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The event, scheduled to be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Munn Park, is organized by Lakeland Indivisible, a progressive group formed in response to Trumps election.

LAKELAND Janice Cook of Lakeland flew to Washington, D.C., in January to join some half a million people gathered for the Womens March, held a day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Cook and other local residents hope to generate a similar spirit of progressive passion at an eventSaturday in Lakeland. Though named the Lakeland Womens March, the event is arally no actual marching will take place and organizers welcome male participants.

The event, scheduled to be heldfrom 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Munn Park, is organized by Lakeland Indivisible, a progressive group formed in response to Trumps election.

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Democrat from Kissimmee, is one of the scheduled speakers.

We wanted to bring the spirit of the (Washington) Womens March to Lakeland, but we also wanted to be productive while doing it, so Lakeland Indivisible got involved to help organize the event, Cook said. Well be celebrating equality and also showing our area and other progressives, Yes, were here. Were giving people a chance to see there are progressives in this county and this town.

Cook, a public health social worker, said she plans to bring her 12-year-old daughter to the rally.

Cook, 31, said the event will raise money for Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that offers health services at clinics across the country, faces threats of federal defunding from Trump and conservatives in Congress because some clinics perform abortions.

Anna V. Eskamani, senior director for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, is one of the scheduled speakers. Victor Sims, a Winter Haven resident who unsuccessfully challenged Florida Rep. Neil Combee last year, is also on the roster.

The rally will feature family and childrens activities, including a bounce house and face painting, said Jessica Gann, another organizer with Lakeland Indivisible.

Bands will begin playing about 11 a.m., and the speakers will begin shortly after 1 p.m.

Lakeland Indivisible paid to have police officers on hand in case of any conflicts with counter-demonstrators.

The rally doesnt have a single theme or purpose, the organizers said. The event will promote the right to legal abortion and full protections for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population, among other issues, they said.

Gann, 27, said the rally will project a spirit of inclusiveness.

We want to show our community that there is a huge portion of us that want equality we want to celebrate the equality we have and fight for the equality we stand to lose, Gann said. We dont want to lose our reproductive rights. We dont want families separated due to immigration laws. We dont want our Muslim neighbors to be discriminated against because of their religion.

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU will have information booths at the rally, Cook said. Public health organizations will also have a presence.

Gann said a Facebook page devoted to the rally has drawn pledges to attend from about 600 people, with another 1,200 expressing interest in the event.

Were really excited to see what we actually have, Gann said. If it goes as wonderfully as were hoping, we would like to maybe make it an annual celebration thing for the community.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

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Lakeland Women's March out to promote progressive values - News ... - News Chief

Residents of the City of St. Louis have elected a new mayor, marking the end of Francis G. Slays 16-year reign. To many progressives in the city, Slays announcement that he would not seek another term as mayor presented a unique and valuable opportunity to get a candidate in Room 200 of City Hall who would represent all of St. Louis, and not just wealthy white business interests and campaign donors.

In the Democratic primary, St. Louis progressives placed their hopes in Tishaura O. Jones. Jones campaigned using the slogan One St. Louis and demonstrated an understanding of many citizens discontent with the status quo. Calling for investments in St. Louis public schools and underdeveloped neighborhoods in the largely black and lower-income portions of St. Louis while promoting fiscal responsibility, Jones blasted large taxpayer-funded projects like the Major League Soccer stadium. Alas, she lost by 888 votes to Lyda Krewson.

Krewson has received justified criticism for her track record as 28th Ward alderwoman. She pushed for the gentrification of the Central Corridor and supported closing the homeless shelter at the New Life Evangelistic Center (NLEC). She embraced the endorsement of Jeff Roorda and the St. Louis Police Officers Association.

On matters of policing and race, Krewson advocates for more training for police officers and to look at everything through a racial equity lens. In fact, the reinforcement of racist structures with narratives of more training only makes the faults in them more nuanced and easier to conceal, rather than abolishing them. Promises of racial equity also fail to convince when trends of gentrification and neoliberal economic policy accumulate, while the citys poorer neighborhoods are sold the idea of needing more police in exchange for safety.

The core of Krewsons priorities becomes apparent through her enmity toward people experiencing homelessness in St. Louis and her policies and rhetoric around closing the NLEC shelter without a suitable alternative. Krewson stated that the NLEC doors should be chained shut. In an attempt to distance herself from these condemnations, she has remained silent as the City of St. Louis was named the defendant in a lawsuit decrying individuals experiencing homelessness being warehoused in a city garage.

Krewson previously drafted an ordinance that criminalizes panhandling. Not all individuals experiencing homelessness panhandle, though one may draw the conclusion that she thinks so after saying of homeless people in 2008 that most arent interested in regular employment. Often panhandling is more lucrative.

It is for these reasons that progressives and every resident who has great concern about where our country and our city are headed over the next four years, given constantly widening class and race divides must hold our new mayor accountable.

Kennard Wiliams is a St. Louis native, community organizer, and social justice advocate.

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Progressives must hold Krewson accountable | Guest Columnists ... - St. Louis American

In GA-06, for instance, DemocratJon Ossoff's $8.3 million war chest isn't exactly a product of relentless candidate call times. Sure, Ossoff hasput in a stellar effort. But his candidacy took flight in unimaginable ways both inside the district and among small-dollar donors. (Tune in on April 18!)

But it's not just Georgia. In Montana, Rob Quist has raised $1.3 million for his congressional bid without accepting any money from lobbyists for corporate PACs. Republicans are so unnerved by Democratic traction in deep red states that a GOPSuper PAC was already taking aim at Quist last month in advance of the May 25 special election.

And did you catch that Kansas special election Tuesday where the Democratic candidate came out of nowhere to narrow the usual 30-plus point gap down to single digits?

So yeah, running for Congress isn't easy. But this upcoming cycle could be like no other for Democrats,for decadesto come.

The good news isheightened interest will make it much harder for the Democraticconsultant class to christen their preferred candidates to the exclusion of everyone else.

Bustos and her colleagues in the Illinois delegation gathered for dinner earlier this month to discuss how, with so many potential candidates, theyd land the best candidates in tough districts. Theyve decided to take a wait-and-see approach to watch who puts in the time and surrounds themselves with good teams.

Clearing the field is going to be a more difficult endeavor, said Balaban, the Pennsylvania consultant.

Finally, keep the option of running for state office in mind.

EMILYs List knows that many of the 10,000 women who have approached them this winter wont run for Congress or even for any office this cycle. But the abortion rights group is excited about building a bench for the future.

And with redistricting at play soon, some liberals believe its even more important to channel Democratic enthusiasm toward the state level.

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Energized by the resistance, surge of progressives express interest in running for office - Daily Kos

Todays comic by Ruben Bolling isWar Beat, the mag for journalists with missile-crushes:

United Air Lines cant catch a break. Scorpion falls from overhead bin, stings passenger.

The interview with Bill Nye on the Bernie Sanders show was viewed 4.5 million times:

The Bernie Sanders show, which is filmed in the Democratic partys DC-based studio, is atypical in ways beyond just presentation. Sanders has decided to bypass traditional media and broadcast exclusively onFacebook. And it is attracting to borrow a Sandersism a huge audience.

The first episode of the show featuredthe Rev William Barber, a protestant minister and activist who is a national board member of the NAACP. The conversation, aired on 16 February, focussed on grassroots mobilizing, and has been viewed more than 950,000 times. [...]

But it was the Nye broadcast that really got the Sanders team excited.

Texas A.G. Ken Paxtons trial begins Sept. 12: The trial was originally meant to begin May 1, but a change of venue also changed its start date. From the time before he was attorney general,Paxton has beenaccused of misleading investors in a company.If convicted, he could face up to 99 years in prison.But the trial beginning inSeptemberdeals with the lesser charge that hefailed to register with the state securities board. Prosecutors want to get that over withbefore taking up the more serious allegations against Paxton.

6 3 newborn the star at Houston Zoo:

Red-state progressives turn tables on forced-birther activists in fight to make Supreme Court abortion ruling effective across the states:

In June 2016 the Supreme Court ruled on the biggest abortion case since Roe v. Wade,Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt. In ruling that regulations for abortion clinics must be rooted in medical necessity and scientific evidence, the court not only struck down two egregious abortion restrictions in Texas; it struck a major blow against the entire anti-choice movement. [...]

The Supreme Court decision doesnt automatically strike all the laws across the country that restrict abortion access by other means, said Sarah Gillooly, policy director ofthe American Civil Liberties Union in North Carolina, over the phone. So in order for the decision in Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt to be real and enacted across the country, its going to require a two-part approach. In practice, she said, that means litigating every individual law that is in conflict with the Whole Womans Health decision, or state legislatures repealing those laws and codifying that decision.

Chicago vows to make public buildings 100% renewably powered by 2025:

That's no small feat: With more than900 city-owned buildingsincluding public schools and colleges, park district fieldhouses and buildings owned by the Chicago Housing AuthorityChicago has the country's largest fleet of public buildings. Last year, they accounted for eight percent of all electricity use in Chicago.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the city willmeet its goalby acquiring renewable energy credits, purchasing utility-supplied renewable energy through the state's renewable portfolio standard and increasing on-site generation by installing morewindturbines andsolarpanels.

On todays Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin & Armando round up top headlines. KS-04 fallout. HuffPo allows that Daily Kos is back. Gop contracts Hitlerrhea. Trump flips on currency manipulation, NATO; learns N. Koreas complex & the Easter Egg Roll has nothing to do with China.

YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Support the show via Patreon or Square Cash

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Midday open thread: Red-state progressives push on abortion; Sanders' show connects on social media - Daily Kos

If you want to make a progressive squirm, tell him that history is cyclical. Whether they realize it or not, progressives borrow their entire worldview from Christianity, and therefore have a fundamentally millenarian view of history. The idea of cycles makes them uncomfortable.

Thats why Tom Ashbrook was so unnerved yesterday. Dont get me wrong, Ashbrooks radio program out of Boston, On Point, is usually a measured, thoughtful discussion of politics and current events. Its one of the few NPR shows that doesnt suffer from the obvious, sometimes cringe-inducing bias.

But Tuesdays show was a notable exception. One of Ashbrooks guests was Neil Howe, author of a book published in 1997 called The Fourth Turning, which argues human history is cyclical, not linear, and that its major cycles are marked by catastrophes like war or economic collapse. Specifically, Howe and his co-author William Strauss argue that history in America and most modern societies unfolds in a recurring cycle of four stages, or turnings, of about 20 years each. Each stage has its own characteristics, moving in progression from maturation, growth, decay, and then destruction or crisis.

Howe has described this last period, the fourth turning, as a time when institutional life is reconstructed from the ground up, always in response to a perceived threat to the nations very survival. He identifies 1945, 1865, and 1794World War II, the Civil War, and the end of the revolutionary eraas fourth turnings that constituted new founding moments in American history. He also says that were in a fourth turning right now.

Its an interesting theory, and theres ample historical evidence to recommend it. Theres nothing unorthodox about suggesting that history moves in cycles, of course, and the authors observation that our current moment in history, both economically and geopolitically, closely mirrors the 1930s is in many ways correct.

But among liberal commentators the book has now become synonymous with white nationalism and the alt-right. Why? For one reason, because Steve Bannon really likes it. But thats not the only reason Howes book is problematic. The larger problem is that it refutes the progressive view of history.

As a good progressive, Ashbrook couldnt let that lie. Setting aside his usual fair-mindedness and calm demeanor, he tried to brand Howe as an apocalyptic ideologue yearning for Armageddon. What bothers Ashbrook and other hand-wringing critics of Howes book is the idea that once you recognize were in a crisis cycle, some people (like Bannon and Trump) will want to accelerate the crisis to feed their own apocalyptic tendencies. At one point, Ashbrook asks, unaware of the irony, Are you encouraging people to race toward the rapture here?

Of course, a cyclical view of history precludes the idea of a rapture. Howe noted his book is descriptive, not prescriptive, and that a cyclical view of history is in fact the opposite of an apocalyptic view, which is all about history coming to an end. We can navigate these periods well or poorly, he says. This is not anti-choice, it is simply saying, be aware of the season youre in.

Ashbrook countered that World War II and the Civil War were kind of apocalyptic because millions of people died. Its not something that one would steer toward given the choice, he says.

Probably without realizing it, Ashbrook showed that a truly progressive worldview is far more dangerous than Howes cyclical theory of history. If you dont believe that nations must sometimes make hard choicessay, to stamp out slavery or Nazismthen a choice will eventually be thrust upon you under far worse circumstances. Ashbrook suggested, no doubt without meaning to, that America could have chosen some other course than to destroy Nazism. But as Howe said in reply, We had to fight them somewhere.

Progressives take it as a matter of faith that history has sides, that it is heading in a certain direction, and that its up to us to usher in a secular paradise. For progressives like Ashbrook, merely anticipating a crisis in the age of Trump makes a crisis more likely to happen, which mightharm the progressive cause. Hence, writers like Howe are guilty of enabling people like Bannon.

After all, humanity is supposed to be marching toward that secular paradise. Even when bad things happenlike Trump and Bannonits okay because, as Obama liked to say (quoting Dr. Martin Luther King), the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Or, as Ashbrook asked Howe, What about working for peace, justice, international equity? The things that might hold a crisis at bay?

But because some crises cannot be held at bay, utopia can be a dangerous destination. A hundred years ago, we were determined to stay neutral in the First World War, to work for peace and justice and international equityeven in the face of a European conflict that saw mass civilian casualties and the first use of chemical weapons, on the western front. Eventually, a choice was forced upon us and we went to war, but not before millions had already been slaughtered.

Today, after eight years of the Obama administration refusing to make hard choices abroad, international crises are mounting. Before long, we will no doubt be forced to choose, despite our desire for peace, despite wanting to hold crisis at bay. Maybe it will be in Syria, where a half-million people have already been slaughtered, some of them by chemical weapons.Who says history isnt cyclical?

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Why Progressives Hate Steve Bannon's Cyclical View Of History - The Federalist