BALLOTS AND VOTER GUIDES
Mail-in ballots will be arriving soon. For everyone in California they’ll be sent the week of October 6. The highly regarded Green Voter Guide published by the Green Party of Alameda includes endorsements for the California state propositions. The “voter card” summary and a PDF of the entire publication are found HERE.
CALIFORNIA: VOTE YES ON 15!
Please tell everyone that Prop 15 does not affect residential property, not homeowners nor renters, and Prop 15 helps small businesses. Prop 15 brings in $12 billion a year for schools and communities by closing a tax loophole that benefits a fraction of corporations and wealthy investors who own large commercial properties. For more information, see and share yes15.org.
Also, please help with good old GOTV — Get Out The Vote —by reminding friends and family to vote YES on 15, and to mail in their ballots by Monday, October 26, a week before the November 3 election.
STOP TRUMP — Reactions!
The “Stop Trump, and pressure for what you do want!” blog in August sparked more responses than any other blog of mine. As you can imagine, there was a variety of perspectives and strong opinions.
HERE is a compilation of responses (anonymous!) and my replies to them, along with some Facebook exchanges. I’m sure you’ll recognize opinions of your own and others that you’ve heard during this perilous year.
Copied below are some informative and engaging REFERENCES that are also in the blog.
IN CLOSING
I’ll repeat my favorite Thoreau quote, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
Feel free to forward this email. Another world is possible.
REFERENCES
Stop Trump, and pressure for what you do want!
Here is my August post that prompted these comments and interactions.
https://laurawells.org/stop-trump-and-pressure-for-what-you-do-want/
By Laura Wells – August 2020
Greens: Don’t Fault Us
A good piece on how “spoiler” has been used as a propaganda myth to scare voters away from alternative-party candidates since 2000:
http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/new/op-ed/greens-dont-fault-us
By Scott McLarty – May 25, 2016
(Congressperson) Ro Khanna Votes No To Biden’s Platform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwJyTlxQQNE (8 min video)
The Damage Report, with John Iadarola of The Young Turks – August 22, 2020
The Democratic Convention, described by Lee Camp
https://www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight-summary/498668-hypocrisy-at-drc-convention/ (28 min video)
Lee Camp, political comedian, Redacted Tonight – August 22, 2020
Electoral Reforms that the Democratic Party establishment could spend time implementing rather than kicking alternative candidates off the ballot: Ranked Choice Voting, Proportional Representation, and stopping the Electoral College madness.
https://www.fairvote.org/rcv#where_is_ranked_choice_voting_used
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
THOUGHT-PROVOKING VIDEOS that people have sent me recently
Not necessarily easy to hear, so you might need to take a deep breath!
Barack Obama Pushed LeBron James Away From Pivotal NBA Boycott
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi-APiwKC3A (11 min video)
By Tim Black – September 6, 2020 – on how Obama is more dangerous right now for black people than Trump
Green Party HIT PIECE by the New York Times!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBUXTMJSelw&feature=youtu.be (9 min)
By Jimmy Dore, political comedian – September 25, 2020
What OBAMA Got Away With
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOfkBRaWmGE (13 min)
By Jimmy Dore, political comedian – September 26, 2020
Edward Snowden – Joe Rogan Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rl82OQDoOc (2 hr, 29 min)
Joe Rogan Experience, September 15, 2020
THIS LAST REFERENCE is a heartening interview of whistle blower Edward Snowden, interviewed after the NSA program he exposed in 2013 was ruled by a US Federal Court to be illegal and possibly unconstitutional. Even though it’s 2.5 hours long, there are 6 million views and counting.