Thursday 10/4 Call to Action

Thursday 10/4

I’m spent. The past couple weeks has been such an emotional roller coaster. I know we are focusing on midterms in 32 days, but I’m scared. I’m scared because I have seen so many Trump supporters, mostly white women, throw out their support for Kavanaugh, and express their disgust for the current situation within the Senate. Their argument is that they are scared for the men and boys in their lives, that they won’t be safe from accusations. This has me in shock and straight up rage. 

1. McConnell sets the clock in motion for a vote.

McConnell has filed for a cloture vote as of Wednesday night which gives the Senate a 30-hour waiting period before they can do a procedural vote on Kavanaugh, with a final vote likely on Saturday. Wouldn’t it be nice for everyone to get to read over and interpret the FBI findings from the investigation?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-kavanaugh-cloture/u-s-senate-republicans-set-kavanaugh-procedural-vote-for-as-early-as-friday-idUSKCN1ME05S?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

The National Council of Churches has called for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn but it doesn’t look like the Republican Senators or the White House are going to listen to them.

“The National Council of Churches, which has membership from more than 40 denominations including most major Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations in the U.S., wrote in a statement on their website that they believe Kavanaugh has “disqualified himself from this lifetime appointment and must step aside immediately.””

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/409775-national-council-of-churches-calls-for-kavanaughs-nomination-to

Law Professors across the country write the Senate to oppose Kavanaugh.

“"We have differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh," the letter states. "But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land."”

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/409811-hundreds-of-law-professors-write-to-senate-to-oppose-kavanaugh

2. Trump is coming to Rochester

“At the congressional level, Republicans have been competitive in recent races against incumbent Walz. And this year, with Walz out of the race to run for governor, Democrats worry the open seat is vulnerable, as Republicans eye it as one potential pickup in a year where political winds seem to favor Democrats.

The majority of  state legislative seats within the boundaries of the First District — nine of 11 Senate seats and 13 out of 20 House seats — are held by Republicans, and in recent elections, Walz’s margins of victory have also eroded.”

https://www.minnpost.com/national/2018/09/rochesters-growing-is-it-growing-fast-enough-to-keep-the-first-district-blue/

3. U.S.-Iran friendship treaty being torn up

“The idea of a friendship treaty between two enemies may be absurd, but in practice, the treaty did serve an important function, by providing a way for the US and Iran to fight each other in the courts instead of on the battlefield.

Now, that’s gone. Scott R. Anderson, a fellow at Brookings and a former US diplomat, noted on Twitter that, according to the terms of the treaty, termination won’t actually go into effect for a year.

But once that year is up, one of the key ways the two longtime enemies have dealt with their grievances against each other will disappear.

Robert Malley, the former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf and the lead White House negotiator of the Iran nuclear agreement, criticized the administration’s decision in a statement. “This bellicosity undermines U.S. interests and, by escalating tensions and forfeiting diplomacy, risks putting us on a path towards conflict in the Middle East.””

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/3/17932804/iran-amity-treaty-1955-pompeo

Now Take Action!
The Secretary of State’s website has all the information you need to get your vote on. You can apply for an absentee ballot, figure out where to vote and even get a sample ballot so you can do your research ahead of time. https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/

Candidates cannot win without help from us. Commit today to doing your part.
Each candidate on the November ballot has a website where you can sign up to volunteer. Every person can do at least one thing per week to help these candidates win.
Walz/Flannagan https://walzflanagan.org/
Amy Klobuchar https://www.amyklobuchar.com/
Tina Smith https://www.tinaforminnesota.com/
Julie Blaha https://blahaforauditor.org/
Steve Simon https://stevesimonmn.com/
Keith Ellison https://keithellison.org/

District 1 Daniel Feehan https://danfeehan.com/
District 2 Angie Craig https://www.angiecraig.com/
District 3 Dean Phillips https://www.phillipsforcongress.org/
District 4 Betty McCollum https://www.mccollumforcongress.com/
District 5 Ilhan Omar https://www.ilhanomar.com/
District 6 Ian Todd www.iantoddforcongress.com
District 7 Collin Peterson http://www.petersonforcongress.com/
District 8 Joe Radinovich https://www.joeradinovich.com/

Minnesota House Campaigns
Check out these calendars for upcoming events near you.
https://cd2action.com/calendar/
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed…

Snail Mail Your Way to Victory!
Check out Vote Forward. This program helps you send letters to voters in Minnesota’s Congressional District 2 MN-02 (Jason Lewis) and encourages them to get out and vote. Another hot option is pro-Russia Dana Rorhabacher's CA-48 district in California. https://votefwd.org/

Text Your Way to Victory!
Many of us may feel overworked, over scheduled, and under-slept, but have the desire to get out the vote for the November midterms. We can join MoveOn’s texting team and transform the tiny bits of time in our week into progressive action in key jurisdictions across the country.https://front.moveon.org/join-moveon-text-team/

Tweet Your Way to Victory!
Here’s a way to use social media to support candidates we support. Let’s take a look: https://sterbalssundrystudies.miraheze.org/…/Helping_the_ca…

National healthcare advocate Ady Barkan, who has ALS, has an interesting approach to courting Sen. Collins (R-ME) vote on Kavanaugh. He is soliciting donations to go to her opponent in her 2020 re-election bid should she vote for Kavanaugh. https://theintercept.com/…/brett-kavanaugh-susan-collins-a…/ Over $100,000 has been raised so far. Let’s see if we can help:https://www.crowdpac.com/…/either-sen-collins-votes-no-on-k…

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

Sister District Action Network did a study on the impact of postcards on voter registration and released the results showing positive results:https://mailchi.mp/…/dark-money-fireside-chat-and-critical-… Let’s read the report and keep on writing postcards!

Klobuchar-202-224-3244
Smith (202) 224-5641
House of Representative switchboard: (202) 224-3121
MN Legislators: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legislators
Resistbot: https://resistbot.io/
Governor Dayton- https://mn.gov/governor/contact-us/