stacey abrams

Election Connection – Buckle Up, 2022!

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NOTE: After writing this and scheduling it for publication for this morning, late last night I read this article from Rolling Stone about Sen. Joe Manchin’s constant reversal on voting rights, some of which I witnessed in real time through news reports and interviews. In addition to what I’ve written below, we need to ensure that ONE Senator, even one from our side doesn’t have so much control over somethng as fundamental as voting rights.

I also want to note that Joe Manchin (along with Sen. Sinema) torpedoed the Build Back Better bill that they had continuously supported with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (that passed and was signed into law by President Biden.) Build Back Better was the main bill that would help more working class Americans. Manchin needs to be made irrelevant by adding to our Senate majority.

How Joe Manchin Knifed the Democrats…

It looks like I chose an appropriate quote to begin my original subject.

Politics don’t corrupt people; people corrupt politics.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson

I’m not sure people realize the gravity of the upcoming election situation. It may seem as thought everything is standing still it’s important to recognize that in the first year of the Biden Administration an enormous amount of work has been done, and is continuing to be done. (* See graphics below.*) We need to call out the Republican hypocrisy and fascism (and yes, that’s exactly what it is) whenever and wherever we see and hear it. We need to call out the lies and misinformation whenever and wherever we see and hear it. It doesn’t matter whose feelings it hurts. Lies are lies and their lies are killing us.

Continue reading

Election Connection 2022

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There are exactly forty-three (43) weeks until the next Election Day. This is the mid-terms and we need to keep the House AND the Senate. We have slim majorities in both, and we are already seeing how Senate MINORITY Leader Mitch McConnell has been abusing his power. We need to make Joe Manchin one of one hundred instead of THE ONE who can capsize what the majority of us want for this country and our families.

Yes, this is a mid-term election, but regardless, there are NO OFF YEARS. We need to get in it and STAY in it.

Check out the links below to see what you can do NOW!

NOTE: In the Pennsylvania Senate race, I am not endorsing either candidate, but giving you information and the websites of both candidates who I am familiar with. Both have government experience in local and state positions.

Vote Save America

Vote Save America: No Off Years

Democracy Docket

Fair Fight

Beto O’Rourke for Governor of Texas

Stacey Abrams for Governor of Georgia

Ohio Senate Candidate: Tim Ryan, currently Representative in the House of Representatives

PA Senate Candidate: John Fetterman, currently Lt. Governor of PA

PA Senate Candidate: Malcolm Kenyatta, currently Representative in the PA General Assembly

Election Day is Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Election Connection: Voter Suppression

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Across this country, at least 43 states have over 250 laws proposed by Republicans to limit voting access (source: ACLU mailing), and these predominantly negatively affect minorities and lower income voters.

One of these bills that recently became law in Georgia is SB202, and when asked in Congressional committee about what it does, Stacey Abrams was cut off by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), so she released a video on Twitter that explained it.

We cannot rest while Republicans continue to keep eligible voters from casting their ballots. Voting is a right and should be accessible to all eligible voters.

Follow Democracy Docket for more legal challenges to these proposals and laws as well as Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight.

The below video of Stacey Abrams is a good example of the preconceived notions and misinformation that GOP lawmakers accept even when experts in voter suppression are willing to explain the situation to them. They just don’t accept it, and are willing to dismiss the voting rights of people unlike themselves (ie. middle class white men).

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Election Connection: Voting Rights

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I thought on November 3rd that this series would be retired.

And then Republicans in Congress went off the rails. They took every conspiracy theory, every half-baked piece of nonsense, and tried to overturn the legal election.

How do people who coined themselves the Tea Party after the original throw-British-tea-in-the-river protesters and become the seditionists and treasonous anti-democratic rioters?

After that, their supporters marched to the Capitol and breached security, injuring over 140 police officers, killing one, directly causing the suicide of two other officers. Four other rioters died in the process. The FBI is still investigating, arresting, and jailing those seditionists.

Meanwhile in Georgia, state Republicans are attempting to pass laws to suppress voters going forward in the future.

We will need to remain engaged in order to keep the fragile democracy we have. We need a larger majority in both Houses if we want to continue to help the American people.

What follows is a starting place for following people who know what they’re doing and what they’re talking about. Please add your own suggestions in the comments.

Marc E. Elias

Democracy Docket

Department of Justice

Dept. of Justice Twitter

Ari Berman

Stacey Abrams

Fair Fight

Vote Save America

Dan Pfeiffer

Dan Pfeiffer’s The Message Box

Peaches for Me, Peaches for You

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Getting groceries. Took a detour in produce.

Peaches have never tasted so good!

The kind you can smell before you pick it up, with just enough give in the skin to know it’s that perfectly ripe and juicy.

They were so good and I was so excited about the Georgia Senate seats I ate two.

I have no regrets.

I think some may have regrets:

And just a quick reminder as we celebrate democracy:

41,549,808 MORE

Election Connection: Georgia Senate Runoff

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One week and one day ago was Election Day. I was under the impression that this series would conclude on that day, but it is 2020, and 2020 doesn’t allow us to simply move forward. It’s been an obstacle course since the beginning of the year.

While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have won the Presidency and have already begun their transition despite Trump Administration obstacles, we still have a chance to take control of the Senate.

Control of the Senate will ensure that President Elect Biden can choose his own cabinet and pass laws that support his policy priorities without obstruction from current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He obstructed much of President Obama’s two terms, and all he cares about is his own power.

We need to get behind Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff who are the two Democratic candidates running in each of the two Georgia Senate runoffs.

Start with Fair Fight, Stacey Abrams organization. More information will be coming next week.

In the meantime, read this Vox article on Sen. David Perdue’s racism and this Judd Legum Twitter thread about Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s corruption.

Both Perdue and Loeffler used the covid pandemic to make money through their stocks instead of helping their constituents get through the health epidemic.

Do your research and help get Warnock and Ossoff into the Senate and Democratic control.

NEW SERIES: Election Connection

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Beginning today, each Tuesday, I will have a post related to the upcoming election. It will focus primarily on the Presidential race, but will also include important local and state races. As we saw in 2018 and 2019, all elections have consequences. We saw in 2016 what complacency and disinformation can do, not to mention foreign interference. We have forty-three (43) weeks until Election Day. It’s a lot less time than it feels right now. As I write this, we are on the cusp of another unnecessary war by an unfit and incompetent President. We cannot let him be re-elected. He does not represent the values that we espouse as Americans and the values we try to raise our children with. Everything he claims to be is a lie, and we need to continue to call out those lies; not just his directly, but all of his surrogates, supporters, and enablers. Voters may still like him and want him as President, and that’s their decision to make and to live with, but we can’t let them continue to lie and to gaslight the rest of us. As a journalist on Twitter reminded me the other day, there are more of us; we are the majority.

You’re probably wondering what you can do in the next 43 weeks?

I hope to share some ideas and advice with you between now and November 3rd.

First, are you registered? If you’re answer is ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know,’ find out and get registered. Right now. I’ll wait.

Second, visit Stacey Abrams organization, Fair Fight 2020 and find a way that you can help ensure that everyone who is entitled to vote will be able to vote and that their votes will not be suppressed. In all likelihood, Stacey Abrams would be governor of Georgia right now if not for the Republican candidate’s voter suppression efforts. He was the Secretary of State for Georgia and made the election rules including where and when polling places would be open, what kind of identification is acceptable, and whether or not and when to certify the election. He is now the Governor. Election fraud and voter suppression hurts everyone.

If you have any ideas to share for voter protection, please put them in the comments.

Election Reflection – 21 DAYS TIL MIDTERMS

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VOTE!

Vote Save America – check your registration. People are being purged and voters, especially minorities and Democratic voters are being suppressed. If Republicans had a message and could take the responsibility of governing, they wouldn’t need to cheat by suppressing legal voters from making their choices.

In Georgia, the Republican running against Stacey Abrams is also the Secretary of State of the state of Georgia, and is the one who validates the security and legitimacy of the election, including certifying the election. Currently, there are 53,000 voter registrations that are being held up. 70% of them are African-American voters.

Georgia Lawsuit is Latest…
The Supreme Court just ruled, merely a few weeks ahead of this year’s election that the North Dakota law requiring street addresses (rather than post office boxes) is legal and upheld. This disenfranchises many Native Americans voters, a voting group that primarily goes for the Democratic party. Living on reservations and on rural routes, the post office does not assign street addresses. This is significant.

Native Americans Decry Supreme Court Ruling on Voter ID in ND

Indiana is trying to purge voters in the weeks before this midterm election.

Federal Judge Blocks Indiana…

Again, I ask, what are Republican politicians afraid of?

We are still at risk from Russian election interference. Nothing has been fortified since the 2016 election that has been proved to have been compromised.

I’m worried.

You should be also.

Check your registration, drive your friends to the polls, and VOTE!