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Uncategorized

Let your local officials know you are in favor of vaccine mandates

A couple of weeks ago I read a letter to the editor of the Kitsap Sun (which I can’t find or else I would link to it) encouraging people to let their local government officials (Mayors, Councilpeople, etc.) know that they support the imposition of COVID vaccine and/or testing mandates.

This is a good idea because if ever the moniker “silent majority” applied, it’s to the 60+ percent of Americans who do indeed favor mandates.

Unfortunately, there is a small but extremely vocal nutbag fringe with breathtaking amounts of free time to picket outside City Council, Health Department, and other meetings, which the press is unfortunately unable to resist covering way more extensively than is probably merited.

I had some free time this afternoon and so I decided to dash off a note to my Mayor to let them know how I felt. Their response: “Thank you! Yes, we are being deluged with emails objecting to vaccinations. It was refreshing to get your email. I support vaccination.”

Politicians can read polls as well as anybody, but it has to be a shot in the arm, and add some steel to the backbone when constituents reach out specifically to let them know that they are in favor of mandates. So please consider doing so.

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Uncategorized

The Freedom To Vote (Act)

Alas, it seems the For The People Act was just too much democracy for Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). That being the case, Democratic legislators have had to recalibrate their goals, and have scrambled to produce a new bill of election reforms dubbed the Freedom To Vote Act.

There’s actually a lot to like in this bill–specifically, it:

  • Sets standards for election administration, including minimum amounts of early voting, the availability of mail-in ballots, and crucially wait times on poll lines.
  • Makes election day a public holiday.
  • Criminalizes disseminating any false information that would deter voters from casting a ballot.
  • Restores federal voting rights to convicts who have paid their debt to society.
  • Sets standard for redistricting that should severely impede Republican’s data-driven gerrymandering efforts currently underway (hel-LO Texas).
  • For states that require Voter ID, it sets (fairly permissive) standards for what should be considered legitimate identification.

And much more. As usual, the Brennan Center has all the details.

The main thing missing from FTV that had been in FTP is campaign finance reform (see the in-depth discussion of differences over at Democracy Docket).

But can it pass?

Manchin’s objection to For The People was that it “wasn’t bipartisan”. Freedom To Vote is largely based on a framework that he put out, and so now the task will be to convince 10 republican Senators to support the bill, in order to surmount the current filibuster rule. These days it’s hard to be optimistic that so many republicans can be convinced to support such a bill (heck, they don’t even seem to support the US meeting its debt obligations lately). But maybe Manchin knows something the rest of us don’t.

In the meantime, please be sure to call your Senators and let them know that you want to see Freedom To Vote pass, and have their back to modify or completely do away with the filibuster if necessary.

Categories
Voting Rights

Special Spotlight on Voting Rights

Supreme Court Decisions Highlight the Need for the For the People Act 

July saw multiple disappointing decisions from the US Supreme Court, including their failure to protect voting rights in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and a narrow win for wealthy special interests in Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta. 

These decisions strengthen the need to pass the For the People Act before the House’s August recess. This bill would both enact pro-voter reforms and decrease dark money in elections, creating greater ethics and transparency. 

Take time to look at this must watch video of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): “The Supreme Court That Dark Money BUILT”  How dark money led to two recent and outrageous Supreme Court decisions. It all leads back to the GOP push to capture the courts.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta:

Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta is a United States Supreme Court case dealing with the disclosure of donors to non-profit organizations. On July 1, 2021, in their ruling on Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, the United States Supreme Court struck down a ten-year-old California law that requires nonprofits to disclose their top donors to the IRS. Wikipedia: Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta – Wikipedia.
More information on Americans for Prosperity (AFP):  founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by David and Charles Koch.[5] As the Koch brothers’ primary political advocacy group, it is one of the most influential American conservative organizations. Learn more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Prosperity

Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee:

The Court issued its decision on July 1, 2021. In a 6–3 decision, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s decision, with the majority ruling that neither the out-of-precinct policy nor HB 2023 violated Section 2 of the VRA, nor did they find that H.B. 2023 was passed with racial discrimination intent.  Wikipedia article

Categories
Opinion

An Open Letter To Democratic Senators

I believe it is crucial that the US contends with the 1.6 attack, its causes and its perpetrators. Making sense of how that attack was able to get as far as it did, who was involved and how to prevent repeat occurrences is part of government’s basic obligation to protect itself and the American people.

If the modern republican party is so damaged that it cannot agree to even this minimal level of government functioning–even after receiving significant concessions in protracted negotiations–then we must abandon them, and any hope of bipartisanship.

The modern GOP does not want Democracy to work. They do not want government to work–certainly not under democratic control. They have ceased even trying to appeal to voters, instead passing law after law to restrict the franchise, restrict voting, and thwart even the nonpartisan administration of elections. All this in service of cementing their minority rule into the future.

In short, they have ceased to participate in our great American experiment, and now exist only to perpetuate their own power and deliver the policy objectives of their corporate sponsors–the Kochs, the petrochemical industry generally, and wealthy elites.

I am begging you to see this reality and act accordingly to eliminate the filibuster. I completely understand clinging to the hope that your GOP colleagues may One Day Soon exhibit some minimal levels of decency and patriotism–there have been glimmers, certainly.

But that time is now past. With the filibuster of the bipartisan 1.6 commission, it is clear that the GOP is at best indifferent to the safety of the American people. In truth it seems clear that they are actively opposed to that bedrock principle of our nation–Democracy.

You gave bipartisanship every chance that you could, and good on you for doing so–it’s always better to give people a chance (multiple chances even) to do the right thing. But it is foolish to maintain this hope in the face of what is now a mountain of evidence that bipartisanship with the modern republican party is a chimera–an illusion inviting you to waste precious time on bad-faith “negotiations”.

It is time to eliminate the filibuster, and wield power like a republican.

Categories
Campaigns

Write for Vote Forward-By April 15th

In addition to the postcarding we’ve been doing, we note that the Vote Forward group is running a worthy campaign to reach out to voters in Georgia and Virginia, thanking them for voting in 2020 and encouraging them to vote again in upcoming elections. Hit up those links for further information.

Categories
Issues

WA State Bills To Watch

Support HB 1148 Protecting patients in acute care hospitals

Establishes penalties for hospitals that fail or refuse to comply with state licensing standards, including civil fines and stop placements. It allows the Department of Health to adopt a methodology to fund expenditures associated with enforcement activities.. For an easy way to support this bill, click here.

Support HB 1160 ‘Health provider contracts’

HB 1160 An Act Relating to Health Provider Contracts will prevent some of the more egregious ways that very large healthcare networks form monopolies. These huge healthcare monopolies cover large geographic areas and control hospitals and patient care leading to enormous increases in cost and decreases in quality of care. This bill will also make a violation actionable under our State’s Consumer Protection Act. For an easy way to support this bill click here.

Support HB 1411 (Health care workforce)

Sign in “Pro” to the Senate Health & Long Term Care’s Public Hearing

Structural inequities and biases in the criminal justice system put Black, Indigenous and people of color at greater risk of criminal charges. Washington currently restricts most people with criminal charges from becoming home care providers, with no pathways to enter the workforce. Therefore, when seeking long-term care, Black, Indigenous and people of color are less likely to find caregivers in their own community, and when seeking employment, they are more likely to be barred from the workforce. Addressing these barriers to care and employment has never been more urgent. The health consequences of COVID-19 and economic instability caused by the pandemic has hit Black, Indigenous and communities of color the hardest. Click here to sign in Pro

Support HB 1424 Sale of dogs and cats

Sign in “Pro” to the Senate Business, Financial Services & Trade’s Public Hearing

HB 1424, Concerning consumer protection with respect to the sale of dogs and cats, also known as the “Humane Pet Sales Bill”, has a hearing on March 23rd in the Senate policy committee. Please sign in Pro on this bill.. Click here for the easy-peasy action.

Support SB 5068 ‘Postpartum period/Medicaid’ in Executive Session

Please call (360) 786-7946 or email Timm Ormsby, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, with the following message: “I’m asking that you support SB 5068: Improving maternal health outcomes by extending coverage during the postpartum period. Please ensure it gets a vote in the upcoming executive session. Thank you, [NAME] from [CITY].” Click here for more information and to find out if your Representative is on the Appropriations Committee for you to contact with the same message!

Categories
Campaigns

Democracy Doesn’t Sleep

Believe it or not, there are still consequential elections happening in our great Nation, even in the relative quiet of the post-Presidential election season. NK Indivisible is as usual leaping into the breach.

Reclaim our Vote Campaign: Loudoun County, VA

For example, this year, Virginians will choose candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and House of Delegates. Postcards4VA is teaming up with Reclaim our Vote (ROV) to write postcards to over 460,000 Virginian voters of color who have been “deactivated” from the Virginia Voter rolls and need to re-register in time for the June 8 primary.

ROV is a non-partisan voter outreach campaign that fights voter suppression and turns out the vote among underrepresented people of color. You can learn more about them in this youtube video.

Flip the West Campaign:  TEXAS 6th Congressional District Special Election

Similarly, our friends at Flip The West are mobilizing voters for a Special Election that will be held in Texas’ 6 th Congressional District on May 1 to fill the seat of Republican Rep. Ron Wright, who died in February of COVID-19. This will be a “jungle primary” with over a dozen candidates from all parties on the ballot. If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff between the top 2 candidates. You can read more about this postcarding campaign in this backgrounder.

NK Indivisible is supporting both of these campaigns by creating bundles of postcards, stamps & addresses for members to use to easily get involved in sending postcards. Please get in touch if you’d like to be involved!

Categories
Miscellaneous

Some of My favorite podcasts

There’s a tension between actually engaging in real activism–showing up at town halls, marches, legislative public comment sessions, phoning your reps etc, and indulging in so-called “keyboard warrior” or “armchair activism”, and so let’s get that out of the way right off the bat. It is possible to spend your whole day fretting, surfing social media & yes–listening to podcasts. So we should all be on the lookout for activities that sap our energies to no good effect rather than add to them.

That said–it’s also important to stay informed and if you’re like me, a big part of that is listening to podcasts. Here are some of my favorites.

Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick

If you’re at all interested in the federal courts, it’s hard to beat the analysis, interviews and basic decency of Slate’s Amicus podcast. She and cohost Mark Joseph Stern will keep you well apprised of goings on at the SCOTUS.

Post Reports with Martine Powers

The Washington Post’s daily news podcast strikes a wonderful balance between breadth and depth, keeping you up to date on the national news.

Deep State Radio with David Rothkopf

Ostensibly this is a foreign-policy focused podcast, which if I’m honest–I never thought I would find much interest in. But Rothkopf–a former Clinton administration official–and his excellent guests cover such diverse topics as COVID-19 response, federal law enforcement (with special focus on holding the prior administration accountable for its crimes) and yes–even foreign policy in such an entertaining way, you don’t even mind learning things. Find it at the Deep State Radio Network site.