There is only one story today. It is not the coronavirus pandemic, although 547,000 of us have died of Covid-19, and a study today suggested that we could have avoided nearly 400,000 deaths if we had adopted masks and social distancing early on. It is not the coronavirus even though today President Joe Biden noted that we will reach 100 million vaccinations tomorrow and that he aims to reach 200 million vaccines by his 100th day in office….
Outraged. To my core. I think next cycle, I’ll fly to Atlanta and hand out water, order pizzas, whatever is needed for people waiting in a ballot line. Now, I’m looking for “good trouble”.
Georgia shoved this law through with zero debate and with every intention of choking the life out of the non white vote in Georgia. Kemp is a disgrace for signing. Every Georgia voter who has the wherewithal must to go to the polls with a cooler/knapsack full of bottled water and sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, and share as needed. Voters are not a 3rd party, they can't be busted for providing food and water. Voters helping other voters will make sure no one leaves the line and loses their ability to vote because their belly was empty.
It is more disturbing now than I have ever known or felt in my lifetime. Like many, I have donated, spoke up, made calls, wrote letters, challenged family and friends with discussions about the fragility of our democracy, and more. The strategic plan to save our country has to go full force, with the same urgency and ‘take no prisoners’ mindset that has propelled the Republicans. Why be here if it isn’t a democracy anymore? I am so deeply saddened we are at this point.
This is as ominous as this newsletter has ever been. I fear Democrats just don't have the votes to reform the filibuster. NH Senators also appear reluctant. Too many conservatives in this country and Republicans played the long game very well.
I live in Georgia and I am planning on taking water 💦 to the polls, I will fill the trunk of my car with it. We can break this law, as though it was a dead branch to be tossed into a fire 🔥, and have it thrown out if enough of us do the same. It’s time to throw the lot of them out, every single one of them that voted for this abomination. I know that I won’t be alone
That GA Representative Park Cannon was arrested for knocking on the door of the Chamber where the Governor signed the bill into law with a private audience smacks of the worst of Jim Crow 2.0.
She was later released, on bail, though she faces charges. The video showed the GA police manhandling Representative Cannon, a Democrat. For a woman of color that was de rigeur treatment by these Hitleresque goons.
Polls in GA depict +70 per cent of voters don’t want these restrictions. Still it was signed into law with lightning speed. Republican pursuit of power and wealth could not be more naked.
Nonplussed, gob smacked, dismayed ... for Georgians, and for myself.
Another powerful--and deeply troubling--commentary on the events of the day and what they portend for the future. The Republicans are clearly bent on destroying the essential elements of our democratic government. As someone else has commented, they have played the long game well (and Democrats did not pay careful attention). (Glad to see that Sen. Warnock is speaking out in the senate) We are coming to a crisis point, and we can also await HCR's comments on the Supreme Court decisions coming up. Organizing at the grassroots level can effect some change and heaven knows the Democrats need to put up a candidate for EVERY local/county/state elected office---a horrible failure in the past, and part of what got us here. It really is up to the Democrats in Congress and the President and Vice-President to figure out at strategy that will save both Democracy and the Democratic Party. Lots of stormy weather coming...... Peace and Courage to all. This is an amazing community gathered around HCR......
To me, the best moment of President Biden's press conference today was when they asked him if he was going to run for a second term, then was asked if it would be against 45, to which he replied he didn't know, in fact he said we didn't know if there even would be a Republican Party! Great answer!
Today, the media let us down in their questions to Biden. HCR pointed some of that out. I was glad that there were those reporters who asked about immigration and the unaccompanied children. Most of those kids are boys who are of the ages 16-17. They are being treated humanely and mostly all come with papers or tattoos that bear a phone number of someone in the States. Border Patrol is to move these kids into a facility for no more than 72 hours but in the meantime they call the number the boy gives to them to verify if that person is a relative. They do not want to release them to drug or human traffickers. I felt good after that explanation although there still is a ton of work to accomplish. So, then the media asked Biden if he was going to be running for re-election and it wasn’t just one reporter who asked that. I was appalled and angry that supposedly competent news people were asking that question! Honestly, what they should’ve asked was “What kind of a shithole country are we that we have not allowed the Voting Rights Act to be approved and that we haven’t passed any tough gun control laws?”
Looks like the little square mustache above the upper lip is going to be very popular for Republicans. The For the People Act must pass. This is the defining moment for democracy in America and in the world.
"The law also makes it a crime to give water or food to people waiting in line to vote." On what Constitutional statute does the act of giving away water and food become a crime? Can things get any crazier?
How interesting that totalitarianism’s success begins in GA, the heart of the former confederacy. It is going to be interesting to see the lawsuits that I am sure are already filed. But I also suspect that this is just the beginning of the wave of autocracy that is about to try to swamp all of us.
Today, asked about the relationship between the U.S. and China, President Biden gave a breathtaking reply that flew right by most journalists in the room. His words, in effect, clarified the true conflict: It is not about individual countries, but about competing ideologies around the world. It is democracy versus authoritarianism. Consider that Russia no longer discusses “communism” because that is dead in most of the world and dying elsewhere. In Russia, China, North Korea, Africa, South America and Asia outside of China, there is no push for communism, the main drivers are authoritarians versus democracy.
The Republican moves against voting rights here in the U.S. play directly into the hands of our “competitor” countries and tarnish our “shining beacon” status in the world.
The kind of country will we become from this moment forward is the legacy we will leave. If we fail to write our own history now, it will be written for us in the future by those we have forsaken. It is up to us. Now. Today.
Outraged. To my core. I think next cycle, I’ll fly to Atlanta and hand out water, order pizzas, whatever is needed for people waiting in a ballot line. Now, I’m looking for “good trouble”.
Georgia shoved this law through with zero debate and with every intention of choking the life out of the non white vote in Georgia. Kemp is a disgrace for signing. Every Georgia voter who has the wherewithal must to go to the polls with a cooler/knapsack full of bottled water and sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, and share as needed. Voters are not a 3rd party, they can't be busted for providing food and water. Voters helping other voters will make sure no one leaves the line and loses their ability to vote because their belly was empty.
It is more disturbing now than I have ever known or felt in my lifetime. Like many, I have donated, spoke up, made calls, wrote letters, challenged family and friends with discussions about the fragility of our democracy, and more. The strategic plan to save our country has to go full force, with the same urgency and ‘take no prisoners’ mindset that has propelled the Republicans. Why be here if it isn’t a democracy anymore? I am so deeply saddened we are at this point.
This is as ominous as this newsletter has ever been. I fear Democrats just don't have the votes to reform the filibuster. NH Senators also appear reluctant. Too many conservatives in this country and Republicans played the long game very well.
I live in Georgia and I am planning on taking water 💦 to the polls, I will fill the trunk of my car with it. We can break this law, as though it was a dead branch to be tossed into a fire 🔥, and have it thrown out if enough of us do the same. It’s time to throw the lot of them out, every single one of them that voted for this abomination. I know that I won’t be alone
That GA Representative Park Cannon was arrested for knocking on the door of the Chamber where the Governor signed the bill into law with a private audience smacks of the worst of Jim Crow 2.0.
She was later released, on bail, though she faces charges. The video showed the GA police manhandling Representative Cannon, a Democrat. For a woman of color that was de rigeur treatment by these Hitleresque goons.
Polls in GA depict +70 per cent of voters don’t want these restrictions. Still it was signed into law with lightning speed. Republican pursuit of power and wealth could not be more naked.
Nonplussed, gob smacked, dismayed ... for Georgians, and for myself.
Another powerful--and deeply troubling--commentary on the events of the day and what they portend for the future. The Republicans are clearly bent on destroying the essential elements of our democratic government. As someone else has commented, they have played the long game well (and Democrats did not pay careful attention). (Glad to see that Sen. Warnock is speaking out in the senate) We are coming to a crisis point, and we can also await HCR's comments on the Supreme Court decisions coming up. Organizing at the grassroots level can effect some change and heaven knows the Democrats need to put up a candidate for EVERY local/county/state elected office---a horrible failure in the past, and part of what got us here. It really is up to the Democrats in Congress and the President and Vice-President to figure out at strategy that will save both Democracy and the Democratic Party. Lots of stormy weather coming...... Peace and Courage to all. This is an amazing community gathered around HCR......
The Republican Party is the greatest threat to the Republic.
To me, the best moment of President Biden's press conference today was when they asked him if he was going to run for a second term, then was asked if it would be against 45, to which he replied he didn't know, in fact he said we didn't know if there even would be a Republican Party! Great answer!
Today, the media let us down in their questions to Biden. HCR pointed some of that out. I was glad that there were those reporters who asked about immigration and the unaccompanied children. Most of those kids are boys who are of the ages 16-17. They are being treated humanely and mostly all come with papers or tattoos that bear a phone number of someone in the States. Border Patrol is to move these kids into a facility for no more than 72 hours but in the meantime they call the number the boy gives to them to verify if that person is a relative. They do not want to release them to drug or human traffickers. I felt good after that explanation although there still is a ton of work to accomplish. So, then the media asked Biden if he was going to be running for re-election and it wasn’t just one reporter who asked that. I was appalled and angry that supposedly competent news people were asking that question! Honestly, what they should’ve asked was “What kind of a shithole country are we that we have not allowed the Voting Rights Act to be approved and that we haven’t passed any tough gun control laws?”
Looks like the little square mustache above the upper lip is going to be very popular for Republicans. The For the People Act must pass. This is the defining moment for democracy in America and in the world.
"The law also makes it a crime to give water or food to people waiting in line to vote." On what Constitutional statute does the act of giving away water and food become a crime? Can things get any crazier?
95 pages, and no doubt over half violate the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I am an eighty nine year old former patriot. I don’t even like this country anymore—sad.
How interesting that totalitarianism’s success begins in GA, the heart of the former confederacy. It is going to be interesting to see the lawsuits that I am sure are already filed. But I also suspect that this is just the beginning of the wave of autocracy that is about to try to swamp all of us.
Today, asked about the relationship between the U.S. and China, President Biden gave a breathtaking reply that flew right by most journalists in the room. His words, in effect, clarified the true conflict: It is not about individual countries, but about competing ideologies around the world. It is democracy versus authoritarianism. Consider that Russia no longer discusses “communism” because that is dead in most of the world and dying elsewhere. In Russia, China, North Korea, Africa, South America and Asia outside of China, there is no push for communism, the main drivers are authoritarians versus democracy.
The Republican moves against voting rights here in the U.S. play directly into the hands of our “competitor” countries and tarnish our “shining beacon” status in the world.
The kind of country will we become from this moment forward is the legacy we will leave. If we fail to write our own history now, it will be written for us in the future by those we have forsaken. It is up to us. Now. Today.