In Chicago, Portland, and other communities that are under attack by ICE, they are organizing groups to assemble and distribute ICE kits that contain whistles and multi-lingual Know Your Rights cards. You loudly blow the whistle with three short bursts if you see federal agents, and you loudly blow three long bursts if you see a detention or police action in progress. Keep blowing your whistle until a crowd shows up, and if you hear whistles being blown then you should find them and record what is going on. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a People Power group, offers legal assistance, and has lots of other important information for activists.

The Black Voters Matter Fund has lots of actions planned, including their We Ain't Buying It pledge campaign to use our economic power to force change by boycotting companies that don't support the community. Voting with your wallet is one way for all of us to make a difference, regardless of our financial resources. Grassroots organizations like the Black Voters Matter Fund, Indivisible, and Until Freedom organize local events, and they are urging shoppers to boycott companies who reneged under pressure from Trump on their promise of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts such as Target, Amazon, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, Ford, Wal-Mart, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and Tesla. The goal is to support the retailers that have stood up to Trump, as well as the Black, minority, and immigrant-owned businesses, and all of the small and local businesses who support the community.

Blackout The System is a national movement across all races, cultures and classes to strategically and peacefully withdraw our labor and spending. They have planned a Mass Blackout for November 25th through December 2nd where participants will limit their spending by only using cash and supporting local businesses if you need to spend money. You can sign up for more upcoming events, as well as learn about divestment and mutual aid projects.

On Veterans Day, there are lots of anti-Trump protests organized in several major cities across the country. The "Vets Say No" protests are organized by the veterans group About Face, and May Day Strong, which is an anti-authoritarian movement. The "Vets Say No" protests are to say “no to ICE, no to occupation, no to fascism, and no to cuts stripping away life saving services our communities need.”

For separation of Church and State issues, I recommend joining Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Their motto is “Freedom Without Favor, Equality Without Exception” and they do great work! There's also the Southern Poverty Law Center who is great at racial justice issues. And there is the Equal Justice Initiative that has some must-see museums like their Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama. My visit to their Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park really was eye-opening and life-changing.

For LGBTQIA+ activism, I love working with groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, GLAAD, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays PFLAG, Lambda Legal, and the National LGBTQ Task Force, just to name a few. Many of these groups are organized at the local level in order to provide vital services for the community, and so it's easy to get involved.

For political activism, there are the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) who organize local events such as protests and mutual aid.

Regardless of your interests, you should be able to find several groups where you can get involved with local activism. All of the groups that I have mentioned support change through non-violent actions, so be sure to leave your weapons at home (even if they're legal), and commit to de-escalation with counter-protesters and authorities.

Did I leave out an organization that deserves to be listed? There are so many to choose from, but if you have suggestions and are a site member, please leave a comment below.

The USA has $38T in debt, gaining the fastest $1T since the pandemic. Trump's “Big Beautiful Bill” will nearly double the debt, at a time when our interest payments on the debt is approaching our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Twenty-two states are already in a recession. Consumers are also drowning in debt, and so car repossessions are rapidly increasing with a $1.66T auto debt crisis. The average price of a car is now $50,000. Average monthly payments for new vehicles exceed $750, with about one in five borrowers facing payments over $1,000 per month. Car insurance premiums have jumped 19% in the past year, and car repair costs are up 33% since 2020. An rapidly increasing percentage of borrowers are delinquent in their auto loans leading to repossession. Many car owners are “underwater” where they owe more than the car is worth. Student loan debts hit a record high of $1.65T with nearly 10% of those debt payments being more than 90 days overdue, and the delinquency problem is growing. Total household debt has reached $18.59T.

One-half of workers are relying on their debt just to buy the essentials, so we also have a $1T credit card debt crisis. The average credit card debt is $7,321 while the credit card rates just hit a 13 year high. Half of Americans have their paycheck gone in just 2 days, and many of the high-earners are living paycheck to paycheck. Electricity bills are up 11%. Foreclosures have surged 17%, as the housing market hits a 30 year low. Insurance rates have skyrocketing with some companies leaving entire states behind. In California, the companies fled because of the wildfire risk, and in Florida they fled because of the hurricanes and flooding risk. There is no affordable housing to be found, and the price of food has soared because of tariffs and inflation. Wages haven't even come close to keeping up with the rapid rise in inflation and cost of living. Many young people are having to put off marriage because they can't afford to start a family. People also can't afford their pets, so animal surrenders at the shelters have increased.

Health care costs have made medical care unobtainable by millions of Americans, and rural hospitals have been closing their doors. Doctors are no longer able to be recruited because of the $100,000 H1-B visa fee and crackdown on legal immigration. Prescription drug prices are too high and going up, ACA premiums rose 30%, and in some states by much more. Medical costs  now outpace inflation by 40%.

Our economy is in danger because many companies that have been around for decades are closing up shop. Even the large and profitable companies are laying off employees by the thousands. They've already passed on over half of the tariffs to the consumer, while trying to absorb the rest. In order to retain their profitability, companies either will have to pass all of it on the the consumer and/or greatly reduce their staff and investments in the future. And when prices go up, they rarely come back down. 81% of Gen X will rely on Social Security, and the experts say that it will be insolvent by 2033. The problem is much greater because of the immigration crackdown and our birth rate. Immigrants pay into the system and keep it afloat for the rest of us. Without a reversal of course, I think we'll see a social security crisis before 2033.

Farmers really got screwed over (but they overwhelming voted for it). The US bailed out Argentina by exchanging $40B with their pesos. That is an investment we'll likely never make back. Beef prices are up 16% this year, so Trump is ordering beef from Argentina to be imported. The price of bananas is up 5%. In the latest big “deal” Trump made with Xi, China has reduced the tariffs on some goods while keeping the tariff on imported soybeans at 16%. Meanwhile, this administration is spending $3B to bailout the farmers from a self-created crisis. Despite the bailout, 500,000 farm families are still facing bankruptcy. “Shrinkflation” has been happening across the board, as companies reduce the size of their packaging, or use deceptive packaging to make it seem like you are buying the same amount of product for the same price.

What is the government doing address these problems? Trump has remodeled the Lincoln bathroom, demolished the entire White House east wing to build a $300M ballroom, and is preparing to build a ridiculous arch in front of the Lincoln Memorial. DHS, police, and the military are way over-funded with most of the money going to private military contractors. Both parties have committed the sin of giving almost unlimited funds to the military industrial complex while the people are struggling to make ends meet. On Halloween, while millions of Americans were waiting in lines at the food pantry because of the suspension of SNAP benefits and the longest government shutdown in history, Trump held a “Great Gatsby” ball at Mar-a-Lago where they used the theme from a song from the movie that's called "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody".

The “American Dream” as we've always know it is completely dead now, and we have problems that will take many generations to resolve. Our current trajectory is simply not sustainable, and so major changes will have to be made. Who will be the courageous leaders who will guide us out of this mess? Only time will tell. Empires rise, and empires fall. By nearly every measure the USA is a failed nation-state. The current iteration of the American Empire and experiment in democracy lasted 250 years. Let's hope the next iteration is more stable, equitable, and democratic - but for now I pronounce the USA is dead and this blog post serves as its autopsy.

The video is available here: https://storage.googleapis.com/media.cleverthings.net/video/Gary-Wright/Alabama/GuntersvilleCityCouncil-20210315-Gary-Speech.mp4

Good evening Mayor Dollar and City Council Members,

My name is Gary Wright, and I’m a resident of Marshall County. I was one of the Alabama marriage equality plaintiffs, and for over two decades I’ve been working on issues that affect the LGBTQ community in our state and beyond. So I’d like to make a brief statement in regards to the shirt that Councilman Randy Whitaker recently posted to social media.

Through his wife’s Facebook page, Councilman Whitaker says he “has friends and family members who are gay” which is not surprising because despite what his novelty t-shirt says, LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer and we represent over 10% of the population.

Because of the hatred that has been spewed from public podiums over the past few years, hate crimes are up across-the-board. What you do and say reverberate throughout the community. Not just in fostering hatred, but often resulting in self-harm by our most vulnerable communities. In young people age 10-24, suicide is the second leading cause of death. LGB youth contemplate suicide three times the rate of heterosexual youth, and are five times as likely to attempt it. 40% of transgender adults have made a suicide attempt. Each episode of LGBTQ victimization, such as physical or verbal harassment or abuse increases the likelihood of self-harm by 2-1/2 times.

Source: TheTrevorProject.org

While the social media posts and words spoken by our leaders are important, I’m much more concerned about what is posted in their hearts and the harmful actions they take. So I urge each of you to examine your heart, and if you’re unable or unwilling to treat everyone with the dignity and equality that they deserve, it’s time for you to resign from public office.

Thank you for your time and attention,
Gary Wright II

Note: There were microphone problems, so I removed my double face mask at the podium just before this video starts.

Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.

That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.

Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, though decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.

When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

-Congressman John Lewis

When a task or project falters, the (hopefully) automatic reaction is to do a thorough failure analysis, but you should also conduct a quick autopsy on even the most successful ones.  

Here's an example of how I apply this concept to every activity (even recreational ones):  For stress relief, I fly a virtual Cessna in a flight simulator usually taking off at DeKalb Peachtree and landing at Hartsfield-Jackson. Although I've made that flight a million times now, each time my "game" session is over I do a playback and autopsy of that flight.  I take away the excitement (or boredom) of what is happening out the window of the plane and just focus on what the instruments were telling me. Since it is tied to real-time weather, every flight is unique.  Then I watch my landing from the perspective of a virtual chase plane and critique it. Could I have used less throttle or a different fuel/air mixture to get better gas mileage? Even what felt like a routine and perfect landing will reveal minor imperfections.

It is true that practice makes perfect, but you have to make sure you are practicing the most efficient and most correct methods or else you're actually just creating and re-enforcing bad habits.  Practice makes perfect, but try to practice perfection, not mastering the art of imperfection.

Geeks are going to rule the world, and right now security folks can name their price. The best jobs are going to be technology related, but there are some tech jobs that can be done by people with little tech skills.  I'll be writing more about Virtual Greeters in a few months, but anyone with high-speed Internet and a VR headset can already get an awesome job working from home (or anywhere with Internet access) in a four hour work shift.  A "Virtual Greeter" is like the Wal-Mart Door Greeter, you virtually stand on the front page of a web site and greet customers and answer questions. These are AWESOME jobs for the physically disabled!

I've always been about sharing my code with the world, but the problem with open-source is that it is driven mostly by self-interest. This means the harder, less-interesting parts of code never get tackled. To fix this, we're creating a hybrid approach. The code is still open-source, but we let developers bid on those projects so they can actually get paid to do that boring but critical work. One person has made over $60K just doing a bunch of little jobs. If we get creative, the community can do what the failing government can't accomplish!

Here's a look at what this new economy looks like, and although High Fidelity is looking for mostly geeks - non-geeks should still check out their site and click on the project and team buttons. I have a feeling the majority of the best jobs are going to be found through sites and new economies like this one:
https://worklist.net/

My secret missions at #HoodArmy have been completed, and I'm going to start slowly releasing the details to the public. I will go into those later, but for now I can only say I wish I could take credit for everything we're getting blamed for! If you add up the time involved for my verified projects, you'll see it isn't evenly humanly possible to accomplish much of the stupid stuff I sometimes get accused of. LOL