albertson’s grocery giants -which, if successful, would have led to less competition and higher grocery prices throughout the United States. Notably, the Federal Trade Commission stepped in to block the merger. “This is the first time the FTC has ever sought to block a merger not just because it’s gonna be bad for consumers, but also for workers.”, said FTC chair Lina Khan.

Informed and educated voters bridged the intentional political divide in the United States in a handful of ballot wins in 2024. Despite sending a Republican criminal to the White House, and voting for Republican control of the next Congress voters in several states passed ballot initiatives to adopt inequality-fighting policies that most Republican politicians oppose. For example, in the Republican-controlled states of Nebraska, Missouri, and Alaska, voters approved guaranteed paid leave for workers, while Missouri and Alaska also passed state minimum wage hikes. These serve as important examples of kitchen table democracy. Instead of regurgitating Fox “News” talking points people voted for good policy for themselves, their neighbors, and their communities. This is precisely how our political system is supposed to function.

Elsewhere, in Washington state voters rejected a hedge fund-financed ballot proposal to repeal the state’s path-breaking capital gains tax on the rich. Opponents of I-2109 emphasized that repealing the capital gains tax would result in a significant loss of funding—estimated at over $2.2 billion over the next five years—for early learning, childcare, K-12 education, and school construction. The attempt at repeal was primarily sponsored by “Let's Go Washington”, a political action committee founded by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. Heywood contributed approximately $6 million to support multiple initiatives, including I-2109, aiming to overturn recent state laws. Special thanks to Brian for proving that there is plenty of room to tax millionaires and billionaires in the State of Washington since they have so much wealth they can attempt to use a small portion to eviscerate public K-12 schools and early learning initiatives.

There is Hope in the Long View

While there are a few glimmers of hope in the short-term the long-term future is uncertain and unwritten. There is hope in uncertainty.

In the Short Term: It Will Not be OK

After the 2016 U.S. elections, when then co-CEO of Oracle, Safra Catz said, prior to a meeting of technology executives with President-elect Trump “I plan to tell the president-elect that we are with him and will help in any way we can.” After Trump’s dangerous hate-centered campaign rhetoric I penned a resignation letter to Oracle and published it on the Linked In platform (and it was later covered by The Guardian).

Before Trump took office in 2017 I knew his Administration would be vile, corrupt, contemptible, and incompetent, however, I did not have the attempted extortion of Ukraine or inciting an insurrection on my Trump sociopathic circus bingo card.

Now that Trump’s second term is nearly upon us, some are rationalizing that we lived through his first administration so we’ll all be OK. Notable exceptions are those who perished due to Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, the trillions of new debt his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations added to the United States (that will fall onto the shoulders of workers and those who depend upon the social safety net), 700,000 Dreamers who face new uncertainty, and millions of people who will lose the healthcare protections inherent in the Affordable Care Act. In 2016 such rationalizations were speculative, not knowing how bad Trump would be. In 2024 those rationalizations are the height of privilege -people who perceive themselves to be insulated from Trump’s hate, corruption, and incompetence.

After the deplorable immunity decision by the Supremely Corrupted Court of the United States, Trump is unleashed in his second term to exact revenge on his enemies (presumably whistleblowers, journalists, and those who recognize him for what he is -a greedy, vile narcissist and fraud).

Corporate Media is not Coming to the Rescue

Many already know they are part of the problem. Media revenue comes from advertising. Advertising revenue comes from readers, viewers, and listeners. Most people are not on the edge of their seats listening to a nuanced, complex policy debate. However, get a moronic Congressional Representative talking about “Jewish Space LASERS” or describing violent insurrectionists as “normal Capitol tourists” or an idiot Senator who cannot name the three branches of the US Government and that is controversy, conflict, and big ratings. Corporate media is owned by the same people who are funding anti-democracy candidates and policies, notably anything related to exacerbating wealth concentration. They are not going to help your shouty Uncle or your MAGA neighbor understand what is unfolding in the United States is not about “Wokeness”, it’s not about abortion, it’s not about critical race theory, and it’s not about banning “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It’s not about the latest news about MAGA now at war with DOGE.

At the root, it is the extreme concentration of wealth versus the rest of us. Period. Everything else is intended to distract us and keep us divided and fighting.

While we continue to fight each other …

As of 2010:

• Elon Musk had accumulated $2 billion. Now: $451 billion.
• Jeff Bezos had accumulated $12.6 billion. Now: $243 billion.
• Overall, in 2010 the wealthiest Americans held $1.37 trillion and have now accumulated $5.4 trillion.

The obscenely wealthy are delighted to purchase social platforms, newspapers, and television networks. They will instill hate, fear, and divisions. They will keep us distracted from what is happening. They will talk about the impact of inflation on working families without reporting on the fact that Kroger's grocery chain profit increased from $1.65 billion in 2022 to $2.24 billion in 2023.

The Democratic Party Apparatus is not Coming to the Rescue

There are excellent Democratic members of Congress, State, and Local elected members. People like VP Harris, Senator Merkley, Senator Warren, Oregon State House Representative David Gomberg (hi David!), and many others. They are dedicated to good governance and a better future for all regardless of how you voted (or didn’t vote). The Democratic Party Platform embodies decency and the fundamental concepts of justice, equality, and democracy and has my support (for what that’s worth).

Nevertheless, the inner workings of the Democratic Party are broken. Twenty years of “let’s try the same thing, only harder” is not a pathway to success. My email inbox is full of

• “Help us make our end-of-quarter fundraising goal”.
• “It’s going to take all of us to protect the progress we made and push back against dangerous MAGA policy.”
• This grassroots team helped take back the White House in 2020 and hold the Senate in 2022, and with your support, we can win big again this November. So what do you say? Will you chip in $7 today to help hit our end-of-quarter goal and ensure Democratic victories up and down the ballot this November?
• “George, please understand:– Republicans have one of the SLIMMEST Majorities in history.– We need to flip just 5 seats to reclaim power.– But with just 4 DAYS left before our End-of-Year Deadline expires, we’re still falling short of our can’t-miss goal. We need to band together as Democrats to defeat the GOP’s hold on the House and send SHOCKWAVES across the country.”

Creating and distributing petitions as a means of getting people on an email distribution list and then begging for donations every 5 minutes may have worked in the first election cycle. If you were to take the Democratic Party Platform and bring people together in a room without turning it into a “Red vs. Blue” or Democrat vs. Republican wrestling contest, most people would embrace the majority of the platform. If the Democratic Party were active in every community, educating and informing on key issues such as wealth inequality, candidates running on the platform would be garnering at least 70% of the vote if not more. Instead, the party has seemingly focused on building email lists and trying to outraise the GOP.

Money remains important in campaigns and until “We the People” become fed up with billionaires like Musk, Bezos, Timothy Mellon, Miriam Adelson, the Uihleins, DeVos/Prince family, Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, or the Brian Heywood’s of America undermining and subverting America’s leadership, good candidates will still need our support.

It is up to all of us outside of any political party to advocate for candidates who will fundamentally embrace democracy, justice, and equality in the United States, and to help our family, friends, neighbors, and communities understand what is happening, not only in the United States, however, throughout the world as wealth and power is concentrated into dangerous “Spheres of Influence” with no real ideology other than to grab more power by whatever means necessary (as Putin is attempting in Ukraine).

What’s the Plan?

Understanding how important an organized resistance will be, I am working on a proof of concept (POC) that will deliver timely, effective civic action/resistance opportunities to subscribers on the BlueSky platform. Based upon the results I will seek resources necessary to integrate the capability into civ.works and expand the distribution of effective actions to the Fediverse. Civic actions will include initiatives around boycotts (such as Chick-fil-A, Tesla, X, and Hobby Lobby), voter registration projects, special elections, newspaper “letters to the editor”, organizational actions, protests, rallies, and civic education opportunities. Think of physical or virtual societal flash mobs to rapidly respond to and address cruel and egregious policy.

I’ll also be continuing to expand the directory of effective frontline resistance organizations to defend (https://civ.works/defend) those most vulnerable to egregious policies that are assuredly forthcoming from the criminal-elect and his Administration as outlined in the 900+ pages of Heritage’s Project 2025 attack on democracy.

Voters in a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society would not elevate a criminally corrupt organization to lead them and would not tolerate policies that support the extreme concentration of wealth -such concentration is antithetical to any meaningful democracy.

I will continue to collaborate and work with everyone else trying to educate, inform, and support a society founded upon justice, democracy, and equality.

So there.