On Tuesday, I had intended to begin the campaign season with a new Election Connection, and if I do, it will be links to Act Blue, Vote Save America, and the Kamala Harris campaign. (Any money that continues to go into Joe Biden’s official campaign account can be and will be transferred to Vice President Harris, so don’t stop donating.)
It’s currently Sunday afternoon, and when I first saw the news, I didn’t believe it. I went from room to room to chair to TV remote with my mantra, thisisbullshitthisisbullshitthisisbullshit, and apparently it’s not bullshit. That doesn’t make it okay. That doesn’t make me okay. I thought I might pass out.
I’m still shaking.
It’s 2:40 and the pity party is over. I don’t want to hear about proxies. I don’t want to hear about Republican unity candidates. I don’t want to hear about a contested convention.
THERE WILL BE NONE OF THAT.
Do you hear me? NONE.
Kamala Harris has been the Vice President for four years, she is on the ticket,
and she will make a superb President on January 20, 2025.
We have 103 days to get this right.
Vote like my life depends on it. And my daughter’s.
Because it does.
We are 269 days out from the 2024 Election.
Two races I’d recommend getting involved with are Harry Dunn and Eugene Vindman in Maryland and Virginia, respectively. These two names may seem familiar.
Harry Dunn is a former Capitol Police officer who was at the Capitol the day it was violently attacked by insurrectionists. He has a book out Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer’s Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th, and he is running for Congress in the 3rd District in Maryland.
Eugene Vindman is a retired Army officer targeted for retaliation by the Trump Administration when he and his brother, Alexander, also an Army officer at the time came forward as whistleblowers when the then President Trump extorted the Ukraine government. Eugene is now running for Congress in the 7th District in Virginia.
Please give them whatever support you can.
We have 301 days until Election Day.
This seems like a long time but judging by last week’s Meet the Press where Hide-in-Plain-Sight Insurrectionist Barbie from NY’s 21st spouted lies and didn’t answer direct questions, we have a lot of work cut out for us. For one thing, anyone calling the January 6th defendants “hostages” is not a serious person and should be viewed as an accessory after the fact. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson having prayer sessions on the House floor is inappropriate and unacceptable. And these two examples are minor things compared to threats against our representatives and democracy as well as recent swatting terror acts.
Start by speaking out. When your representative does something right, call their office and let them know. If they question how a vote should go, call and email. Offer your opinion on what the right thing to do is.
Know your sources.
I have left Twitter for Threads, but there are bad actors there also. Before reposting misinformation, do some due diligence. There has been so much misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War that by the time the truth comes out, no one remembers. Hamas is a terrorist organization that uses the Palestinian people as shields and cannon fodder while their leaders live like billionaires in other Arab countries. Defeat Hamas; then rebuild. This is a war that Hamas started (during a ceasefire by the way).
We also cannot ignore the onslaught against women’s rights and bodily autonomy. Women are not second-class citizens. We are half the population, and we should be treated with the respect that is due to us. We should not be relegated to incubators who are left to die because men in power don’t understand biology and doctors care more about legal ramification than their oaths to heal.
Women are dying, partly due to misogynistic laws being passed by ignorant men in power, and a religious fascism that thinks their way is the only way. We are a multi-cultural, multi-faith society where everyone’s beliefs should be accepted. Laws should not be made on one religion, especially when it violates others’ freedom of religious expression.
Pay attention to the small things because the small things are not so small.
Check your voter registration and make sure the information is correct.
Sign up for updates from Vote Save America. They need all our help.
Sign up for Democracy Docket. Attorney Marc Elias is on the forefront of litigating election cases and has been for years.
This upcoming election is one that no one can afford to sit out.
Election Connection will appear as needed and when things arise that need to be addressed. Next month, I will provide other recs of people who are fighting for all of us and are reliable with the information they offer.
Do you ever ask yourself why after Republicans spend and offer huge giveaways to the rich it is up to the Democrats to fix things? Then they do, and Republicans come back and destroy it again. Why do we let that continue to cycle? Teachers can’t deduct a pack of crayons, but the wealthy can deduct the gas from a private jet. Where is the justice? Where is the fairness?
One more reminder: Voting third party or not voting is a vote AGAINST democracy. President Biden is the only candidate that can guarantee the continuation of free and fair elections.
The only poll that matters is November 5, 2024.
There is much to be done before that day.
What a Year from Vote Save America
Let’s look at the list of the races we were following here for the 2022 Election, and see how we fared:
Looks like the majority of them won their races. Beto and Tim Ryan were close. We need to keep pushing in Ohio and Texas. In that endeavor, follow Olivia Julianna on Twitter (while there’s still a twitter). She is a Gen Z political activist, doesn’t back down, and speaks her mind.
Have we learned anything from the last several years?
Continue reading
If you’ve watched this space for any length of time, you have seen the call to vote in this once in a lifetime, critical election several times since 2016. It is hard to believe that all of these elections are the most important one in your life. I am sad to say that they are.
For many people, more than you may realize, the outcome of this election is important not only to their well-being, but to their very lives.
Dramatic, I know.
Video was released just last week of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi on the phone with then-Vice President Pence discussing what was going on in the Capitol. She was telling him to be safe while the President of the United States was encouraging a mob to “find” him. In the room witnessing this were GOP (Republican) leadership who subsequently went out and denounced her for not doing enough. I’m speaking specifically of Rep. Steve Scalise of LA and others. He knew she was taking care of business and lied, trying to blame her for not calling the National Guard, which she is legally not authorized to do.
That is the real problem with today’s elected Republicans. They lie. They’ve lied about things they’ve witnessed, things we’ve seen on video, things we know to be true. If this is their demeanor when we see the lies, what are they saying about things we don’t know first hand?
Have you watched the debate between Georgia Senator, Rev. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker? It is no exaggeration to say that Walker is barely intelligible. His past and his lies about his past are disqualifying. And in polls, they’re tied.
The hit-job they’re doing on John Fetterman against carpetbagger, Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania is reprehensible. Yes, Fetterman had a stroke and is in recovery, but anyone can see that his cognitive function (and physical for that matter) is equal to what it was before. They refer to his accommodation of using closed captions during interviews as if they don’t use teleprompters or that perhaps they feel the deaf and hard of hearing should be excluded from running from office.
The Supreme Court is outdated, and that’s the least of its problems. It would not be hyperbole to say that two of the nine justices are sitting in stolen seats. Three of those Justices were appointed by a man who tried to and fortunately failed to stage a coup and overthrow the government. This has been painfully shown over and over again through witness testimony under oath to Congress. Most of those witnesses are lifelong Republicans.
I’m begging you: Vote Democratic across the board, from dog catcher to US Senator. We need to hold the House and expand the Senate, not to mention Governors and local legislatures.
We need to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which would protect elections from voter suppression, gerrymandering, and the continuing sabotage of insurrectionists.
The bipartisan January 6th committee showed us how things could be if honest people work together.
Visit Vote Save America and see what you can do in your region to help save America. Everything begins with voting and free and fair elections.
Other sites to visit and support include:
Fair Fight
Democracy Docket
ACLU
When We All Vote
Vote dot Org
We are 56 days out from the 2022 Mid-Term Elections.
On November 8, we are being called to save our democracy. This is not hyperbole. We saw what happened on January 6, 2021, and the insurrectionists are still fomenting dissent and looking towards autocrats to lead us. We cannot let that happen.
We need to hold the House and expand our majority in the Senate, and we cannot forget the down ballot races, especially those that guide and oversee our local elections.
In a world where a Congressman (Gohmert (R-TX)) just this week traveled to Miami to present a flag to an insurrectionist who served her time as she was released from custody, we need to ensure that the only people in government are the ones loyal to the US and the functioning of its government and not geared towards and cheering for its sabotage.
These are the races to follow in 2022 and if you live in those states, please vote for the Democratic candidate. Everyone else, if you are able please donate to their campaigns.
Senate
Arizona – Mark Kelly (re-election)
Nevada – Catherine Cortez-Masto (re-election)
Wisconsin – (ousting insurrectionist Ron Johnson)
Mandela Barnes
Florida – Val Demmings (former law enforcement, current Congressperson, so much better than Marco Rubio)
Georgia – Raphael Warnock (re-election)
New Hampshire – Maggie Hassan (re-election)
Pennsylvania – John Fetterman (Lt. Governor, former mayor of Braddock)
Governor
Florida – Charlie Crist (former Governor, already knows the job; not an autocrat)
Georgia – Stacey Abrams (she’s Stacey Abrams!)
Texas – Beto O’Rourke (for the people, gun control, 1000x better than Abbott)
Pennsylvania – Josh Shapiro (current Attorney General of PA)
New York – Kathy Hochul (re-election)
House – on a personal note, I would love to see Elise Stefanik unseated. She’s an inciter to riot and an insurrectionist. Vote for the Democrat, save Democracy. Vote Matt Castelli (former CIA Officer, served as Director for Counterterrorism at Pres. Obama’s National Security Council.)
Visit Vote Save America to learn how you can help in your region and across the country.
Wednesday marks eight-five days until Election Day – the all important mid-term elections.
A few things happened today that I want you to be aware of as we head into these mid-term elections. (Unfortunately, I do not have links, but this are easy to google.)
First, thanks to a commited Democratic party, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which goes a long way to meet our climate goals as well as reducing the deficit whlie providing help to families.
Second, the FDA is making hearing aids available over the counter (probably by mid-October). This is crucial, and not just to people on Medicare. I have been using hearing aids since I was 52. It should have been longer than that but we weren’t able to afford it. To get them, I had to see my primary doctor, an ENT specialist, have an MRI, get signed off by the ENT, then go to a hearing aid place to be fitted with hearing aids. The aids themselves were over $5000 without the doctor’s visits and the MRI. We were “lucky” because that year my son was in the hospital and so we reached our deductible in March rather than at the end of December (like usual) and a close relative died.
Third, a 16 year old in Florida has been told in a ruling by a court that she cannot have an abortion. The reason? She is not mature enough to make that kind of life altering decision. But raising a baby, she’s mature enough for that? GTFOH.
Fourth, Liz Cheney lost her primary to a MAGA lunatic, and I’m being somewhat generous by using the term lunatic. Look her up. I’m not a Cheney fan, but at least she’s not part of the conspiracy theorists. She has been an admirable Vice-Chair for the Jan. 6 committee, and perhaps Chairman Benny Thompson can include her as part of the legal staff or committee spokesperson after she can no longer serve in January.
These four examples are only four of the very many reasons that everyone needs to vote in the Election on November 8th. Vote all the traitors, Q-anons, and corrupt Republicans out of office. Vote Blue.
We have the opportunity to turn things around. It will take time, more time than we’d like, but it will happen if everyone buckles up and does their part. Democracy is at stake. Our futures and the futures of our children are at stake.
Visit Vote Save America for ways to help your candidate and Democracy Docket.
First, a note about Press Freedom Day, which is today. Election Connection – Press Freedom Day will appear tomorrow. Mental Health Monday seemed to be more essential to post this morning.
Mental Health Awareness Month began on Sunday, a day that for most of us gives us some breathing room from the rest of the week. I am aware, however, of the many people who don’t get Sunday off and work in jobs that are so haphazard that they need second supplemental jobs and barely have time off from work. It’s important to recognize them and acknowledge and assist their mental health struggles.
I had intended to write something for publication yesterday, but after the shocking news of the Supreme Court leaked document, an Alito written draft overturning Roe v. Wade, I couldn’t sit down and write about mental health solutions when my mental health was on the verge of cracking.
All over my social media, I’ve seen women angry, upset, frightened. I won’t be getting pregnant again, and I feel the same way. I described it on Facebook as FURIOUS. I don’t have enough adjectives to describe the feelings and these feelings have been growing exponentially since November 8, 2016. It may sound melodramatic to say but that was a day of mourning in our house. We walked around with shadows across our faces, our eyes unfocused, muddling through the subsequent days; going through the motions. It felt very familiar, much like we acted during 9/11. We had also been mourning the sudden death of my mother in law, so that may have played a role in how deep our depression went.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade is a several faceted quandary. As I saw described on Twitter, the Republicans are the dog who caught the car. Now what will they run on? They’ve won the one thing they claimed they wanted. For Democrats, will this be demoralizing or will this energize us? Will we continue to be held hostage by apathy and the Manchin/Sinema power plays and/or the Collins/Murkowski concern Olympics complete with pearl-clutching and ‘oh mys’ with or without fainting spells?
And I know that some of you are wondering what this has to do with mental health?
A lot, in fact.
For women, this is a dark day. Some remember the days of back alley abortions. Are we merely chattel in a man’s world? Don’t we have the ability, the intelligence, the know-how to be able to know the best for our own bodies and mental health? The men passing the laws (and voting to overturn our constitutional rights) don’t even understand the biology of when a fetus is viable, when it is a new life, what a heart that holds a heartbeat is, or the difference between ectopic pregnancies, viable pregnancies, and high/low risk pregnancies.
They trust us to raise these children born, often alone and with no resources, but somehow we can’t be trusted to decide that the pregnancy should go forward as if our bodies are merely incubators.
No one suggests sterilizing men, who can create fetuses several by the day where as a woman can only bring one pregnancy to term a year.
I think we should have a general woman’s strike where all women stay home, and women who work at home or are homemakers or stay-at-home moms take the day off. Show the men that without women, things stop. I’d hazard to guess that everything stops.
Where does mental health fit in?
First, take care of yourself. If social media is too much with too many angry, dystopian posts, get off for a bit. Hours, or even days. You don’t have to be a part of that circus while it’s so raw for you.
Second, be aware of the amount of posting and news that will revolve around abortions, reproductive rights, the undermining of women’s rights and equality. Give yourself a trigger warning before you engage with social media and even some family members and friends.
Third, give yourself time to mourn. Spend quiet time. Have a cup of tea, knowing that the cup of tea will not cure this crisis, but it will give you some time to sit, relax, reflect, and simply do nothing for a little while.
Fourth, when you’re ready, plan how to combat this assault on our persons. We are the ones with heartbeats, and they will listen to us. We will make them listen.
Fifth, as part of doing something productive: if you have the money, some good places to donate are:
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
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 