Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress

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Every. SINGLE. DAY. Some new absurdity that we never could have imagined possible is yet again at our doorstep. And yes, we dodge, evade, parry and defend against many of them. But the needle continues to be pushed on what politicians will try.The time it will take just to repair our country, never mind get it to where it needs to go, is generational at this point. My children’s, children’s children will be cleaning up this mess, if we save the world from actual destruction so that they can all be born.And for the few conservatives who will happen to hear my message here I want to bring this point home to you, liberal politicians will take these sorts of unconstitutional and illegal strides too, but in service of their own agenda. Don’t be surprised when the Supreme Court does get expanded for instance the next time Democrats control congress and the White House. You know that Equal Rights Amendment that got passed decades ago, but not ratified by enough states in time and never actually adopted? Probably gonna go ahead & do that. Puerto Rico and DC? Both states. 4 new permanent Democratic Senators! Medicare for all! Guaranteed Paid parental leave! A federal ban on all right to work state laws. Raise the minimum wage federally!Honestly, the fact that I try to come up with outlandish and offensive things the democrats could do if they governed like Trump does and all I can come up with is good things I personally would cheer for and that would help millions of Americans live a better, more productive and healthy life is telling isn’t it?I am a progressive. I went and enjoyed hearing Senator Bernie Sanders speak this past weekend, and he and AOC are about as close as American politicians come to speaking my own beliefs and values. But I’m also a big fan of the American experiment & the constitution and I genuinely don’t like it when even my “team” breaks the rules and norms. It’s why I’ve been against the overuse of executive orders since the Clinton presidency and I was angry at President Obama for his drone use & bombing runs without authorization from congress.When Trump is gone, and praise god he will be gone eventually, the more sane people that fill that office after him will surely have better intentions and better advisors, and they’ll do all they can to return to the rule of law & the checks and balances that are supposed to be built into our government to protect us from a person like Trump. But they’ll also be tempted to use that justification and righteous intention to move faster, and act more boldly than the law allows but WAS AND CONTINUES TO BE allowed for Trump.“Well, HE did THAT, so it’s okay that I’ll do THIS to fix it! Just to fix what he did!!”But then that never stops. Suddenly, the overreach and despotism is the norm, not the unimaginable and immoral shock to our collective systems that his every action continues to be.This morning, TFG walked out on the White House lawn to speak to the press before heading to NATO to plead Vladimir Putin’s case for him, and said that “Iran and Israel had been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing.”Disrespectfully, Mr. President, YOU’RE the one who doesn’t know what the f**k he’s doing. And the American people are overwhelmingly tired of it.Here’s to the day when it’s over. Here’s to not normalizing this insanity. Get full access to Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress at joelsharpton.substack.com/subscribe

I’m a Christian, and have been a friend and follower of Jesus since before I could walk. I was raised in the Free Will Baptist Church & spent most of a decade working as a lay person in the United Methodist church as division tore the denomination apart and all but killed it here in Louisiana. I’m also a Taoist, though I think I’m a pretty bad one most of the time. That’s ironic, since LOTS of people I know think I’m a pretty bad Christian ALL the time. One of the reasons I’m a bad Taoist is that I DON’T let things go sometimes. If you hurt a loved one of mine for instance, I’m likely to hold a grudge real well. Hurting me is much easier to take & release, but a slight to my wife or my Mama, overlooking or mistreating my children? These things will keep you on my s**t list.Donald Trump has definitely made the list, and while many of my grudges against him will die when he does the one I’m likely to hang onto the rest of my life is that he and his many cronies and sycophants have been able to convince many of my friends, family and neighbors that I don’t love Jesus because I DO love the LGBTQIA+ community. Or that I’m a bad or at least confused Christian because I believe in free school lunches and universal healthcare.They’ve also been convinced that I don’t love my country or my state because I DO want future generations to know the positive AND the negative aspects of the history of that country and state. That I don’t love America because I’m unconvinced that Capitalism is God’s own chosen form of economic system.To be fair to President Trump, this didn’t exactly start with him. Rush Limbaugh had been stalking out the boundaries of what counted as patriotism and loyalty to America since the early 90’s and the Falwell’s and others have been doing the same to the definition of Christianity in America since the 60’s. BUT, no one referred to my chosen political party as “Demon Rats” or put out reams of internet fan fiction about cabals of democrats drinking the blood of America’s young people until Donald Trump came down that golden elevator and started running for president. Let’s all remember, it was Donald Trump that started the birther b******t about President Obama during his candidacy.The reason this hurts so much is that I was THERE, I remember the early 90’s when EVERYONE I knew and lived around KNEW that Donald Trump was a lying snake, a philanderer and a business cheat who couldn’t be believed on ANYTHING. Yet these same people throw away their trust and friendship with me to follow a man who has publicly fantasized about his own daughter, belittled his own party members and their wives, bragged about sexual assault and cheating his business partners & openly courted dictators around the world while blowing his nose at America’s allies.Oh, and today, he’s stationed the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles against the wishes & orders of California’s elected governor and handcuffed and detained a sitting California Senator who represents more than 12% of America’s population when he asked a question at a press conference.If that’s not a would be dictator, I don’t know what is.He’s rounding up women, children and fathers many of whom have perfectly valid legal status and ALL OF WHOM are protected from this treatment by our constitution which speaks of the rights of not citizens but PERSONS.He’s doing all this while trying to force through one of the most damaging and dangerous budgets in American history that would not only harm and kill many Americans but also balloon our deficit and debt.If this guy isn’t anti-Christ, I don’t know what is.Here’s what I’M doing, and what you should be doing too. I’m preparing for a peaceful show of citizen’s strength this Saturday as we join the NoKingsDay event. Nationwide there are 1800+ protest events planned. These will happen all across the country the same day that Donny wastes $40 million plus of our tax dollars & destroys the streets of Washington DC for his unprecedented and unamerican military tyrant parade.Genuinely think about this, the last time a president federalized the national guard against the wishes of the sitting governor of the state they’d occupy was during the civil rights movement as the president protected African Americans from their fellow citizens. Now Trump has done it to protect his ICE thugs as they try to steal Los Angeles neighbors from their homes and jobs.The last time I remember a sitting head of state throwing himself a military parade for his birthday was April 20th, 1939. It was a fellow with a funny mustache named Hitler. To be fair to the furher that was his 50th birthday & he probably didn’t have to wear Depends while he attended.In America, we don't have kings. We never have, and we never will. Our elected officials are all responsible to us, and they're answerable and governable by the law. Donald Trump has broken the law. He's torn the Constitution in sunder. And it's time that we show them, not just him, but his entire administration and the party that is backing his plays in Congress. We need to show every single one of them that the power of the people is greater than the people in power, and it always will be. Even if you're in Louisiana, there are events across the state on Saturday. I'm going to be in Ruston at 11 a.m. Central Time. If you're in this area, come join us. Get full access to Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress at joelsharpton.substack.com/subscribe

Yes, I’ve seen Sinners & I’ve got LOTS to say about its message for us. I DID say quite a lot about it already on our latest episode of The Articulate Coven. YES, I’ve got an episode coming soon where I explain the name of this show, Always Listening in full, but NEITHER of those things are the focus today. Today, we’re talking about rebellion, and how you’re probably already a part of it, even if you don’t know it.I’ve been part of two “empty chair” town halls recently, one in Monroe, one in Ruston, Louisiana and next week, I’ll be filming stories from people at the Shreveport empty chair town hall. They’re all “empty chair” town halls because our fairly spineless government officials have all refused to show at all. Senators Cassidy and Kennedy, Representative Letlow & Speaker Mike Johnson all were elected to represent my area but instead have been continually representing the interests of their dear leader, Donald Trump & his billionaire owners like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.What are these town halls about? Well, the one consistent thing is that we’re unhappy with the job those above mentioned representatives are doing. The problem in pinpointing the anger causing issues is that there is a new one literally every day. Are we mad about cuts to education? Are we angered by the threats to our parents social security checks? Maybe it’s just the mass deportations, including of legal American citizens without benefit of any due process, no court to decide or argue or prove that legal status, just exile to internment on foreign soil.It’s ironic, because that last one was literally one of the listed grievances in the Declaration of Independence that Donald Trump so lovingly showed off, mounted in the Oval Office recently. Let’s set aside for a moment, the fact that he seemed to believe they’d hung the original copy of the document up in the White House as opposed to its actual location across town at the National Archives building (it’s housed there along with early versions of the Constitution and the Magna Carta, they’re all pretty cool to see if you get the chance).Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of the voice of the rebellion. While Donald Trump is posting AI pictures of himself using a dark side lightsaber, most of us grew up dreaming of being Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or Princess Leia. Scruffy nerfherders just out to save the galaxy.And I don’t know about you, but lately it does feel like we’re fighting an empire. Daily new atrocities and constitutional crisises make this all feel like there’s NOTHING we can do, especially from small town Louisiana where even in local elections the opposition party is basically always outnumbered. BUT, I want to remind you of a few things.Lake Charles just elected its first African American mayor, Marshall Simien, a lawyer running as an independent defeated incumbent Nic Hunter & has set Lake Charles on a new path.I’ve already made the Star Wars references, so you know I’m a fan. I’ve been rewatching season one of Andor in anticipation of watching season two. I’m just wrapping up season one as I record this & there are some amazing words from the manifesto that we hear some of in that show, those words have been banging around in my head, helping me keep my head high and in the game.“Remember that the frontier for rebellion is EVERYWHERE. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward…Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks.”The attempted & ongoing tyranny of Donald Trump is already leaking and breaking all over the place. And YOUR insurrections, no matter how small and from what corner of our galaxy, DO push our lines forward. The frontier for rebellion is wherever you are. Let’s all stay in the fight, and let’s keep listening to that voice of rebellion. I’m Joel Sharpton and I am always Listening.Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress at joelsharpton.substack.com/subscribe

Due process for EVERYONE or there's #dueprocess for NO ONE! #freekilmar Get full access to Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress at joelsharpton.substack.com/subscribe

Are you tired? Are you like overwhelmed in a clinical sense?I am.https://5calls.orgHere's what we can do. We can contact our representatives at the state level, at the federal level, your senators, your representatives in Congress. They need to hear from you every day. Here's what I'm going to do. At least once a week, and I'm going to try to do it three times a week. I'm going to send a letter, a physical letter. I'm going to overwhelm their offices.All it would take is about a hundred thousand a day and across the country that ain't much. A hundred thousand letters a day would overwhelm the offices and make it clear that the people do not want this. And overwhelmingly the people do not want this. let's do something about it.They all, all work for us. Get full access to Always Listening: Podcasts, Politics and Progress at joelsharpton.substack.com/subscribe