All posts by Roger Straw

Editor, owner, publisher of The Benicia Independent
Benicia CA, Democracy under attack, Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO), Local vigilance, Resist!

CORRECTION: Big week for Benicia activists

PICK A PROTEST!

…OR GO TO A BUNCH OF ‘EM!

Please note, the April 3 Benicia protest is on a THURSDAY (not Wednesday). And on EVERY Thursday, 5PM. Sorry for previous error. 

The Orange Guy and his minions aren’t the only ones who can pour it on with a gazillion acts in every direction almost daily. Resisters all over the U.S. are organizing, showing up, using our individual and collective voices, and creatively calling attention to the crisis that is tearing down our government and attacking our friends and neighbors.

Let’s all find a time this week to join in saying no to injustice, no to corruption, no to authoritarian rule, no to Kings! See below:

Here’s a list of protests and important events for the week of March 29 – April 6.
Benicia CA, Democracy under attack, Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO), Local vigilance, Resist!

Big week for Benicia activists

PICK A PROTEST!

…OR GO TO A BUNCH OF ‘EM!

The Orange Guy and his minions aren’t the only ones who can pour it on with a gazillion acts in every direction almost daily. Resisters all over the U.S. are organizing, showing up, using our individual and collective voices, and creatively calling attention to the crisis that is tearing down our government and attacking our friends and neighbors.

Let’s all find a time this week to join in saying no to injustice, no to corruption, no to authoritarian rule, no to Kings! See below:

Here’s a list of protests and important events for the week of March 29 – April 6.
Benicia CA, Democracy under attack, Local vigilance, Resist!

Longtime Benicia activist calls for weekly protests

SUSAN STREET – WE NEED TO GATHER EVERY THURSDAY AGAIN!

Beginning April 3 . . .

VIGIL FOR DEMOCRACY

Every Thursday, 5-6:30 p.m.
On the sidewalk by the Gazebo

 
[map / directions]
Come whenever you can, stay as long or as briefly as you can. Bring your signs, bells, kazoos, noisemakers. Invite ten people to join us.
Stay on the sidewalk. Don’t block anyone attempting to walk through. Ignore any harassment.x

WHY DO THIS?

As Timothy Snyder has said, “When strange things happen and nobody reacts, that’s ‘normalizing.’”
Folks gathering and  making noise “arrests people’s attention, makes them stop and think.”
Make noise. What’s happening isn’t normal. Isn’t democracy.
Authoritarian Rule, Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, Facism, MAGA extremists, Oligarchy, Racism

‘Crook, Liar, Racist’: Veteran Reporter Not Afraid to Call Trump What He Is

Calling Trump corrupt and a threat to America are not opinions. They are objective statements of fact.

ZETEO by John Harwood, March 12, 2025
John Harwood is an American journalist. He was the White House Correspondent for CNN from February 2021 until September 2022, after working as an editor-at-large for CNBC. He was the chief Washington Correspondent for CNBC and a contributor for The New York Times. Wikipedia

>> Donald Trump’s corrupt, chaotic presidency has propelled a long-running journalistic debate: how to accurately characterize the threat he poses to America.

Indeed, my opening paragraph itself provides grist for that debate. Can a fair-minded reporter flatly describe the president as corrupt and a threat to America itself? Are those facts?

Many colleagues I respect would answer “no.” When I interviewed the great newspaper editor Marty Baron a couple of weeks ago, he cautioned that such descriptions allow Trump to discredit journalists as partisans and are best left to opinion pages.

But I say, “Yes.” Calling Trump corrupt and a threat to America are not opinions. They are objective statements of fact. [emphasis added here – BenIndy]

I never expected to reach this point when I became a journalist 47 years ago. I did not pursue opinion journalism for a reason. My model was my father, Richard Harwood, who built his stellar Washington Post career on fearless reporting and news analysis.

Indeed, dad was appointed the Post’s first ombudsman after an earlier Republican president, Richard Nixon, howled about biased journalism the way Trump denounces “fake news.” An orphaned kid from the Midwest on a newspaper stocked with Ivy Leaguers, he found merit in some of those complaints.

So I began my career at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, well aware of the need to fairly reflect different viewpoints – Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, police officers and college professors, Blacks and whites. My first big political profile was a sympathetic look at a GOP retiree legendary for her success in rounding up votes within her condominium complex.

Crediting the legitimacy of both sides wasn’t difficult then. American politics did not neatly sort the good guys from the bad guys.

John Harwood is an American journalist. He was the White House Correspondent for CNN from February 2021 until September 2022, after working as an editor-at-large for CNBC. He was the chief Washington Correspondent for CNBC and a contributor for The New York Times. Wikipedia