As always on Monday, we offer quite a bit of information, including four News In Briefs, two focused on how dangerous the next six weeks could be, with excerpts that will cause you to want to click and read. Plus our 2021 ToolKit is now here.
Can You Help Us Out Today?
Retake Our Democracy runs on a shoestring budget, is 100% volunteer operated and rarely asks for donations. Last Tuesday, we did reach out, albeit at the very bottom of a list of other worthwhile organizations. If you can help, we’d much appreciate your vote of confidence!
We used to include in our request for donation, a statement that as a 501-c-4, your donation is not tax deductible. Frankly, we thought most everyone understood this, but best to be safe. If we were not a 501-c-4 we could not be as active as we are in elections, a key part of our work, so your donations to Retake are akin to donations to candidates, also not deductible. Some time ago, we found our donation request language to be stale, changed it, but then neglected to include that language in the request. If this is a surprise to you and you would like some or all of a donation refunded, we will do so cheerfully and we will keep the 501-c-4 statement in all future requests. From one of our supporters:
“Thank you for all that you do! I don’t have another organization in my life that provides information about New Mexico local goings on. You have been invaluable to me in my political activism! Thank you!”
- Interesting 40 minute Retake Conversation with Sen. Mimi Stewart as she outlines her legislative priorities and her approach to serving as Sen. Pro-Tem. Click here.
- Missed the Retake Zoominar with Senator Wirth, Senator Stewart and Speaker Egolf. Click here to see what you missed.
- 2021 Retake Our Democracy Legislative Advocacy ToolKit. Hot off the shelf, the ToolKit includes in one place: links to the bills we support; our legislative strategy; links to over 2 dozen media outlets and sample letters to the editor; contact info for legislators; descriptions of the roles of Senate District Team Members and Coordinators…and more. Retake makes it so easy for you to raise your voice with your legislator. Check it out and if you are interested in doing more than wring your hands over what gets done in 2021, write to RetakeResponse@gmail.com and let us know who your Senator is and whether you want to help coordinate or just be a member of an advocacy team in your district. The ToolKit includes a link so you can find out who your Senator is. Click here.
- Want to find out more about our 2021 Legislative Strategy? Join our weekly Zoom Friday’s from 3:30-4:30. You’ll meet some tremendous folks and find out where you may be able to help. Click here to register.
News in Briefs: The first NIB merely confirms what has been rumored since last week, MLG is staying in NM. The piece does add some intrigue into what may have undermined her chances at a cabinet post. The remaining three pieces focus on how dangerous the last days of the Trump regime may be.
From The Huffington Post, a piece that simply illustrates how easily segments of our populace can be riled to threats of violence.
But if you only have a limited amount of time to devote to catching up this morning, I’d most recommend the piece from The Atlantic and the last NIB from The New York Times. The Atlantic piece describes how it feels to be part of your first “coup” and then goes on to outline point-by-point, the telling signs that while it may be an incompetent effort, what is happening right now is most certainly a coup-like effort to thwart democracy. The Atlantic goes on to site how history has repeated itself in the past and that once a coup has been attempted, other efforts can follow.
Lastly, The New York Times offers another view on the dangers lurking in these last 44 days, not from a coup, but from an unhinged leader, tragically flawed and slipping into increasingly desperate acts, in this case while possessing the codes to nuclear arms. Both The Atlantic and The Times’ pieces are extremely well written and worth your time. Read on!
- From The New Mexican: “Lujan Grisham to Stay in NM”
- From The Huffington Post: “Armed Michiganders Gather Outside Secretary Of State’s Home To Deny Voting Results: Jocelyn Benson said dozens of people tried to intimidate her amid the Trump campaign’s ongoing efforts to undermine the election.”
- From The Atlantic: “‘This Must Be Your First’: Only one widely understood word captures what Donald Trump is trying to do, even though his acts do not meet its technical definition.”
“Punditry can tend to focus too much on decorum and terminology, like the overachieving students so many of us once were, conflating the ridiculous with the unserious. The incoherence and the incompetence of the attempt do not change its nature, however, nor do those traits allow us to dismiss it or ignore it until it finally fails on account of its incompetence.”
The Atlantic: “‘This Must Be Your First’: Only one widely understood word captures what Donald Trump is trying to do, even though his acts do not meet its technical definition.”
- From The New York Times: “Trump’s Final Days of Rage and Denial: The last act of the Trump presidency has taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House.”
“If there are these analogies between classic literature and society as it’s operating right now, then that should give us some big cause for concern this December,” said Mr. Wilson, the Shakespearean scholar. “We’re approaching the end of the play here and that’s where catastrophe always comes….
This is classic Act V behavior,” said Jeffrey R. Wilson, a Shakespearean scholar at Harvard who published the book “Shakespeare and Trump” this year. “The forces are being picked off and the tyrant is holed up in his castle and he’s growing increasingly anxious and he feels insecure and he starts blustering about his legitimate sovereignty and he starts accusing the opposition of treason.”
From The New York Times: “Trump’s Final Days of Rage and Denial: The last act of the Trump presidency has taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House.”
A Look Back
If I were to choose, I’d check out the Nov 30 post as it includes a summary of 2021 Legislative Strategy, a description and links for how you can be involved in the Georgia Run Off and a link to a very important piece on the need for a national strategy, a return to FDR idealism. Beyond that, the December 4 post includes a call to action to oppose the installation of an asphalt plant on a site zoned for agriculture, another example of environmental racism. The Dec. 4 post also includes a shocking 3 second video that depicts the immense theft of wealth in America over the past 50 years, an apt motivation to review the piece on our need to return to the principles of FDR. Read on.
Trump Unhinged, an International Disaster in the Making,
Plus a Look at Last Week and Forward to the Legislature
Monday, November 30. The Monday recap of the posts from the last day of November and the first week of December includes a link to an important post on the critical importance of a national strategy for the Democratic Party aimed at proudly returning to our FDR idealism and inventing language that will inspire rather than repel the vast majority of Americans. This will be a recurrent theme in 2021. This post also includes links to how you can support Dems in the Georgia Run Off, and the introduction of our 2021 Legislative Strategy. Read on!
Sen. Mimi Stewart Joins Tonight’s Zoom,
Plus Suggestions for Giving Tuesday
Tuesday, Dec. 1. This was a very short post., as you were buried with emails on Giving Tuesday from organizations seeking donations. We are suggesting a few worthwhile organizations, including Retake. Read on! Give on!
Click here to read the full post.
Most Hopeful Conversation with Democratic Legislative Leadership, But Also Indication of Where More Work Is Needed
Wednesday, Dec. 2. We provided a link to the recording of last week’s zoom with Senators Wirth and Stewart and Speaker Egolf .along with a series of observations recounting what was said. Most of you seemed heartened by what you heard. We also offered a link to a petition to Biden to appoint Rep. Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior & a Monahan report on the gross wealth inequality in NM. We need to do all we can to ensure that Rep. Deb Haaland is appointed Secretary of Interior. Details on why and what you can do to support this effort can be found at the bottom of this post. Let’s Do It!
Click here to read the full post.
Reports on Environmental Racism in NM, Another Showing Small Business Covid Relief Went to Big Corps, Plus Stunning New GA Polls & a Report Asking
When Are Trump’s Actions Sedition?
Friday, December 4. This post was packed with important info, including news that MLG is likely not moving on to DC, a report and Call to Action on an effort asphalt plant in ABQ, three News in Briefs, new GA poll results & an update on our 2021 Legislative Strategy. Plus, a stunning 3 second video depicting the concentration of wealth in America over the past six decades. That video is worth sharing. There is a reason so many feel so insecure and why so few experience security. Read on.
Click here to read the full post.
In solidarity and hope,
Paul & Roxanne
P.S. 25 days until we can all burn our 2020 calendars!! So ready to turn the page.
Categories: National Politics
If you would include a land address (snail mail) I would send a donation. I do not donate on line! Thanks. Also do not use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Still a luddite.
But an intelligent and cautious Luddite.
Our family is postponing our New Years celebration to January 20, 2021. The Inauguration is the perfect launch for new resolutions for 2021 and readying ourselves for the next political fight in 2022. There will be champagne at our house popped the moment Biden places his hand on the bible for the swearing in ceremony. Hopefully a New Years parade (kind of anyway), speeches, fire works…you know EVERYTHING that marks a new beginning. Of course, I am a progressive and do not like the right-centrist place Biden has placed himself but I want 2020 to be a “bad memory” right along with trump. I am more than willing to suspend our celebration for 20 days.