The Hell Raiser's Blog - CSPAN as a Fundraising Tool

There has been a lot of media coverage of yesterday's Donald-Nancy-and-Chuck meeting. A number of folks observed that Trump repeatedly interrupted Pelosi, which prompted more than one observer to bemoan the fact that, in general, interruptees are disproportionately women. 

All this prompted me to think about how CSPAN footage can become a great fundraising  tool for women's organizations - especially for women's advocacy organizations. For example, feminist fundraisers could ask folks to pledge $5/$10/$100 for each time that:

- Kamala Harris (or Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, et. al) is interrupted during the Judiciary Committee's next hearing,
- Hilary Clinton or other female candidate for elected office is interrupted during a candidates' debate
- someone like Mich McConnell tries to silence someone like Elizabeth Warren during a speech, etc., etc., etc.

The possibilities are endless.

The Hell-Raiser's Blog - Angry Mobs of Women

See if you can tell which parts of this story about angry women are true and which are fiction

Want to read my piece about how protesters (in this case, women protesting Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court) are discredited by the targets of their protest? Just click on this link to today's OpEd News.

The Hell Raiser's Blog: Fundraising Idea, Part 1

    What if 10 donors pledged to give $1000 to the Freedom of the Press Foundation every time Trump  
 cried "Fake News!"?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The Hell Raiser's Blog: Impolite Protest

To the pundits, politicians and others distressed by waiters unwilling to wait on Sarah Sanders, and wondering what happened to common decency:

I am mortified by your measured, modulated, and mealy-mouthed expressions of concern about the state of the country. (And no, I am not advocating violence.)

Where is your outrage?? A white paper might be more genteel than asking Trump's henchmen and women to leave a bistro. But which is going to get three-year-old children out of cages sooner? My bet is on the one-on-one, face-to-face protest documented in videos and tweets gone viral - affirming for the nation that Rome is indeed burning.

Yes, yes, I know of your claims that there are “more appropriate” ways for people to demand change - writing an op-ed for the local daily paper, voting, petition drives, calling electeds, running for office and other examples.

But see, if I am a refugee from El Salvador, still learning English, with a minimum-wage job, I am unlikely to get a meeting with the editorial board of my daily paper. Or if I have missed work to cast my ballot and later sent home for “better” IDs as many as six times, I might conclude (to quote someone I unsuccessfully encouraged to vote): “Ha! They don't want my vote! They just wanna haul my Puerto Rican ass in for jury duty!” And as for organizing ... How many people have the ability to take off work, forfeit pay, hire a sitter, and pay for transportation so they can attend regularly-occurring organizing meetings, demonstrations, etc. for a year - or two - or three?

Your preferred social change methods are not reliably available to the people who need them most.

So if I'm waiting tables and in walks Sarah Sanders, who says kidnapping and caging kids is biblical (even as well-spoken professionals object) ... Why would I pretend this is a day like any other and that it is my pleasure to serve her?

Asking Sarah et. al to leave the Red Hen restaurant was a gutsy, bold protest that serves as a call to action to the rest of us to make our voices heard, even – especially - when we have to shout. 

I will not be silenced by your calls for civility.