Progressives can help win this election by counteracting voter suppression. A group I've been helping by notifying people of color who were thrown off the rolls in key states, is showing a film Thursday night (see description below) and asking for $15 fundraiser to watch the film. Here is what they wrote in an email to me:
"The best hope the Republicans have in 2020 is to suppress our votes in key states. You can already see them trying to block vote by mail, limit absentee voters, create financial barriers to voter registration, and disseminate false information so folks don't vote.
I've seen this before. Volunteering with friends In rural, black eastern North Carolina in 2016, we saw poll locations change with no sign at the old locations of where to go, early voting days reduced, former felons scared out of their right to vote, and highly influential pastors preaching "the Bible says women should not lead", thereby discouraging votes for Hillary. We need to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Join me for movie night this Thursday - see firsthand what voter suppression looks like in this film about another group of friends who volunteered in North Carolina in 2016, followed by Q & A with two of them. Tickets are $15 and all of it goes to support groups working to ensure voting rights and voter turnout in North Carolina this November … Esther
CAPTURING THE FLAG
An award winning documentary focused on voter suppression
in North Carolina in 2016. $15 ticket price but additional donations are always welcome. After you pay, they send a receipt with a link to an online streaming.
“I can read about voter suppression and hear about voter suppression, but seeing it unfold
on screen is staggering in an entirely different way…” PBS’s Doc Soup
A tight-knit group of friends travels to Cumberland County, North Carolina intent on proving that the big idea of American democracy can be defended by small acts of individual citizens. What they find at the polls serves as both
a warning and a call to action for anyone interested in protecting the
“One Person, One Vote” basis of our democracy.
THURS, MAY 28, 7:00-9:00pm
A 75-minute movie followed by Q&A with Producer Laverne Berry + Legal Activist
Steve Miller, both of whom appear in the film. For more information about CAPTURING THE FLAG, read the synopsis
watch the trailer and check out the discussion guide for more background.
$15 ticket price but additional donations are always welcome.
Proceeds go to Democracy NC + You Can Vote, 2 NC grassroots groups FM supports.
This film will be shown in Bullfrog Films’ Online Community Screening Room.
The program will enable you to chat with your friends without being shushed.
Ticket holders will receive an email with instructions on how to join the screening.
YOU X ME = DEMOCRACY
forcemultiplierma.org
@jessi1978 NPR had a piece on the radio a couple of days ago in which they included a minute or so or one of T's 2016 campaign speeches. I was struck by how articulate and cogent he sounded in 2016 compared to now. (Even though what he was saying was propagandic crap.)
There's been an obvious decline in his oratorical skills in the last 4 years-- so much so that I wonder if he could have gotten "elected" (I use quotes for a reason) in 2016 if his verbal skills were then like they are now.
Twitter has finally fact checked 2 of his Tweets today!! it’s a start I guess.
For the first time, Twitter has labeled a tweet from President Donald Trump as misleading.
On Tuesday, the social media company highlighted two of Trump's tweets that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud.
"Get the facts about mail-in ballots," read a message beneath each tweet. It linked to a fact-check page the platform had created filled with further links and summaries of news articles debunking the assertion.
Twitter said Tuesday that Trump's tweets about mail-in voting did not violate the company's rules because they don't explicitly discourage people from voting. But, the company said, the label offers context surrounding Trump's claims.
"These Tweets (here and here) contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots," Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough told CNN Business in an email. "This decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/26/tech/twitter-trump-fact-check/index.html
The man has gone down hill and fast. I understand the office ages people. Let’s face it he does no work. The man can’t even articulate the easiest words. He probably couldn’t stand still yesterday cause he had his usual meals and had he super sized that drink.
@dhyanaji. Thank you for the You Rock. Starting last December in my town I joined a group of people who hand-write postcards to people in other states who have been thrown off the voter registration rolls.
The Republican Boards of Election around the country do everything they can to keep people from voting. In Georgia, the NAACP began a campaign to identify who has been thrown off the rolls there and we hand-write postcards to those voters alerting them. So that makes us NAACP volunteers.
We were in another campaign, also for Georgia, to tell people where to take or mail their mail-in ballots. The GOP politicians don't want to make it easy for them. So volunteers jump in and send hand-written guidance to them. But it takes thousands of volunteers to unblock the roadblocks that have been set up.
In order to get people to actually read your postcard, you have to hand write the whole thing. Otherwise research shows that people don't tend to read it when they get it. They want to feel that a human being is writing to them. I sit down and write these things all night, pay for the postage, and put them in the mail.
I send them healing too, while I'm at it.
Our group sent out thousands of these postcards.
If anyone wants to get into such a campaign, I can probably find out how you do that in your area. Probably your local democratic committee is doing it.
Attached is a link to a letter from Timothy Klausutis to Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, requesting that Twitter remove T's tweets that push a debunked conspiracy theory about the death of Klausutis's wife, Lori.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/business/letter-to-twitter-ceo.html
Posted by @jeanne-mayell re sending postcards:
If anyone wants to get into such a campaign, I can probably find out how you do that in your area. Probably your local democratic committee is doing it.
@jeanne-mayell, thanks for that information. I would love to do that. I'll check with my local DNC office -- thanks!
Rx Drugs, dementia, and something else.... look closely at the Idjit's face. He appears very ill.indeed...
@jeanne-mayell I'd be interested in writing post cards. I'm in Oregon, but I can write postcards for any state that needs it.
@jeanne-mayell Thank you for sharing information about this film & the initiative to protect voting rights!
@deetoo So many families suffered from Republican attacks on innocent family members: the Sandyhook parents, Seth Rich's family, and this. It's just pure evil. I pray everyday that Trump's power to damage others will be bound. VOTE ...and PRAY.
@jeanne-mayell When teaching political science, I used to argue that a politician with integrity no matter the party was always the best choice even when one didn't agree with him or her on every issue. I've seen nothing since those days that suggest I was wrong.
@seeker4:
I agree that it's pure evil. Heartless and soulless.
I did hear Joe Scarborough mention this morning that the conspiracy theory about the death of Lori Klausutis originated many years ago with some left-wing groups. He didn't mention their motivation, but I'm assuming they were going after Scarborough when he was in Congress. Scarborough said the story was then adopted by a Republican senatorial candidate, then by the left again, and then some far right groups, to where we are today.
Trump's threat to shut down social media for fact checking his lies is a sign of where he is going. This rampage against any publications that check him, like his firing of the last five Inspector Generals, is so dangerous, but it is expected. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/politics/donald-trump-twitter-threat-regulate/index.html
@jeanne-mayell When teaching political science, I used to argue that a politician with integrity no matter the party was always the best choice even when one didn't agree with him or her on every issue. I've seen nothing since those days that suggest I was wrong.
What you say makes sense, in theory. Every politician deserves to be evaluated in their own right.
That said, from 2016 onward the Republican party is a rogue party that requires that its members go along with policies that are destroying lives and our world -- with foreign interference in our elections, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, free sale of guns killing 30,000 people a year, racism, the caging of immigrants and their children, and the denial of climate change, and more.
So when you say, no matter what party, of course nothing is absolute. But you are going to have a hard time finding a Republican congressman, governor, or presidential candidate who is leading our world anywhere but off a cliff.
Politicians with integrity can't survive in the republican party. It's an insurgent force right now, and it's only goal is to win at all costs. The objective is to redistribute government money to the rich, and if women and people of color are oppressed along the way, better yet.
It's a Frankenstein's monster right now, but it's been decades in the making. A lot of apparently reasonable people with integrity enabled it to come to this. Maybe they didn't realize what they were doing, but they are still responsible.
I often wondered why I would feel such dread any time a republican won an election, no matter what office. I first noticed this as a teenager, in the Reagan 80's. I now understand why.
In the video I saw of him on Memorial day, T couldn't control his right arm. Does anyone think it's either Tardive Diskinesia, Parkinsons, Dementia (or both Parkinsons and dementia) or just stimulants/meds?
@jeanne-mayell That's actually my point. So far, my theory holds. The never--Trump Republicans voted knowing Trump was corrupt. And, it cost us millions. And, probably history will show that it cost them thousands of seats nationally because of Trump's damage to the party. Had they decided that in 2016 to vote for integrity over issues, Trump would not have cost us millions upon millions in his corruption and required investigations. Same with Nixon. Many Republicans knew he was dishonest because he always had been. Had they decided to sacrifice issues for integrity (Humphrey and McGovern were both men of integrity), millions would not have been spent on impeachment. However, the bottom line is that this party lacks honest men and women down the line because the honest ones have left the party: Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Rubin, George Will, Richard Lugar, Rick Wilson, Joe Scarborough, Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Charles Fried, David Brooks, Bill Kristoll and many more are all Republicans who have pledged to hold their nose and vote for Biden--integrity over party. Trump's Republican party is definitely a rogue party so how a responsible Republican can vote for him is beyond me. The keyword being responsible.
There is a rumor going around that T is going to sign an executive order on social media.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/B475BF00-A06B-11EA-BFCD-94D20850D27A
I am sure there is more pressing matters at the moment...like 100,000 American have died.
His posture, balance issues, wobbling and holding his arm strongly reminded me of Parkinsonism.
"Parkinsonism is a clinical syndrome characterized by tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability. It is found in Parkinson's disease, after which it is named, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's disease dementia, and many other conditions."
@jessi1978 no chance of that going through. As much as we've trashed the Constitution, I think the first amendment may still be intact. He's always threatening things like that.