Trump Is Putting Our Lives at Risk: This is No Time for Comfort Zones

By paulgibson51 on August 3, 2020 • ( 1 )

Musings on the NM and US elections, links to Veterans for Peace and Working Families Party events & reflections on produced water, renewable energy & Trump’s fascist tendencies. We close the post with a livestream concert from David Berkeley.

Last week we had some technical problems with the blog caused by a setting within WordPress, our blog platform. We’ve fixed it so that you will once again have the more readable format to review. Onward.

Tuesday, August 4. NM State Election Strategies: Who Can Win, Who Needs a Push and What YOU Can Do. Panelists include: Eric Griego, Working Families Party of NM, Andrea Serrano, Olé and representatives from Indivisible, Nasty Women and other grassroots groups that have teams working on campaigns. Find out key races where wins are possible and races where good Democrat incumbents face stiff challenges. Find out the nuances involved in organizing successful campaigns and the many ways in which you can support a campaign. There is far more to be done besides making calls and writing letters.

We have a unique opportunity in 2021, a Democratic Governor, a strongly progressive House and potentially a completely transformed Senate. Now we need to finish the job and make great candidates into great legislators. Find out how we can create a Legislature ready to pass a Public Bank, Health Security, Tax Reform, Funding for Early Childhood, and to pave the way for a just transition in NM.This Zoom will reach capacity very early, so register now by clicking here.

And, for more information on the 2020 election: Get In the Game! Retake Election Priorities & ToolKit. You will find information on six priority races in NM and how to be involved in the national election.

Coming Actions & Events: This week, our allies Veterans for Peace are holding a week long international online convention with some extraordinary speakers and on Saturday another ally, Working Families Party is hosting a day long “convening” that will be special. For these and other Actions & Events for next week and beyond, click here.

Thoughts on the Next 90 Days

We have over 100 attendees signed up for our NM State Election Zoominar. By Tuesday we should easily surpass 150, especially if some of you help. We’d like for those of you who have not signed up for the zoom, to please do so. We need so many more well informed and motivated to take action throughout the next three months. There is too much at stake to be blasé.

We also want to really press you to reach out to others. This is such an easy ask and it is so important. It is the only way our efforts engage enough folks to have an impact. In 2-3 minutes, you can help us move the needle.

If you do Facebook, paste the link below into your feed and include one or two sentences about why you think it is important
Pick just five friends you think could possibly get involved in election activism and tell them you are attending and you thought your friends might want to attend, as well and share the link below.
After the zoom, write to your friends and ask them to have a zoom chat with you and together pick a NM state race of a key swing state in which to become involved. Share with them our Election Page link and ask them to take a look before you chat.
Go to our election and send $10, $20 or $50 to one or more of Retake’s six priority races.

Share this link: https://retakeourdemocracy.org/the-election-of-our-lifetime-with-eric-griego-working-families-party-andrea-serrano-ole/

You could do all of this in less than 15 minutes. Please do it. No one else is gonna do it for you. We want no regrets in November, just high fives.

Last Week’s Posts Revisited

Last week was filled with action, with the big news being the PRC unanimously approving 100% renewable energy as the replacement power for the closing San Juan Generating Station. The struggle to close San Juan and to use the closure to create more renewable power in NM has been a decade long effort. Kudos to all involved: New Energy Economy, WildEarth Guardian, YUCCA, 350.org, Conservation Voters New Mexico, Sierra Club, the Alliance and an array of indigenous activist groups.

We offered poss on the Oil Conservation Commission’s hearing on produced toxic waste and also on Trump’s abysmal week (again), but the most important post is the one from Der Spiegel on Thursday. Highly recommended. Read on!

Urgent Action Today
Unless You Want Salad Watered by Fracked Toxic Waste

Tuesday, July 28. In addition to information on two very important actions last Wednesday through Friday, we offer a very informative video from YUCCA, WildEarth Guardians & New Energy Economy that pulls back the curtain on what is really going on in the Oil Conservation Commission hearing on toxic waste use….and we need to start calling it what it is: toxic waste, not some kind of magically created “produced water.” The actions last week were among the most critical NM-focused actions you can take this summer. For years we had been steamrolled by gas and oil at the PRC. Not this time. And the OCC situation is a clear case of someone pulling strings. And while the hearing is over, that fight will go on. Click here to read the full post and get up to date on Produced Toxic Waste that the state wants to use on our highways and our fields.

Great News!!! We Won.
PRC Votes 100% Renewables for San Juan Replacement

Wednesday, July 29. In addition to the news on the PRC vote, this post included a guest blog, “Celebrating freedom while taking freedom from others” by Peter Case. He makes the case that the Constitution may be out of date, that while the US was formed in revolution, the revolutionaries were also oppressors and haven’t stopped since we first set foot on this land. None of that is new, but Case is a great writer and his piece gave me pause. Click here to read the full post.

Der Spiegel: Wake Up America. You Are Closing in on 1933

Thursday, July 30. Thursday we featured a report from Germany pleading with America to wake up. The parallels between USA 2020 and Berlin 1933 are becoming more pronounced every day with the introduction of paramilitary troops into our cities, vicious rhetoric characterizing protesters as terrorists and musings on postponing the election. The NY Times discussed a recent Der Spiegel article warning the US that we were living in 1933. The article caused my skin to crawl. This is sobering and we all need to soak it in fully. We really are entering uncharted waters, at least for the USA. We must remain vigilant and ready to hit the streets on November 4 as this election. Click here to read this very important post.

Cascading Crises & Revelations of Corruption & Incompetence and that was Thursday & Then Friday Happened

Saturday, August 1. We examined an unfathomable number of Trump bungles in a single day, plus how Trump dumped a well-designed national testing strategy to leave blue states on their own. It is one thing to be a bungling fool, but to be willing to trade the lives of tens of thousands Americans just to obtain an advantage in your re-election bid, that is just craven. The post also included a video of the 19 minute Obama eulogy for Rep. John Lewis and a 20 minute Democracy Now interview with Noam Chomsky. If you missed this one, it would be good to check it out. Click here to read the post.

David Berkeley: Singer, Songwriter & Just Plain Good Guy

Roxanne is in AZ with her family, mourning her mom’s passing and also beginning the process of settling the estate. She left on Wednesday and returns Tuesday. While gone it has been creepy how solitary life is. I’ve gotten a dose of what COVID quarantine is like for someone not in a relationship and in isolation. Tuesday night can’t get here soon enough.

Perhaps the most gratifying thing I did in her absence is to listen to David Berkeley live on Friday night. He played from his driveway to neighbors and to those at home who knew of his AMP livestream. David is a pal, but more than that, he is a tremendous writer and with a great voice. He was accompanied by a fiddler and guitarist and the music was great with several political tunes included. The highlight was mid-concert when David announced another political song and then not one, not two, but three SF police cars lumbered up with lights swirling. The look on David’s face was priceless. “WTF? You are busting this?” his face conveyed. Alas, they were headed elsewhere and kept right on going.

I highly recommend testing these waters, after one song you will be hooked.