Thursday 8/16
1. The Free Press and supporting your local newspaper
Last Friday The Boston Globe called on newspapers across the country to remind their readers the importance and value the free press has in our country.
““Public discussion is a political duty,” the Supreme Court said in 1964. That discussion must be “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,” and “may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.””
Today would be a good day to support your local newspapers. Let them know how you feel about the way they are covering such unprecedented times. History will not forget and Journalists are not the enemy.
2. Voting rights
““The Trump administration wants to make it harder to vote, and they’ve thrown the weight of the federal government behind that,” said Lisa M. Manheim, an associate professor and election-law scholar at the University of Washington School of Law. “It’s hard to justify some of these measures as anything but an attempt to entrench Republicans in office.”
Almost all researchers who have studied the issue have concluded that voter fraud is rare in the United States. A Trump-appointed commission investigating the issue disbanded in January without presenting any evidence of widespread impropriety.
The department’s future position on voting issues depends in part on when the civil rights division gets a permanent leader. Decisions about voting rights cases are typically made by the division, which was created in 1957 to battle discrimination against African Americans.
The administration’s nominee for assistant attorney general overseeing the division, Eric Dreiband, has been awaiting confirmation for more than a year; if and when he takes office, the division will be freer to act with more authority.
The nomination of Mr. Dreiband, a Washington labor lawyer who worked for the independent counsel Kenneth Starr during his lengthy investigation of President Clinton, has been widely opposed by civil-rights advocacy groups. His confirmation appears to have taken a back seat to Senate Republicans’ efforts to approve new federal judges.”
3. CIA Director Brennan’s security clearance revoked.
“It is incredibly alarming. ... As far as we know, it is unprecedented that a president of the United States would get involved with a security clearance determination. Any president is the final authority on access to classified information; they can decide whatever they want, that is for sure.”
“To think that a president would render a clearance decision based solely on an opposing political viewpoint is reminiscent of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. I mean, that’s what happened back in those times.”
4. Every person needs to commit to helping increase voter turnout. Multiple studies have shown that personal contact with voters is the key to encouraging them to participate. NOW is the time to volunteer with a campaign to canvass. Push yourself out of your comfort zone these next three months. Share your enthusiasm for the DFL with others in Minnesota communities. You can rest easy at night knowing that you are doing your best to take back this country.
Each candidate on the November ballot will have a website where you can sign up to volunteer. That are myriad ways to help so if you haven’t already, sign up and get busy.
Check out these calendars for upcoming events near you.
Study after study shows that the most effective way to get people to vote is by having conversations with them in the four days before Election Day (Saturday, November 3rd–Tuesday, November 6th). Volunteer here to be part of the last big push. https://thelastweekend.org/?source=MN02
Here are just a few reasons we need to GET OUT THE VOTE in November
Stop Brett Kavanaugh
Despite many organizations coming out against his confirmation, including
National Education Association, http://neatoday.org/…/nea-president-kavanaugh-is-a-poor-ch…/
National Immigration Law Center, https://www.nilc.org/…/nilc-responds-to-nomination-to-u-s-…/
National Women's Law Center,https://act.nwlc.org/onlineactions/M0vCUPvh80iyLto0EVhJTQ2
Fight for the Future, https://twitter.com/fightforthef…/status/1016496679128784897
Human Rights Campaign, https://www.hrc.org/…/hrc-opposes-trumps-Supreme-Court-pick…
Allianhttps://www.afj.org/scotus-nominee-brett-kavanaughce for Justice,
Leadership Conference, https://civilrights.org/trump-supreme-court-pick-unfit-to-…/
Anti-Defamation League, https://www.adl.org/…/adl-response-to-the-presidents-nomina…
Everytown for Gun Safety, https://everytown.org/…/everytown-for-gun-safety-statement…/
All these health organizations https://familiesusa.org/…/Sign-On_SCOTUS_Health_Care_Stakes…
Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing to become the next Supreme Court Justice begins on Sept. 4. If the reasons these organizations provide are not enough to block his confirmation, or the fact that all of the necessary documentation for his confirmation will not be available by that date, let’s tell our senators that we do not want any confirmations while Trump is under investigation.
On Sunday August, 19th a coordinated “tweet storm” is taking place on the Twitter machine. If you have a Twitter account, you can participate by tweeting senators and asking them to say no to Kavanaugh. Use the hashtags #StopKavanaugh, and #SaveSCOTUS in your message.
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