First Amendment | The Direction of Intention

The Heat [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on September 25, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” ~ Carl Jung

If you have not yet seen it, the short 18 minute documentary of Bernie Sanders in red-red-red West Virginia is worth watching. It is illuminating to witness what is possible when the misinformation bubble is breached. Though we’ve been pitted against each other, our division is not between the red and the blue. Not really. We are united in wanting a government that works for us.

I shuddered last night when I heard Mark Elias say that he no longer believes that media, universities, law firms…are capitulating to the demands of the dictator-wannabe. He now believes that they are collaborators. They offer no resistance because they are collaborators. Who would willingly sacrifice their first amendment right to free speech, freedom of the press…unless it profited them mightily to do so? Mark Elias’ contention certainly answers my question about the missing congress: over the weekend we read a public message from the president to the attorney general instructing her to prosecute his enemies. No actual crime needed. That he was not immediately impeached is sad proof of Mark Elias’ assertion. Profit over Constitution. Personal interest over sacred values. We heard more than one commentator say something akin to, “This makes Watergate look like kindergarten.”

One of the symbolic meanings of a pyramid shape is integration. Bernie Sanders sat at table with people who are economically drowning. They want the same things that I do. They want their rights protected. They do not want to be lied to by their government or their media. They want to be represented and not exploited.

This hot fire in which we live has the power to reduce this nation to ash. But it also has the possible power of alchemy, to forged a union of the red and the blue. The heat might wake us up. We just might realize that we are being distracted by demonizing each other. It might wake us up to how thoroughly we’re being exploited by those who claim to be representing our interests while simultaneously selling us down the river.

Pie in the sky? The corruption isn’t being hidden. The cowardice isn’t being masked. The voters in West Virginia are sitting at a table with Bernie Sanders and recognizing they have much more in common than they’ve been led to believe.

Prayer of Opposites, 48″x48″, acrylic on board

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE PYRAMID

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Perspective, Possibility | Tagged: artistry, Bernie Sanders, Carl Jung, Congress, conscious, Constitution, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, distraction, First Amendment, impeachment, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, story, studio melange, the melange, Watergate, West Virginia | 1 Comment »

This Simplistic Principle [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on September 8, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Years ago I facilitated a conversation with students about the first amendment. They were doing a research project and ran headlong into a wall of hate speech from the KKK. They were horrified and adamant that this kind of expression shouldn’t be legal. The question was this: if you restrict their freedom of speech are you not also restricting your own? Infringing on the core liberties of any group – no matter how much we disagree – damages constitutional protection and endangers the freedom of speech for everyone.

It’s not a fundamental right unless it protects everyone equally. That is the genius of our constitution.

In the past six months we’ve witnessed the suspension of due process (a violation of the 5th and 14th amendments), the suspension of habeas corpus (a violation of article one, section nine of the constitution) and, more recently, the Posse Comitatus Act (a violation of federal law).

People are being plucked off the street and “disappeared”. People are being sent to concentration camps without charge (violations of due process and habeas corpus).

The government is using the military as a police force against civilians (a violation of posse comitatus).

We’ve also been witness to The Supreme Court ruling that a president has absolute immunity from prosecution. The law no longer applies equally to everyone so, essentially, the law no longer applies to anyone. Witness the immunity granted to the January 6th insurrectionists by the president who has absolute immunity.

To MAGA and to the republicans who hear-and-see-no-evil, to the law firms that have folded, the no-longer-free press, to the tech bros scooping up our data and to the fox fueling the fascists, the message is the same to you as it was to my long ago students: what is being done unto others will soon be done unto you. It’s not a right or a fundamental freedom unless it applies to everyone. Everyone. Understanding this simplistic principle is what makes it an imperative to fight for the rights of others, even when you don’t agree with them. Understanding this simplistic principle this is what it means to be woke. We-the-woke know that you do not yet understand this simplistic principle. When due process dies for other people, it also dies for you. When immigrants or democrats can be incarcerated and disappeared without charge, it will inevitably happen to you.

Do you understand that this simplistic principle is the genius of our constitution. It’s why we are marching and protesting and resisting this authoritarian take-down of our democracy. We believe protecting the freedoms and rights of others is to protect our personal freedoms and rights – and yours. As you cheer the military rolling into L.A or snicker as the president declares war on Chicago, as the freedom to vote is being stripped from women and people of color…we-the-woke wonder at what point you will wake-up. At what point will you realize that these losses of freedom also apply equally across the board?

read Kerri’s blogpost about RIGHTS

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Filed under: Edges, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, due process, Fifth Amendment, First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, habeas corpus, individual freedoms, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, law, Posse Comitatus Act, presidential immunity, rights, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

The Freedom To Dance [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 10, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

The juxtaposition was startling. At the exact moment that we were packed in a raucous dancing and cheering crowd, watching our son Craig, an EDM artist, perform at PRIDE Milwaukee, the dictator wannabe was threatening martial law and sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell what his toadies are trying to call “an insurrection”.

The celebration of individual freedoms meets the crushing of individual freedoms.

The language is important. By every account (except on fox news) the protests against the draconian ICE raids were mostly peaceful. The Los Angeles Police Department published a letter praising the protestors for peacefully exercising their First Amendment right. Even so, the word that the Republican administration wields is “Insurrection”. This is not an accident. It is laying groundwork for the invocation of The Insurrection Act, which “authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law…”

A protest is not an insurrection. What we witnessed on January 6, 2020 was an insurrection: a violent uprising against the government. What we are seeing in Los Angeles is a citizen’s right to protest.

The Republican administration has been paving the way for the final move in their authoritarian takeover for months, branding campus protests “illegal” and threatening to withhold funding from colleges and universities that allow “illegal” protests – meanwhile arresting and deporting international students. “The arrests and deportations of noncitizen students and scholars for expressing their political views are creating a climate of fear on campuses across the country,” said John Raphling, associate US program director at Human Rights Watch. “The Trump administration’s actions are an attack on free speech and threaten the very foundations of a free society.”

The music pulsing, the crowd reveling, I was suddenly overwhelmed. I stopped dancing and watched the people. PRIDE began as a commemoration of resistance: in The Stonewall riots and demonstrations the LGBTQ community “fought back against government sponsored persecution.” 55 years later, I recognized my privilege to stand with a community of people celebrating their individual freedom and triumph over government sponsored persecution.

What’s happening in Los Angeles and across this nation? It is the Republican-led government violently uprising against the fundamental rights of the people. It is – just like January 6th – an insurrection against our democratic institutions and ideals. Make no mistake: the people in LA are coming together to fight back against government persecution, the creation of a police state and authoritarian attack on our democracy.

I can only hope that 55 years from now, some proud father, dancing in a crowd of thousands to his son’s thunderous music in a commemoration-celebration of the people’s triumph over their government-run-amok, will, like me, be overwhelmed when he recognizes the profound meaning of the moment: the exercise of his privilege in a nation that, once, when faced with authoritarianism, vehemently defended individual freedoms, democracy and the right to protest. For a moment he will stand in awe and then, swept back into his son’s vibrant music, will give himself over to the pulse, the heartbeat, the freedom to dance.

read Kerri’s blogpost about PRIDE

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Filed under: Perspective, Possibility, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, authoritarian, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, First Amendment, freedom, individual freedoms, Insurrection Act, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Milwaukee Pride, pride, Stonewall riots, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Extortion Contortion[David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on April 5, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“It’s all made-up.” she said. “That’s the point.”

It’s extortion. Extortion (noun): the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

Currently, he extorts law practices. He extorts universities. His strategy is to make up an offense so he might exact his price. In his tariffs he claims extortion from other nations so that he might extort them. His tariffs also give him leverage over the nation’s businesses: soon he will extort them, too: he’ll suggest that he’ll remove the tariffs impacting their bottom-line if they give him what he wants.

As is true of all bullies, he pretends strength to mask his weakness. For instance, the supposed most powerful man on earth can’t seem to recover a citizen wrongly sent to hell in El Salvador. “The administration further says it lacks the power to seek his return from El Salvador’s government…” Truer words were never written: he lacks power. So, he must extort.

This is my favorite made-up offense: claiming that Columbia University tolerated antisemitism, the bully administration withheld $400 million dollars of federal funding. It’s my favorite because the made-up offense smacks of a (slightly twisted) DEI protection: he claims that he’s punishing the university for not protecting a minority group. He claims that he’s championing equality. Sounds like a liberal impulse to me!

I wonder why his dedicated DEI-esque protection of a targeted minority group doesn’t include African Americans or LGBTQ? A rhetorical question so no need to roll your eyes. His extortion exclusively serves himself, whiteness and the ultra-wealthy. It need not make sense or be consistent since it is all-made-up.

The first amendment protects the right to protest. A pro-Palestinian rally in the United States of America is not a failure to protect Jewish students. It’s a student group exercising their first amendment right. The university caved nonetheless, validating the bully’s tactic. Just as are the law practices. Just as is the congress. Just as is the now awol justice system. [note: how sad that rather than protect their student’s first amendment right, the university instead protected their bottom line…a microcosm in the tale of the collapse of democracy in the USA]

A president who resorts to extortion is not a president (a servant of the people). He is an authoritarian wanna-be (a servant to himself). He is a controller. He lacks power. It’s basic.

It makes me wonder when some courage will rise in the spines of the people and institutions he currently extorts. There’s little to be found within our borders so perhaps the rest of the world can show us actual courage by not bending the knee to this little made-up-big-man and his not-so-made-up-malfeasance.

read Kerri’s blogpost about TARIFFS

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Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: artistry, Columbia University, courage, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, extortion, First Amendment, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, powerless, story, studio melange, tariff, tariffs, the melange | Leave a comment »

Talk About It [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on March 8, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

In our blue bubble it is a five alarm fire and it’s all we talk about. The methodical destruction of democracy.

In the red bubble…well, given their discourse there’s nothing unusual happening. The dismantling of democracy is what they voted for. Their conversation runs the gamut from cute kittens to insta-pot recipes to hyper-patriotic remembrances. Anything but…

I’ve found in almost every case that if I try to discuss the disjoint in our bubble reality, I’m met by the red-voters with the phrase, “We don’t talk about it.” Pulling status…as if ignorance (ignoring reality) is the entrance fee to the maga-country club. Republican constituents mimicking their representatives in the House and the Senate: hear-no-evil, see-no-evil…speak-no-truth.

But what about this? It’s one example of a multitude: the first amendment protects our right to assemble and express our views through protest. The tyrant-wannabe recently posted that protesters on college campuses will be expelled or arrested and that federal funding will be withheld from universities that allow “illegal” protests [for grins, the source of my link is fox news]. And then, completely unclear on the concept (the Constitution), he thanked the people of the nation for our “attention to this matter”.

There is so much that we need to talk about.

read Kerri’s blog about MALARKEY