With his kind permission this
week the Newsletter is publishing Harvey Wasserman‘s take on what it will take,
with everyone of us applying our collective shoulders to the grindstone to
ensure the future of this country in November,
Please think carefully and
take his suggestions to heart:
HOW YOU CAN DUMP TRUMP
(Originally Published In Buzzflash).
By Harvey Wasserman
Grassroots action’s immense upset victory in
Wisconsin shows we can
overcome even a rigged election.
In November, you must do it again.
When Trump tries to steal or cancel the
election, our informed non-violence must rise to protect and win it.
Neither the human race, nor American
democracy, nor the US economy will survive more of this. Our further existence
as a species depends on you.
Much of the upcoming election will be through
Vote by Mail (VBM). Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Hawaii already use
it with great success.
VBM is probably (as Winston Churchill said of
democracy) the worst election system there is…except for all the other
ones.
Huge problems are virtually certain. We
need to be prepared to deal with them.
Congress has approved just 1/10th of the $4
billion the Brennan Center says is needed to do VBM right. Senators Amy
Klobuchar and Jeff Merkely have proposed a
bill asking for the money. It needs our support, as well as some
serious thought about alternatives.
Sufficient voting centers need to be
maintained to offset the inevitable VBM shortcomings, as Greg
Palast has detailed.
The presidency will be won in the Electoral
College. So every state needs a coalition dedicated to contesting every
detail of the stripped voter rolls and flipped vote counts we know are
coming. (The Democratic Party can’t be counted on to get this done).
Gerrymandered GOP legislatures consider any
ballot cast by someone who is not rich, white, old or Republican to be “voter
fraud.” Your finding (or founding) a local voting rights group to fight
back is crucial. Progressive Democrats of America
is among them.
Here are other ways to have a direct
impact:
X Greg Palast says
at least 17 million citizens have been stripped from the voter rolls.
That means you, your kin, someone you know or someone you (hopefully) will call
or canvass needs help getting and casting a ballot.
X Do not assume you’re registered just because
you’ve lived and voted in the same place for decades. Everyone must check
the voter rolls.
X Make sure you get your ballot.
Absentee paper ballots are technically available in all states. But
gerrymandered legislatures don’t want you or anyone like you to get one.
X So start fighting now! Anyone
who fails to get a ballot in advance may spend many hours in an election day
line amidst the pandemic threat, only to have a “provisional” vote pitched in
the trash.
X Help your pro-democracy family, friends,
neighbors or those you choose to canvass to get their early ballots…then help
get them walked or mailed in.
X Forget the opinion polls! Take no
chances, make no assumptions. This work must be done.
X The Electoral College will swing the
presidency in 12 states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona,
Nevada and Iowa.
X If you live in none of those states,
you can canvass by phone or go there in person.
X West Virginia, Georgia, Texas,
Louisiana, Kansas, Montana and Kentucky could also be in play.
X All 33 Senate races this year are critical,
but especially in Colorado, Montana, Maine (Susan Collins), North Carolina,
South Carolina (Lindsay Graham), Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky (Mitch
McConnell).
X As a local poll worker you can help guard against the sabotage we know is coming. .
X As a local poll worker, you can stay
late to guard the vote count.
X No candidate should concede until
every vote is fairly counted and recounted, whatever the apparent initial
outcome.
Two additional points (among the many to be
made):
X Trump’s attack on the US Postal
Service means to enrich his billionaire cronies, destroy the unions
representing its 700,000 workers, and cripple Vote by Mail. The USPS is a
treasured American institution (dating back to Benjamin Franklin) and must be
preserved.
X Legislatures in WI, MI, OH, PA etc. are GOP-weaponized despite statewide Democrat majorities because of gerrymandering done in 2010. They must be uprooted. By popular referenda, California won the fight for a fair, functional transparent non-partisan redistricting commission. Several Wisconsin counties endorsed this vital process last week with 4 to 1 majorities. Such commissions are essential to end the gerrymandering that’s destroying us.
We have just 6.5 months to save our species.
Every possible outrage, corporate dollar and
dictatorial dirty trick is already being thrown at us.
It will take the biggest, best-coordinated
local-state-national grassroots movement in history to dump the Trump
Dictatorship.
You can make the difference.
There are no excuses.
Harvey Wasserman’s People’s Spiral of US History is at www.solartopia.org, along with
Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth. His Green Power & Wellness Show
is podcast at prn.fm; California
Solartopia is broadcast at KPFK/Pacifica 90.7 FM Los Angeles.
Please contact Harvey at solartopia@gmail.com to sign up to dump
Trump.
Solar-powered barges sitting
at the mouths of rivers and invented by a Dutch teenager, scoop up to 50 tons
of plastic per day.
International Coalition of
public health advocates denounces any Big Pharma effort to profiteer of C-19
treatments, vaccines.
France and Germany join ten
other EU countries in call for Green recovery.
Milan’s plan to limit cars
after C-19 lockdown lauded as example of
#buildbackbetter.
Michael Gorbachev says C-19
pandemic shows that governments that think of security in mostly military terms
are wasting money.
Major victory against nuclear:
at EBCE (East Bay Community Energy) meeting, board decides not to accept an
allocation of nuclear energy.
Citigroup releases updated
energy policy that rules out financing for oil and gas exploration and
development in the Arctic.
Democrats urged to end shilly
shallying and fight like hell for C-19 relief that puts people first.
Citing “utter inability to
discharge duties of his office,” MoveOn demands Humpty Dumpty’s removal under
25th Amendment.
Activists deliver body bags
to Trump properties.
AOC takes lonely stand
against unconscionable C-19 relief that doesn’t address help for those who hurt
the most.
As oil prices fall below $0 a
barrel, climate advocates urge against fossil fuel industry bailout.
Federal court invalidates key
permit for Keystone XL.
In the deliberate absence of
labor reporting in the U.S. press, the number of strikes nationwide is going
unreported.
Color of Change announces
people incarcerated in federal prisons have been granted free phone calls
during the pandemic.
SURJ reports thanks to
activists, people are being released from jails, prisons and detention centers
across the country.
Three “races” have shifted
away from red to blue in Colorado, New Hampshire and Maine.
Healthcare workers stand in
street to block right-wing protests against Colorado stay-at-home order.
Economist Ellen Brown,
writing for Popular Resistance claims universal basic income is essential and
will work.
General strike campaign
growing in the U.S. set to focus on May Day.
Unions back U.S. Postal
service’s $75 billion pandemic appeal.
New York tenants plan massive wave of rent strikes.
Largest strike yet as Amazon
workers call in sick.
United Farmworkers win two
weeks’ extended pay for California farm workers who are ordered to self-quarantine
by a medical professional
Nurses protest at White House
for mass production of PPE for health care workers.
Immigrant meatpackers fight
back against intimidation and death threats.
HIV prison activists lead
freedom movement.
Pandemic turns people back to
local farms.
Burger chain Shake Shack returns
$10 million “stimulus” loan intended for
small business relief.
No more milk dumping as
Wisconsin farms give milk to people in need.
Flint prosecutors say
investigation on track despite earlier statue of limitations warning.
Pandemic offers opportunity
for major economic and societal changes.
Baltimore car caravan demands
immediate release of prisoners during C-19 crisis.