Scary Steve Bannon. Girl fights school. Patriots snub White House. Awesome videos. Best book titles you've never seen.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #35 FEB 13, 2017
Whether it's volunteer lawyers, graffiti artists, postcard activists, students, Elizabeth Warren, or five rebellious New England Patriots, people everywhere are finding ways to resist. But are we paying enough attention to the men pulling Trump's strings?
STEVE BANNON & CO.
"Trump is not using Twitter to distract you from his agenda. Bannon & Co. are using Trump to distract you from theirs." -- FB post from @BrooklynSpoke
Bannon & Co's agenda? Apocalypse. A clash of civilizations. A hundred year war. If you think that's hyperbole, listen to Steve Bannon's own words: "It’s war. It’s war. Every day, we put up: America’s at war, America’s at war. We’re at war." Please listen.
Two more "loopy" members of the Company: 1) Stephen Miller, (the other Steve), a "true believer" and author of Trump's Executive Orders has risen in just a few months "from far-right gadfly with little policy experience to the President’s senior policy adviser." 2) Peter Navarro, head of the National Trade Council, "may, in fact, be the loopiest member of Trump’s retinue," warns Jacob Heilbrunn writes, "Watch this man...it would be a costly mistake to short sell his influence. He sports some establishment credentials—most notably, a Harvard Ph.D. in economics —but his views are quite radical."
Is Mike Flynn on our side or Putin's? How can Americans feel safe when the top spies in the U.S. security establishment have good reason to distrust our own National Security Advisor?
ACTIVISM
Five New England Patriots refused an invitation to the White House because of who lives there now. Boston Globe columnist salutes "the dissenting players for refusing to play coy about why they won't go. It would have been easy to duck controversy. Instead they chose to exercise their rights. Nothing more American than that."
Postcard Power. If you want to drive Trump nuts, address your political mail to the man who's really in change at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Wash, D.C. 20500 #StopPresidentBannon
People Are Now Writing Postcards to the White House Addressed to ‘President Bannon’
We wonder how Trump feels about this.
TEENVOGUE.COM|BY LILY HERMAN
Democrats should follow Mitch McConnel's playbook. David Leonhardt explains why nonpartisan efforts are impossible if not delusional and Dems must hang tough. Obstruct. Resist. Don't compromise.
MOMA's not-so-subtile message. "The Museum of Modern Art dropped its customary detachment on politics to protest Trump’s ban on refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries by replacing Cézanne, Picasso and Matisse with contemporary art from Iran, Iraq and Sudan."
Site-specific graffiti. If these 3 words were painted on every bridge & overpass, would DT get the point?
[Unidentified graffiti artist. Washington, D.C.]
KIDS & TRUTH
Department of Unintended Consequences. President as role model-in-chief:
[cartoon by Mort Gerberg]
To keep kids in touch with the truth -- and help keep The New York Times financially strong--you can sponsor student subscriptions to the newspaper of record.
WOMEN & GIRLS
"They were warned... Nevertheless they persisted." Remember these 25 persistent women who paved the way for Elizabeth Warren. #shepersisted
[New Yorker Daily Cartoon by Tom Toro]
Finally, a ban we can support. Advertising awards jurors are asked to disqualify ads with gender bias.
NYC Event this Thurs. Pioneer artist-gallerist Linda Stein will deliver "a fast-paced talk jam-packed with moving/still images" as part of a larger program on "JAYNE CORTEZ, ADRIENNE RICH AND THE FEMINIST SUPERHERO." Feb 16, 5-9 PM at CUNY Graduate Center. Reception to follow. Info here.
Girl hero! Three cheers for Sydney Phillips who was expelled from her school because she wants to play basketball on the boys' team. Sydney and her family have refused to bow to bullies.
VIDEOS (Warning: undocumented "aliens" ahead )
Danish TV ad. SHEER BRILLIANCE. Grab a tissue and watch "All That We Share"
Sweden's government trolls Oval Office photo. Who knew "old Europe" could be so clever?
Switzerland Second! Another in the growing library of "America First" parodies.
Scotland perfects "the art of pissing off Trump." See how a few ornery Scottsmen threw a monkey wrench into Trump's golf course land grab. (Notice that when DT is asked for evidence, he replies, "I am the evidence." (What's next? "I am the state?" "L'etat c''est moi" -- Louis XIV.)
Odd book titles glimpsed on NYC subways. Could you keep a straight face if you saw these books?
"Fact-checker, fact-checker, find me some facts." Randy Rainbow skewers The Truth According to Conway and Spicer in this gone-viral parody song from Fiddler On The Roof.
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz "gets "a taste of what’s ahead for Republican incumbents." Click here for Town Hall democracy at its best.
Andrew Sullivan questions Trump's mental health. See Sullivan on CNN and read his article "The Madness of King Donald." Powerful stuff, but It's way past time to admit the Emperor has no clothes.
Meryl Streep speaks out again on Trump “If we live through this precarious moment, if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn’t lead us to nuclear winter, we will have much to thank our current leader for,” Streep said at Human Rights Campaign fundraiser. “He will have woken us up to how fragile freedom is."
Have a great week.