8/25/20
NATIONAL ISSUES
Contact all Federal Members of Congress(includes contact info and links to social media)
https://www.contactingcongress.org/
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White House contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house
JUSTICE FOR JACOB BLAKE: Once again the brutal shooting of an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake, by police, this time in Kenosha, WI, on Sunday all while the man’s children watched. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/08/24/wisconsin-police-shooting-jacob-blake-live-updates-kenosha/5625277002/America is awakening to this other pandemic attacking our country. We are beginning to understand that this is a Black and White problem that needs to be fixed. Let’s use this guide from Anti-Racism Daily for some actions we can take: https://www.antiracismdaily.com/archives/demand-justice-for-jacob-blake-anti-racism-daily
RUSSIAN BOUNTIES FOR AMERICAN TROOPS: As Sen. Tammy Duckworth tweeted yesterday, “I shouldn’t have to keep up these tweets for 59 days—but here I am. Because Donald Trump still hasn’t publicly condemned Putin for reportedly offering bounties for the murder of American troops overseas.” https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-paid-bounties-taliban-to-target-us-troops-afghanistan-cnn-2020-8Let’s not let this go unchallenged. Let’s contact our MoCs and the White House asking for support for Trump’s public condemnation of this egregious situation and for an investigation of wrongdoing.
SENATE REPORT CONFIRMS RUSSIA INVOLVEMENT: “Far from a hoax, as the president so often claimed, the report reveals how the Trump campaign willingly engaged with Russian operatives implementing the influence effort. For instance, the report exposes interactions and information exchanged between Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. According to the report, campaign figures “presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities.” (Manafort was later convicted of tax and bank fraud.)” https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/senate-russia-report-proves-trump-was-wrong-mueller-was-right-ncna1237743 and https://apnews.com/5e833a62e9492f6a66624b7920cc846aOur MoCs need to hear from us asking what they are doing to make this upcoming election more secure and what they plan to do what we’ve learned from this Senate report.
TELL JOE BIDEN TO COMMIT TO LIFTING DEPORTATION ORDERS AGAINST PEOPLE LIVING IN SANCTUARY: Undocumented immigrants are still in sanctuary, like this man: https://www.gazettenet.com/Lucio-Perez-marks-two-years-of-living-in-sanctuary-in-Amherst-s-First-Congregational-Church-29426059The National Sanctuary Collective, has created an open letter to Joe Biden, asking him to commit to lifting deportation orders against people currently living in sanctuary in churches across the United States. Let’s read the letter here. Then, let’s spread it around to gather signatures from individuals, organizations, and elected leaders–town, city, state, and national.
HELP DOCUMENT AND COMBAT MISINFORMATION ABOUT THE UPCOMING ELECTION: Now that even the Republican-led Senate has confirmed that Russia interfered in the last election to help Trump, we need to do everything possible to make sure that we minimize foreign interference in this election. This is difficult with people like Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley trying to actively promote misinformation about Russia’s role in the election as part of their Ukrainian investigation. https://www.justsecurity.org/71947/how-sen-ron-johnsons-investigation-became-an-enabler-of-russian-disinformation-part-i/. If we see any wacky stories on our social media feeds (e.g., Joe Biden is training a secret ANTIFA army in Ukraine), let’s let the DNC know so they can track them and respond. We can email tips to disinfo@dnc.org.
RACIAL JUSTICE: It has been over five months since Kentucky EMT Breonna Taylor was killed in her home by police executing a no-knock warrant. Conflicting laws including Stand Your Ground, Castle Doctrine, and the legality of no-knock warrants have created a stalemate in which accountability of the officers is difficult at best (https://bit.ly/2YoSvb1). In order to reach any amount of justice for Breonna’s death, Black Lives Matter Louisville has assembled a list of seven demands, along with an Invest/Divest strategy that could be implemented nationwide. Let’s read more, then contact local officials and tell them that we support these demands. We can find contact information and detailed actions here. Then, let’s ask our MoC at the federal level to support the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act in the Senate (S. 3955), which would ban no-knock warrants across the country, and the Justice in Policing Act (H.R. 7120/S.3912), which would ban no-knock warrants as well as police use of chokeholds.
DEFEAT BY TWEET: Some of us may be familiar with the app Momentum, which allows users to donate to an organization of their choosing each time a specific action is performed. The app is now powering the #DefeatByTweet campaign, where participants donate to a collection of Black-led political organizations in swing states each time Trump tweets (https://abcn.ws/2Et7BVJ). Let’s use Trump’s overuse of Twitter against him, and ensure that he does not get re-elected. We can learn more here, then let’s sign up; donations can be as small as 1 cent per tweet: https://defeatbytweet.org/
BIRTHERISM, AGAIN: Newsweek magazine has lent itself to spreading false rumors about Kamala Harris’s eligibility to serve as vice-president should she be elected; the editor of Newsweek has issued an apology, claiming “The essay, by John Eastman [a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute], was intended to explore a minority legal argument about the definition of who is a “natural-born citizen” in the United States” and reprinted the essay: https://www.newsweek.com/some-questions-kamala-harris-about-eligibility-opinion-1524483We have seen “birtherism” claims before, and we need to let Newsweek know that when a supposedly reputable magazine perpetuates lies about natural-born citizenship, they are lending their reputation to far-Right conspiracy theorists and should expect to hear from us. Newsweek can be contacted and subscriptions cancelled at support@newsweek.com. It is worth our knowing something about the right-wing Claremont Institute, too: https://www.claremont.org/page/claremonts-mission/
USA COVID-19 K-12 SCHOOL CLOSURES, QUARANTINES, AND/OR DEATHS: The federal government is not tracking COVID in schools. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-spreading-schools-no-one-tracking-all-outbreaks-n1236964 “As schools across the nation struggle to find a safe way to educate students in-person, a Kansas teacher has dedicated herself to tracking school closings, cases and deaths in a budding national database.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/08/15/covid-news-sturgis-motorcycle-rally-cases-in-europe-blood-plasma/5584062002/ Let’s check this out and submit additions or corrections: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQSD9mm5HTXhxAiHabZA6BPUByWBlP5HZ2jfOPEeGZkMB0ZFsmFBL5orqjIq22mjFNZ7n-11ObCylGn/pubhtml
KEEP UP PRESSURE ON P.O. LEADERSHIP: We have heard Louis DeJoy’s obfuscation before the House oversight committee (https://www.c-span.org/video/?474917-1/postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-testifies-postal-service-operations-mail-voting&live) and we should continue to demand his resignation, but, perhaps more important, let’s keep up our pressure on the USPS Board of Governors, United States Postal Service, 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, DC 20260; 800-275-8777 and Robert M. Duncan, Chair. CEO Inez Deposit Bank, 41 W. Main St, Inez, KY 41224; 606-298-3511; mduncan@inezdepositbank.com. In contacting these people, we need to know the history of the “crisis” it is claimed now afflicts the postal service: https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/ Republicans are once again spreading misinformation about how the mail-in voting process will lead to voter fraud.https://www.nbc12.com/2020/08/12/ballot-drop-boxes-are-next-legal-fight-voting/. Given the chaos of the P.O., let’s join the 8 states that already use them (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-dropboxes/ballot-drop-boxes-are-latest-battleground-in-us-election-fight-idUSKBN25G14I) and demand secure ballot drop-off boxes; ask our State Election Office to put them up in order to make voting more accessible to people worried about COVID and the unreliability of the USPS.
LEGISLATION TO HELP POST OFFICE: The House passed the Delivering for America Act (H.B. 8015) last Saturday after coming back early from recess for the vote in the effort to reverse recent changes in postal service. https://apnews.com/2e2fcd6f1457cd1ddc3d8f85e9548cc3 26 Republicans voted in favor. The bill would prohibit Trump’s Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, from changing the level of Postal Service delivery standards that existed on 1/1/2020 during the COVID public health emergency through at least 1/1/2021 or longer if the public health emergency is extended. The bill also includes $25 billion in funding to the USPS and a requirement that USPS give first-class status to election mailings. While McConnell and Trump both said they will not support this bill, it is important that we let our senators know that we support the bill and want it to be brought up for a vote in the Senate. It is time to know where senators stand. We can also sign this: https://p2a.co/Ut9UYhS
RNC MAKES ITS RACIST COMMITMENTS CLEAR: It is worth our noting, in the midst of the Republican Convention, that the Republican National Committee has passed a resolution delegitimizing the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/24/republican-national-committee-condemns-southern-poverty-law-center/3431429001/) as well as a resolution to “combat prejudice” by protecting monuments to Christopher Columbus. Let’s let the RNC know what we think of this: RNC at 202-863-8500 or tweet GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel: @GOPChairwoman
POSTCARDING OPPORTUNITIES: From one of our own: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j94_LhSm2JKl8eX-TwmSEgqAB4yJGZQhDmDMIW0DlSc/edit Let’s write!
ELECTION/VOTING
BECOME A POLL WORKER: “America needs you to be a poll hero. We’re recruiting thousands of college and high school students to be paid poll workers to make the 2020 Election a success.” Most poll workers are older and at greater risk during the pandemic. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/05/894331965/wanted-young-people-to-work-the-polls-this-novemberNow would be a great time for those of us who are younger to step up and help ensure our election security this fall by becoming poll workers. We can sign up here: https://www.pollhero.org
VOTERIZER: Field Team 6 launched its new Voter Registration portal this past weekend–Voterizer.org. Born of Jason Berlin’s frustration with leaky funnel portals, Voterizer was custom-built to register Democrats, sign them up to vote by mail, let folks know when and where to vote, and because they’re a 527, provide information about Democratic candidates. Voterizer works on desktop and mobile, and uses brand-new tech to confirm registrations with a 50-state database (the only app to do this) and sends email follow-ups and reminders automatically. Field Team 6 is sharing this app (for free) with any allied organization who needs it, will plug in their branding, and give them access to every voter they register… empowering them to help drive turnout with hyper-local GOTV messaging. Interested organizations should contact voterizer@gmail.com But anyone can use the portal now. Let’s check out Voterizer.org. We can also click here for prewritten tweets, posts and more to help spread the word. bit.ly/VoterizerStorm
BOOST VOTER REGISTRATION—Registration of new voters was going like gangbusters until the pandemic hit, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/voter-registrations-are-way-way-down-during-the-pandemic/. We need to be creative as social distancing reduces opportunities for in-person voter registration drives. Field Team 6 has a new online Blue voter registration portal called Voterizer, and a clever social media campaign that we can help go viral. Let’s get involved: https://www.fieldteam6.org/voterizersocialmedia
POSTCARDERS UNITE! Postcarding is a safe, easy and fun way to reach voters to encourage them to go to the polls. Here are some of the postcarding opportunities open to our participation: a) Postcards to Voters. (P2V) With over three years of operation and over 60,000 volunteers, P2V continues to reach voters for elections large and small. Current open campaigns are to encourage Florida Democrats to enroll in Vote By Mail (VBM). Thanks to these and other efforts, VBM Democrats now outnumber VBM Republicans in Florida. (Source: Politico.); b) Postcards to Swing States (PSS) We now only need to reach four of the fourteen states in this campaign: Georgia, Kentucky, Texas and South Carolina. PSS provides addresses, scripts and postcards. We provide labor and stamps. Postcards written now will not be mailed till October; c) Postcards4VA (P4VA) is now on their fourth campaign after helping to flip VA blue in 2017, 2018, and 2019. P4VA provides addresses and scripts. We provide our own postcards and stamps. P4VA has labels available free by request to assist with date and time information; d) Sister District Project. CA03 and Indivisible Yolo have teamed up to offer various postcarding opportunities for races both in and out of state. They offer scripts and addresses. We supply postcards and stamps. If we are postcarders, let’s request addresses from one of these organizations today!
VOTER EDUCATION—“The Last Election” https://lastelection.org/ is an effort of Spread the Vote https://www.spreadthevote.org/ to bridge the gap between voter registration and voter turnout. Among the services offered are September Voter Education Courses that teach how to read a ballot, how to vote by mail, voting safely during COVID, voting with a disability, and more. Let’s sign up for the courses, and let’s invite others to do so as well: https://lastelection.org/
HOW TO VOTE IN THE 2020 ELECTION—FiveThirtyEight has a state-by-state voting guide explaining the rules for voting by mail in each state. Let’s educate ourselves and share with others: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/how-to-vote-2020
EARLY VOTING STARTS IN A MATTER OF WEEKS—Let’s make sure we know the deadlines in our state: https://www.axios.com/how-to-vote-by-state-2020-307c3d17-ee57-4a1b-8bad-182ca1cdb752.html
10 MILLION VOTER TURNOUT LETTERS—Democrats will win if enough of us go to the polls. It takes just 15 minutes to write five letters to Democratic-leaning voters in key Electoral College states. Why not write 50? Or 100? Let’s sign up for The Big Send and recruit others to join us: https://votefwd.org/bigsend
MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE. Let’s get ready to vote! We can check our voter registration information, polling places and find out who is running and for what at the League of Women Voters’ Vote411 site. Let’s do this today and share this information with a friend.
STATE/LOCAL
MOST:BALLOT DROP BOXES—There should be ballot drop boxes accessible to every voter in every state. Full stop. Let’s contact our governors https://www.usa.gov/state-governor and our secretaries of state https://www.nass.org/membership and tell them that we want ballot drop boxes installed according to the recommendations of the US Election Assistance Commission: https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/electionofficials/vbm/Ballot_Drop_Box.pdf, and that we want official online look-up tools for locating our ballot drop boxes.
ALL:TELL OUR LOCAL POST OFFICES TO RE-INSTALL SORTING MACHINES: Post Offices in Dallas and Seattle/Tacoma have defied orders from Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, and reinstalled their sorting machines. (Note: DeJoy said on Friday that he would suspend further changes, but he also instructed workers not to re-install equipment that had already been dismantled.) https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielcassady/2020/08/22/washington-postal-workers-defy-usps-orders-and-reinstall-mail-sorting-machines/#33befcd05f80. Let’s tell our local post office that we want them to follow the brave example of these two postal facilities and re-install all dismantled machines immediately, and that it’s worth it to defy any order that is intended to subvert our democracy.
RALLIES/GATHERINGS/TRAININGS/GROUP ACTIONS/TWEETSTORMS
LEARN HOW TO PUT YOUR GET OUT THE VOTE CAMPAIGN PLAN INTO ACTION: If we are running for office, working for a campaign, or helping to rally voters for upcoming elections, we know that getting out the vote (GOTV) is not just a matter of finding supportive voters. We also need to plan and prepare to get them to the polls. This Thursday, August 27th from 8pm-9pm EST, the National Democratic Training Committee https://traindemocrats.org/ has a free virtual live training on “How to Put Your GOTV Plan into Action” just for us. In this session we’ll learn how to prepare our teams for GOTV and how to develop our GOTV plan timeline. We can find out more and register for Thursday’s free GOTV virtual workshop here: https://traindemocrats.org/event/how-to-put-your-gotv-plan-into-action-08-27-2020/
READING/WATCHING/LISTENING
10 Things to Know About Trump’s Post Office Scandal – https://billmoyers.com/story/10-things-to-know-about-trumps-post-office-scandal/
Carter Centre to launch first-ever US election initiative, citing ‘erosion’ of democracy – https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/carter-center-us-election-2020-donald-trump-democracy-a9683011.html
The 19th Amendment didn’t give women the right to vote – https://www.vox.com/2020/8/18/21358913/19th-amendment-ratified-anniversary-women-suffrage-vote
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Songs From Home Episode 35: Lafayette Square – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukMRBEHzv4
We can stay up to date on Congress by checking out their schedules. a) The House publishes a weekly schedule at The Weekly Leader (published and dated Friday) as well as daily schedules at The Daily Leader. b) The Senate updates their schedule daily at the Senate Floor Schedule
