10/1/20
“In the midst of chaos, there is also
opportunity.” — Sun Tzu
NATIONAL ISSUES
ASK GOP LEADERS TO
PUBLICLY PRESSURE TRUMP TO MAKE A STRONG STATEMENT AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY AND
ACCEPT THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTION: On Tuesday night, candidate Joe Biden said he would encourage his
supporters to stay calm while the votes were counted and not to declare victory
until the election had been independently certified, while Trump railed on
about election fraud, sowing seeds of doubt geared to fracture our increasingly
fragile democracy. When asked what he would say to white supremacist groups
like the Proud Boys, he advised them to “stand back and stand by.” https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/09/29/us/presidential-debate-trump-biden
and https://www.cbsnews.com/news/proud-boys-stand-back-and-stand-by-trump-refuses-to-condemn-white-supremacists/
These statements should be unacceptable
to anyone on either side of the aisle who truly believes in our democracy and
our Constitution. Let’s ask the Republican leaders in Congress and in our
state to make a strong public statement that they will support the
independently certified election results and that they condemn white
supremacy.
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: In a Washington Post piece-- https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/chris-wallace-failed-trump-debate-biden/2020/09/30/a27622f0-02c6-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html
(or https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/09/30/chris-wallace-moderator-debate) --columnist Margaret Sullivan proposes that
the Commission on Presidential Debates
cancel the remaining two debates between Trump and Biden; given that Trump
seems unwilling to follow the rules to which his campaign agreed, unable to
control his tendency toward bullying, insult, and ridicule, and loath
even to extend common courtesy toward the moderator or his opponent, granting
him further airtime seems fruitless: we learn nothing substantive, only that
Trump is as unhinged as we suspected and Biden harder to rile. Teachers are
also concerned what debates like this will do to children: https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2020/09/30/no-more-debates-for-the-good-of-the-country/
Even though the Commission has announced there will be changes,
we know nothing can make Trump behave
better. Let’s urge the Commission to
cancel the remaining two presidential debates—and say why—or at the very least
to give moderators a mute button and permission to use it: CPD Exec. Dir. Janet
H. Brown (202) 872-1020 or 2600 Virginia Ave NW Ste 400, Washington, DC 20037 or
tweet them @Debates
TELL OUR REPS TO
SUPPORT SCHIFF BILL TO COMBAT PRESIDENTIAL CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF POWER: After Tuesday’s debate debacle, it is clear to
many that Trump’s opponent is less Biden and more Democracy itself. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-debate-was-a-disgrace-it-showed-us-trumps-assault-on-democracy-is-escalating/2020/09/30/2e7e075c-033c-11eb-b7ed-141dd88560ea_story.html Our
entire system is under attack and we must defend it. Congressman Adam Schiff’s much needed Protect
Our Democracy Act (not yet numbered) designed to “prevent future presidential
abuses, restore our system of checks and balances, strengthen accountability
and transparency, and protect our elections” is a worthy start. https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/pasadena-congressman-introduces-the-protecting-our-democracy-act/ This
comprehensive bill limits presidential abuse of pardons, and the statute of limitations,
strengthens Congressional subpoenas and power of the purse, protects the Inspector
General and whistleblowers, strengthens the Hatch Act and enforces protection
of elections from foreign interference. We can read main points of the
bill here: https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-democrats-introduce-landmark-reforms-package-the-protecting-our-democracy ,
full text here: https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bill_text.pdf then
call and ask our Reps to support and pass it.
THE BREATHE ACT: The Electoral Justice Project of
the Movement for Black Lives has launched the BREATHE
Act . This bill, “a 21st-century Federal civil rights bill
that will help communities of color not just survive, but thrive”, is being
sponsored in the House by Reps Alanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI),
who need our help in urging our representatives to support them--which we
can do here: https://p2a.co/f8OVlte
We can also become a community co-sponsor, and tell our MoCs at the state and
federal level that we support radical change to our criminal justice system
through the Breathe Act. Let's also use this toolkit to learn how we can grow the grassroots
movement on social media. We can use the sample tweets and Facebook and
Instagram posts, and share graphics.
AMY BARRETT CONFIRMATION: Judge
Barrett is meeting with Republicans on the Hill prior to her confirmation
hearing. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-coney-barrett-meets-republican-senators-confirmation-hearings/ Let’s let our senators know that if they
vote to replace RBG before the inauguration, we will work tirelessly to vote
them out. We can also tweet at
them: https://act.newmode.net/action/indivisible-project/demand-your-senator-refuse-confirm-any-new-supreme-court-justices
WRITE TO JUDGE AMY
CONEY BARRETT: It seems that the
only person who can actually stop Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination is Judge
Barrett herself. We can appeal to her
sense of right and goodness. We can
speak from our heart to hers. https://www.boston.com/news/national-news-2/2020/09/21/amy-coney-barrett
Here is one such letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dRIffdy4j3agCa6AgidB8LHteo2thv8Y/view?usp=sharing Let’s write our own postcard to her at Hon.
Amy C. Barrett, Robert K. Rodibaugh United States Courthouse, 401 S. Michigan
St., South Bend, IN 46601-230. (h/t)
TELL OUR SENATORS TO
QUIZ SC NOMINEE ABOUT UPHOLDING SETTLED ANTI ELECTION STEALING LAW: A desperate Trump is trying to get state GOP
legislators to ignore potential Biden victories and appoint pro Trump electors
instead. Democratic Governors would veto this, but the GOP might try to take it
to a Trump friendly Supreme Court, which would have to overturn a historic
ruling to let Trump steal the election. At stake is a key Supreme
Court ruling from 1932, Smiley v. Holm,
where the Minnesota state legislature was barred from changing election rules
over a similar veto. An impartial court would let this ruling stand, but a
partisan pro-Trump one would sweep this obstacle out of his way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/30/could-trump-steal-election-heres-one-way-find-out/ Nominee Amy
Barrett can send a clear signal that this kind of partisan gamesmanship will
not be tolerated, even by a conservative court,
by committing to
upholding Smiley in her confirmation hearings. Let’s call and
tell our Senators to ask Amy Barrett if she will uphold Smiley as settled
law and if she believes the Constitution allows state legislatures to
appoint electors without passing a law to do so.
SHUT DOWN ICE
DETENTION CENTER IN IRWIN COUNTY, GEORGIA: After nurse Dawn Wooten blew the whistle on alleged nonconsensual
sterilizations and other human rights abuses, a Congressional delegation
visited the center this weekend. https://www.wabe.org/congressional-delegation-calls-for-irwin-facility-to-be-shut-down-after-hearing-women-in-ice-custody-describe-gynecological-procedures/.
Rep. Joaquin Castro stated that they found little or no PPE to protect against
COVID. Medical requests repeatedly ignored. Burning hot water for showers.
Women given other people’s used underwear to wear. Bedsheets not changed for
more than three weeks. https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/1309896187668041730.
Let’s contact our MoCs and the Acting Secretary of DHS, Chad Wolf, (202-282-8495;
DHSSecretary@hq.dhs.gov;
https://homelandsecurity.ideascale.com/;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homelandsecurity/;
Twitter: @DHS.gov) and demand that the ICE Detention Center be shut down
immediately and that the detained inmates be released to the community.
TALK UP THE
REVELATIONS IN TRUMP’S TAX RETURNS—Conventional
wisdom among many is that “nothing matters” when it comes to Trump’s support
among segments of the electorate. But the evidence suggests that this is not
true, and an important way to increase the chances that Trump’s tax returns
will hurt him in the election is to keep the issue before the public, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-trumps-tax-returns-could-affect-the-election/ Here
are five key takeaways on Trump’s tax returns, https://apnews.com/article/ruth-bader-ginsburg-courts-donald-trump-7e1d23d1e381ae3e0be6cb293338c05e (yes,
that link’s correct), an information on how his gargantuan debts make him a
national security risk, https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-warren-donald-trump-business-national-security-us-news-1635b8d18ca4f5ca2e335b61ed184268. Let’s
not let this issue fade. Let’s talk it up every chance we get, including on
social media, from here until election day.
ELECTION/VOTING
ELECTION - GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV)
ART RESISTANCE TO ENCOURAGE MAIL IN VOTING: In 2020, artists making
political statements have typically done so on the
streets, with murals, protest placards or by knocking down old monuments.
But much overlooked is the envelope as a place for art. Since a stamp
symbolizes the mail-in vote, it has come to represent a form of resistance, a
form of direct action. The New York non-profit TRANS> has created a
stamp project called “These Times”. The
project, which will premiere both online and in sticker format, features 50
artists and institutions who stress the urgency of voting. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/sep/30/these-times-stamp-art-project Let’s share this and get our own plan
ready for our mail in ballot.
MAKE PHONE CALLS TO INDEPENDENT AND INFREQUENT DEM VOTERS IN FL: Florida is a key state in this election, and we
need every Blue vote we can get to win.
Broward for Progress has a
way for us to help by calling Independent voters and infrequent
Democratic voters in Broward county and sharing our stories, why we are fighting
for our Democracy and to getting them to use their power and help, to
VOTE. There are regular training sessions twice a week and they are about
to open more days up so even if we can’t make it during the listed times, they
will help us find a way to make it work.
We can learn more and sign up here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/online-phone-banking-2
HOST A VIRTUAL LETTER WRITING PARTY: “Swing Left is working with Vote Forward to help
volunteers write letters from home or host Virtual Letter Writing Parties. Our
Swing Left groups and volunteers have pioneered in-person letter writing
parties that have resulted in millions of letters, and now they will lead us in
hosting virtual parties, too.” https://swingleft.org/p/virtual-letter-writing-party Let’ read and sign up: https://d1h4zokikhjm0v.cloudfront.net/content/Virtual%20Letter%20Writing%20Party%20Host%20Guide%20Final.pdf
ELECTION – SUPPORT CANDIDATES
MAKE VIDEOS TO SHOW HOW BIDEN WILL CHANGE OUR LIVES FOR THE BETTER: To show people how their lives can change for the
better, Mark Ruffalo and the Black
Male VoterProject have started the #WithBidenWeCan social media
campaign. We can click here to see their video of voters talking about
important issues that impact their lives, then using that hashtag, make, post
and share ones of our own on social media:
https://twitter.com/BoldProgressive/status/1311133665578147841
MAKE CALLS TO PA FOR BIDEN/HARRIS: In 2016,
Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by razor thin margins — 44,292 votes among
8,000,000+ voters. Let’s help change that: https://www.mobilize.us/padems/event/317347/
INDIVISIBLE WINDIVISIBLE:
Indivisible has created Windivisible as a way we can help create a blue
wave. “For the last four years,
Indivisibles have taken action to defeat the Trump agenda. You marched, you
showed up at airports. You held die-ins to beat back Trumpcare, and visited
district offices so often that some corrupt representatives decided to run and
hide rather than face you! You built the Blue Wave to take back the House and
rallied from border to border to #DefundHate. Now it is time to beat Trump,
flip the Senate, and build a truly inclusive democracy.” They’ve created a way for us to phonebank,
textbank, or write letters to help elect Dems.
Let’s check it out and sign up:
https://2020.indivisible.org/
DONATE TO BIDEN CAMPAIGN: “Joe Biden's campaign netted $3.8 million in
fundraising in one hour as the first debate with President Trump aired Tuesday
night, a campaign official told Axios.” https://www.axios.com/biden-raises-record-38-million-trump-debate-7d4607e5-81b1-43cc-a065-37b2b41e6f36.html Let’s join in the effort: https://joebiden.com/#
ELECTION - REGISTERING VOTERS
HOST A VOTER REGISTRATION EVENT WITH ROCK THE VOTE: Help make an
impact by registering voters! Sign up to join thousands of others making a
difference in their communities and gain access to Rock the Vote's voter
registration drive toolkit. Let’s
check it out: https://www.rockthevote.org/get-involved/help-register-voters/
ELECTION - OTHER
ELECTION DEFENDERS: The Movement for Black
Lives is enlisting “Election Defenders”; they will be trained to provide
safe supports for voting (such as PPE and water) as well as to offer election
& voter defense; they hope to de-escalate right-wing intimidation tactics
and will contact a network of groups and lawyers, if and where trouble
arises. Given what happened at the Fairfax VA polls in mid-September-- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/us/politics/trump-supporters-early-voting-virginia.html
-- the avowed intention of Republicans to recruit tens of thousands of
unofficial “poll watchers”--https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/918317570/democrats-worry-gop-efforts-to-recruit-poll-watchers-may-lead-to-voter-intimidat --and
Trump’s call out to the Proud Boys in the first presidential debate-- https://apps.npr.org/liveblogs/20200929-debate/#trump-stops-short-of-condemning-128 --perhaps
we should all sign up for training and prepare to defend this election:
HELPING FLORIDA FELONS VOTE: The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition is
helping former felons with outstanding fines and fees complete their sentence
so they are eligible to vote. https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/politics/2020/09/22/michael-bloomberg-fundraises-for-florida-felon-voting-rights-group We can donate here: https://wegotthevote.org/finesandfees/.
VOTER SUPPRESSION: “Voter intimidation has no place in a fair election. It’s
hard to counter it the press has a hard time keeping track of a large number of
instances. Trolls and bots often swamp Facebook with false reports that it amplifies.
Hotlines get overloaded with numerous calls. A simple way for voters to report
incidents of voter suppression is needed which can screen and prioritize
reports and alert the public, influencers, the press and groups working to
protect voting rights. The solution has report results in real-time and be able
to handle very large volumes of reports.”
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ogbl#inbox/WhctKJVzhRVzxvSwkwZzJWTRpBDqCkFxSVlsRdprzJsvMQmtmZVSfMStHHsvTkrHsjCwkRL Let’s read and share: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/6a2e4700a39d408d94f4d7bbb8e6a05a
STATE/LOCAL
ISSUES
NEW YORK CITY: Almost 100,000 Brooklyn voters received envelopes
with the wrong name and address; were they signed and returned, they
would be invalidated, since the printed name and the required signature
wouldn’t match: https://gothamist.com/news/after-another-colossal-blunder-nyc-board-elections-send-new-ballots-nearly-100000-brooklyn-voters
Theoretically, the notoriously inept NYC Board of Elections will replace these;
meantime, while they clearly provided no oversight, they are blaming the
printing company to which they granted a no-bid contract. The Board urges
these voters and others with problems to call them, but those who have tried
either get no answer or find themselves on a 60 or 80 call queue. New
Yorkers must demand that elections be run competently and fairly. Let’s
call our city council members, contact the Board's Executive Director Michael
J. Ryan at 32-42 Broadway, 7th Floor, NY, NY 10004 or 212-487-5400, and tell
Mayor de Blasio by using this website: https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/mayor-contact.page or
calling 311 or writing City Hall, NY, NY 10007
RALLIES/GATHERINGS/TRAININGS/GROUP
ACTIONS/TWEETSTORMS
“VOTE SAVE
AMERICA: ONE MONTH OUT KICKOFF”: Tonight, Oct. 1 from
8-9ET, Crooked Media is hosting a pep
assembly for those us working hard this last month. “Everything we do from here on out helps us
drive up the numbers to deliver a decisive win and send a clear message to
Donald Trump and his GOP enablers that they can’t silence our voices and deny
our rights. So join Vote Save America as we kick off the final month of the
election.” Let’s sign up here for a
dose of encouragement to push us through: https://www.mobilize.us/crooked/event/332310
/
ACTIVISM 101
WEBINAR: Jess Craven, of Chop
Wood Carry Water, is continuing her Activism 101 sessions! Activism 101 is
a free, one-hour (ish) webinar for folks who have very little to no experience
with activism and/or political action. It’s a survey course with one goal: to
give those who are furious and sickened by the state of our, bite-sized actions
they can take to help vote Trump out, flip the Senate, win a bunch of
down-ballot races, and basically make good things happen in November and
beyond. Workshop will be led by Jessica Craven who is a mom, veteran activist,
elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee,
legislative chair of her Moms Demand Action chapter, and the author of daily
actions email “Chop Wood, Carry Water.” Let’s grab a few friends
and inquire about times: cwcwdailyactions@gmail.com
WOMEN’S MARCH ON
OCTOBER 17: “The Women’s
March organization is planning a nationwide protest next month [Oct. 17] opposing President
Trump and his move to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court.” https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/517603-womens-march-planned-for-october-to-protest-trump-filling Let’s sign up and be part of this
action: https://act.womensmarch.com/signup/march-october
READING/WATCHING/LISTENING
You Literally
Can't Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox's Lawyers - https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye
Proud Boys
celebrate after Trump's debate callout - https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/proud-boys-celebrate-after-trump-s-debate-call-out-n1241512
“What would Ruth
do?”: A feminist pioneer on what Justice Ginsburg meant to her - https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/09/what-would-ruth-do-a-feminist-pioneer-on-what-justice-ginsburg-meant-to-her/
Trump
administration pressured CDC to play down risks of reopening schools: report - https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/518692-trump-administration-attempted-to-play-down-the-risks-of-returning
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We can stay up to date
on Congress by checking out their schedules. a) The House publishes a weekly
schedule at The Weekly Leader (published and dated Friday)
as well as daily schedules at The Daily Leader. b) The Senate updates
their schedule daily at the Senate Floor Schedule
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.