We offer a brief exhortation to act and reason for hope (and boy do we need it after last week). We also offer links to last weeks, posts and some humor, a hilarious Lewis Black/Sarah Silverman video on white privilege & desperate calls for police cuz a black family is nearby. Plus four News In Briefs with some uplifting info.
Take Charge! Have Hope!
Last week (and reprised below) we were bludgeoned with RBG’s passing and the instant response of a morally destitute Party to take advantage of it. And then The Atlantic article “The Election That Could Break America,” which even if you didn’t read it, was covered in all the mainstream medium. Together, it was a one-two-three blow to the solar plexus. But after a weekend mulling, it seems clear that we actually hold all the cards, hence Trump and the GOP’s desperation.
We can win in a landslide if we get everyone we know to tell everyone they know to tell everyone they know to vote in a way that ensures your ballot will be counted on Nov. 3. In a normal year, that would entail just asking folks to vote, because no on would be threatening to become king if the results are not in by midnight Nov. 3. But that actually is our reality and so now you must encourage your friends to do five minutes of research to find out how their vote will be counted in their county. But think about it: we can save our future if you simply send some emails making this reality clear to all your friends and then follow up a few days later, asking your friends to send out a similar note to all their friends. If you do that, we rid ourselves of this pestilence and can move on with the work of saving our planet and our building a true democracy. Because we outnumber “them” by a very significant margin. Let’s Do It.
Click here to access our Election strategies & DO IT!
Be sure to check out Stevie Wonder’s inspiring message of hope and the tremendously funny short video from Lewis Black & Sarah Silverman.
Retake Conversation with Maya Van Rossum: Founder of The Green Amendment movement. Maya is a great interview and in our 40 minutes together we explored how The Green Amendment could be an invaluable tool for NM environmental activists and for legislators who want to protect the environment. Click here to view our conversation.
Tuesday, 7pm streaming live & on every channel on earth: The Presidential Debate.
The moderator has full discretion in picking the debate topics. For the first round, Mr. Wallace chose Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Biden’s records, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, race and violence in cities and the integrity of the election. There will be 15 minutes to discuss each topic.
If you pray; please do. If you don’t pray; pray anyway. May Biden hold it together and may Trump come unglued.
News In Brief:
- From The Guardian: “Republicans will replace RBG but Democrats hold the trump cards – no, really” The piece outlines how in 2021, assuming a Biden win and a Democratic Senates, it is payback time. But that depends upon what is laid out in the second NIB, below.
- From : “Democrats Must Finally Play Hardball” The first thing Obama did after being inaugurated was to reach across the aisle. I hope we have learned from just how well that worked for us. Eight years of reaching across the aisle, left us with an ACA with too many holes, no means of containing pharma costs, a bailed out Wall St, foreclosed homeowners and such positive relations with the GOP-led Senate that they refused to even consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Time to play hardball. This piece lays briefly out what that means.
- From The Washington Post: “I Played Trump in the Clinton Debate Prep: Here’s What Biden Can Expect.” I thought I’d include this to prepare you for what is going to be a most interesting evening. We’ve been experiencing a relatively secure Donald Trump. Now he is desperate. What do you expect tomorrow night?
- From Letters from an American: “Sept. 27: Heather Cox Richardson.” She neatly lays out the implications of the NY Times’ bombshell report on Trump’s taxes: $300M in debt, rampant tax fraud and perhaps most damning, the most Trump has paid in US taxes in any year in the last decade: $750, while paying hundreds of thousands in taxes in India each year. What will it take to wake up those suburban voters?
A Look Back
I always offer advice as to which of the posts from the past week are most important for you to review and this week the task is easy: I can’t recommend enough reading first the Saturday post, followed by the Thursday post. Ideally they would have been published in that order, but the analysis of The Atlantic article took days to complete. It outlines all the pre- and post-election strategies the GOP is planning to undermine democracy and steal the election. It underscores the degree to which we really need a landslide on Nov. 3 and need for all voters to verify exactly whether their state and county will count early and mail-in ballots on the day of the election and if your state/county is not counting those ballots until November 4, consider voting in person, as safely as possible.
It is utterly insane that the entire GOP is spreading fake news about the risks of fraud from mail-in voting, knowing full well that there is no such risk of voter fraud but that creating a situation where voters feel they must vote in person and on election day will put voters at risk of COVID. But then this is the same party that is opening bars and schools and holding mask-less rallies with thousands of people exposed. Sick.
Election Update, 43 (now 36) Days Til E-Day;
A Look Back at Another Momentous Week
Monday, Sept. 21. Before a review of last week’s posts, we offered links to 2 articles, one detailing the Trump administration’s six-month bullying of CDC scientists, the other a swing-state polling update & call to action. Then a revealing video from Pence’s chief aide and member of the COVID task force from day one. The video is very worth watching and sharing with folks you know who are considering voting for Trump. It is scathing and from a lifelong Republican who considered working in the White House the high point of her life…until it wasn’t.
The four posts included in the Monday reflection on the prior week included:
- A tribute to RBG and commentary on what we can do to fix the Supreme Court;
- An analysis of NM’s state water crisis, with suggestions as to what you can do to press the Governor and state legislature to act and with contact info and speaking points;
- An analysis of the degree to which state environmental regulatory agencies are utterly failing to protect our land, water, air and environment; and
- A guest blog on Portland, the white militia and the threat to our democracy, such as it is.
Click here to read the full post.
Lifetime Judicial Appointments, an Outdated, Monarchical Throwback Found Virtually Nowhere But in the US
Tuesday, Sept. 22. Lifetime judicial appointments are almost uniquely a US artifact to monarchical rule. We can fix this and we must fix this, as it makes our judicial system prone to political manipulation as we see today. Should abortion rights depend entirely on whether RBG survived to Jan 21? Three News in Briefs were included with links to one article explaining how and why the Dems could pack the court, another explaining why they shouldn’t and a final one weighing both sides, a most interesting combo.
Is a Coup Coming? It Seems More Likely Every Day.
Here is a Plan to be Ready
Thursday, Sept. 24. The day’s news left no doubt: Trump will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to retain power. So while current polling is comforting, these are unprecedented times and we are headed into very choppy and entirely unfamiliar territory. Even as some Republicans say they will honor a smooth transition after a fair election, we all know what is up with the GOP’s non-stop banter about how fraudulent mail-in balloting can be and how China is poised to flood the mail with phony ballots, they have clearly left room for interpreting “fairness” in a most partisan, non-factual basis. Stay tuned, Nov. 3 and 4 will be chaos and we need to be prepared.
Click here to read the full post.
Trump-GOP Threaten to Steal Election:
38-Page Atlantic Piece Condensed… A Must Read, Must Share
Saturday Sept. 26. The Trump plan unfolds in 5 Acts, deluding the public about voter fraud, suppressing & challenging votes in all Democratic precincts, delaying state vote counts, asking GOP state legislatures to not certify vote counts if Biden wins, and then Act V, a surreal plunge into 1984. The Atlantic’s 38-page “The Election That Could Break America,” is so daunting to work through, I spent two days pasting excerpts and summarizing the gist of the piece. This post will leave you a bit flattened by what is before us, but only by appreciating the scope and scale of the challenge, can we hope to be able to surmount it. And we can surmount it.
Click here to read the full post.
Inspiring as only Stevie can be.
Flat Out Hilarious
In solidarity and hope,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Uncategorized
Wherever Republicans control, a city, state, county or village, they will likely commit fraud.
They have been doing it for decades, ‘legally’ or illegally.
Here is an article about how to prevent a coup. Link provided by Lefty Lakind.
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2020/09/10-things-you-need-to-know-to-stop-a-coup/
I tell people to vote for Biden even if they despise him (like me, even though he is a (misguided) good person) because it is the first step in what has been a long historical American process creating true/real democracy.
People who have learned the ‘complete’ history of this country do not get punched or hurt by things like the nomination of a right wing fascist to the supreme court. We expect it to happen. So we do not get hit.
American history reminds us of Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal.
History never fully repeats itself but in some ways history is repeating itself and sending us to Teddy’s times and after.
eduardo