Showing posts with label Freedom of Choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freedom of Choice. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

The 2022 Election, What Worked Well, What To Do for '24

 I meant to comment on this election sooner. As it happens sometimes reality is more real than what we mean to do. I got a note from Gail of the Montgomery County Democrats, asking for thoughts about the election. 

It is pretty clear that the women and  young people were the biggest increase in actual voters  and influence in this election. The attack on health care for women of all ages by the Supreme Court and Republican Leadership drove much of this increase. 

For young people the increase in voter turnout was up considerably from past elections. The biggest issues for younger Democratic Voters were; accessible abortion and affordable health care (includes ongoing attack on the LGBT issues around health care) etc, inflation, climate change, gun violence prevention, abortion, discrimination and racism, and affordable education. This was pretty similar among young Democrats and young Independents.

Democracy and Voting Rights are also a bigger issue in some states. Still only about half of young voters under 24 were contacted before the election.

Some of the polling and exit polling suggests that outreach to younger voters substantially increased turnout. Personal, online through Social Media, and in person outreach all helped drive turnout.

The Democratic Women groups were very apparent in the updates from online social media and in the regular media and very active in the bigger towns and University cities

My suggestion for the upcoming election cycle for 2024 is to start a Democratic Youth group for each county or region in the state. Even if it is just a Facebook or a Twitter group in each area. Once up and running it can be handed over to a couple of local moderators to add posts or drive engagement. People in each county or region also have many local issues that are more important to them, and will relate to local issues that might not be so important in other places. Local forums to relate to people in there own area helps people stay involved.  BB

 

 

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Trumpery and Tyranny? Forced Births or Freedom?

  

The Super Bowl of Democracy

Trumpery,  noun, plural trump·er·ies. Definition; Old English. something without use or value; rubbish; trash; worthless stuff.

nonsense; twaddle: His usual conversation is pure trumpery.

Archaic. worthless finery.

adjective

of little or no value; trifling, worthless; rubbishy; trashy.


I had been lulled into the sense of complacency by the time of the attack on the US capital on January Sixth 2020. I was on edge through most of the elections, and pins and needles from the time the counting started until Pennsylvania was called for Joe Biden. Then the last of the crazy law suits brought by the Trumpsters crazy lawyers.

Many of the politicians and the TV talking heads were saying thatThis is the most important election of our lifetime”, and it was. I can not even imagine how bad it could be now if the Trumpsters were still in the white house. And so is this election. Just like the Super Bowl every year is the most important game of the year. So is the election every year the most important, only it is not a game. This is a contest for the continuation of our country as a functional republic.

We (The USA) survived the attempted coup d'état of the last election of 2020 by the Republican leadership. The sixty three law suits filed to challenge the already certified counts in the several states, that all failed. Then attempts to appoint alternate slates of false electors in several states. The full out assault on the capital on the day to certify the results of all the states elections on January Sixth. The crazy “Forensic” re-recounts in Arizona and several other states. The refusal of the people around the Trump gang to come and testify for the insurrection investigations of the January Sixth Committee, while lying about it out in public media.

This is not over. The Republican Party criminals will not quit, they have to much to loose. Whether it is time in prison, or loss of the giant fat cat bribes. Bribes that are destroying the foundation of the republic and the Constitution, ever since the insane CitizensUnited decision of the Supreme Court in 2010. Vast amounts of untraceable dark money in every kind of local and national political campaign. As our former President Jimmy Carter framed it, “The country has become an oligarchy of unlimited bribery.

The Supreme Court is now way beyond any authority or powers ever granted in Article Three of the US Constitution. They were never granted the authority or ability in the Constitution to define words or redefine words. Plane and simple, Corporations are not People, and Money is not Speech.



Now after years of obstruction of appointments to the courts by Mitch McConnell during the Obama years. Then with the very fast appointment of several extremest Justices to the court in the trump years. Who all committed perjury in the appointment hearings with the Senate. All claiming that Roe v Wade was well settled in law before being confirmed to the court.

There were discussions during the Constitutional Convention and the adoption of the Amendments, to also include medical freedom that document. This did not happen. Even back then, the idea of how important medical freedom was, was very well recognized. Now the fundamental right to medical care by women is in danger of being regulated away or even criminalized by these Republican extremists.

 

Not just voluntary Abortion, but even to criminalize birth control and

 prevention. No exception for a spontaneous miscarriage of a fetus 

with genetic congenital or other problems. To say nothing of the 

states ready to institute trigger laws that have no exception for rape 

or incest. And then to criminalize women that have gone through 

that. That is beyond crazy, that is amoral, heartless and cruel.



The Republican leadership say they value freedom, say they want to

 protect babies, even before they come out of the uterus, but do not 

want to protect the women. They refuse to support common sense 

gun ownership restrictions, and let thousands of kids die of gun 

violence. Guns are now the number one cause of death in children in

 America, even more than car wrecks.


The words of these Republicans in leadership do not match their 

actions. What is it? What is more important? Money from the gun 

lobby, or to protect our children? Forcing women to carry a child to

 full term even if it kills her? Forced birth or freedom? Which is it?


We are again at the point of the most important election in our life 

time. The Super Bowl of Democracy. Every year is the most 

important election, even the off year elections for governors, mayors

 or school boards. The tyranny of the few crooked oligarchy in the 

Supreme Court and a few hundreds of Republicans in leadership in 

DC, and the several state capitals. We can never allow this to 

continue. End the Republican Party. Never support a republican or 

corporation that supports Republicans and this attack on our country, 

until the ship of state is set aright. They seem to forget the part that 

says “We The People”.



Methane and the Climate Change Problem. Can We Capture and Use it, Moving Away from Fossil Fuels?

  Methane clathrates (Think of Dry Ice made from Methane) are common constituents of the shallow marine geosphere. Methane hydrate is a pr...