- Bruce: Report on Indivisible Berkeley and National. We officially endorse Joe Biden, as we committed to endorse the nominee. There was a request to find Nancy Pelosi’s and Dianne Feinstein’s fax numbers. Feinstein’s DC office: (202) 228-3954. Interestingly, Pelosi does not put a fax number on her website, but I find one on a right-wing site urging people to show her the error of her ways. (202) 225-8259
- Judy: The action item for the Board of Supervisors meeting is below. [There appears to be an agendum on this same Santa Rita money grab at the Berkeley City Council meeting, where I suspect the outcome is not in doubt —Andy]
- Bill: EBAA now up to seven interns. Review of Michigan races. More here.
- Naomi: All quiet on the Tony the Democrat front. We are out of Christy Smith (CA-25) addresses. We have to get ready for texting and phone banking. Bill reported that phone bank volunteers report people are less annoyed at getting calls now that they are shut in. Naomi got help from Commit to Flip Blue for texting training.
- Andy: A book report on Hiding in Plain Sight. I found the book disappointing in some ways. The two strongest points are the first-person narrative of living through what I call the adjunctification of the economy, where careers are replaced by a sequence of low-paid, no-benefit gigs. Also, what wealth Millennials are able to accumulate is wiped out by student loans and by the loss of their savings and upward transfer of wealth in the aftermath of the 2008 bank collapse. The second strong point is the importance of keeping track of what was once abnormal that becomes normal. The most egregious example may be the unprecedented role of failson Jared and Ivanka. Their presence anywhere near levers of policy show that America is not a meritocracy. I promised links to several articles which I thought showed a more sophisticated understanding. Those will follow. (I am glad to lend out the book to anyone interested.)
Author: Andrew J. Lazarus
Urgent Action item from 4/26 meeting
The full minutes will go up later, but we wanted everyone to have a chance for an Action Item today.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors meets tomorrow and the agenda again includes a continuation of the previous meetings’ request from (how-did-we-get-this-fascist?) Sheriff Ahern for more money for Santa Rita Jail as the major component of COVID–19 response.
Judy Stacey posted the full story earlier. Board Prez Richard Valle is the swing vote. His contact details are below. A sample script is at the earlier link.
District 2: Richard Valle (Board President, everyone contact) richard.valle@acgov.org ; 510- 272-6692
Just how incompetent is our COVID–19 program? (Very)
I haven’t pasted the Financial Times graphic for deaths recently.
Basically, no country except the USA still has accelerating (positive slope) daily death count 42 days into the epidemic. Sweden, Canada, and Brazil (which are three of the grey lines on the chart) are accelerating, but only on about day 30. They have a chance to turn the corner in the next 12 days. Whether they will, given the wretched response of Sweden and Brazil, is another question.
Meeting invitation for April 26
They may be opening up in Georgia (Georgia GOP: If you can’t beat ’em, kill ’em), but here, we are still on Zoom.
Topic: Indivisible Elmwood
Time: Apr 26, 2020 04:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 834 2425 4779
Password: 616432
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Book update
I splurged on a signed copy of Hiding in Plain Sight, which delayed its arrival until Thursday coming. I’ll have it read by Sunday, but I won’t be able to pass it around. My previous post has links to other ways to get the book, if anyone is interested, including non-paper versions. It’s now a NY Times bestseller.
Excerpt. Excerpt of her earlier, pre-election, book, Tales from Flyover Country.
The contrasts of the NY Times
First, a poignant story that would never have gotten the same reach—it’s viral now—published in any other source.
From “A Beloved Bar Owner Was Skeptical About the Virus. Then He Took a Cruise“
“He said, ‘Don’t you think this is fishy? Do you know anyone who has it? Do you know anyone who has died from it?’ And I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know anyone now, but give me a week and I bet I will.’”
And in a week, she did.
The same edition also features the following, from their chief Washington correspondent: “No Fight Over Red Ink Now, but Virus Spending Will Force Tough Choices“. Remarkably, in a 30-year career, the writer has not yet figured out that deficit hawks act only against Democratic Party programs, with particular vigor if People of Color stand to benefit. On tax cuts for the rich, they are silent. On the basics of what Paul Krugman calls the Herrenvolk Welfare State, they are silent. Yet I didn’t detect any sense of sarcasm or even wonder here.
Republican concerns about deficit spending — once an animating force of the party — seemed to have evaporated when President Obama left the White House.
But, fear not, the writer is not abandoning the punditocracy consensus that the budget must be balanced. He concludes,
There is no choice now, but tough decisions are ahead.
I don’t think I have to tell you who is supposed to suffer from the tough decisions. It won’t be the billionaires.
Book recommendation
I’d like to spend time at our April 26 meeting talking about Sarah Kendzior‘s Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America. She was supposed to be doing a reading at the Hillside Club on Northside this week, and we all know what happened to that…
Two news stories today illustrate to me why Dr. Kendzior appears prescient.
Paper stimulus checks are being delayed for several days while “President Donald J. Trump” is added to the memo line. Trump wanted to sign the checks, but is not one of the officials authorized to do so. Kendzior told us years ago that autocracies are structured such that All Good Things Flow from the Autocrat. Like checks.
We also have Ivanka sitting on the President’s committee on re-opening the country. (Jared the failson-in-law sits on a separate committee mucking up the supply chain.) Kendzior: The Autocrat Trusts Only his Family. In Trump’s case, that seems to include a few mob friends like Rudy Giuliani, so it’s a “family” in the mafia sense.
Links to buy the hardcover version from major retailers are here; same link for eBook and Audiobook versions in all imaginable formats; her local (St. Louis, MO) bookstore is shipping signed copies.
Minutes from April 12
Main topic of discussion was the mass media, bothsidesism, and credulity. As an example I mentioned, as great content in The New York Times, the column by Jamelle Bouie on the GOP war on voting and the treasure trove of documents showing government scientists and other officials trying to get Trump to care about the coronavirus. But there has also been some terrible content that doesn’t seem to understand the Zeitgeist: for example, one that couldn’t differentiate between the Republicans and Democrats for the polarized, angry politics of Wisconsin.
Bruce is signing us up with national Indivisible for their campaign for safe elections in the COVID–19 era.
The only current post carding campaign is for Christy Smith in the Special Election Runoff for the seat Katie Hill resigned from.
Judy Stacey’s report on conditions in the Santa Rita jail are posts of their own.
At Ann Brick’s suggestion, this month our site’s Donate page features the Voter Participation Center.
By now, you probably now, our postcards put Jill Karofsky over the top. She is winning by a shocking margin, over six points ahead as I write; likely to be eight after Madison finishes reporting. I am guessing that besides the Indivisible Elmwood crew, credit goes to Ben Wikler, new chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin who has been working full-time on repairing their grassroots voter turnout project.
Speaking of grassroots, Lanny pointed out that with door-to-door canvassing likely to be problematic, even those of us who prefer walking to texting and calling will have to make an adjustment.
Book club meeting: At the meeting in two weeks, I will be discussing Sarah Kendzior’s new book, Hiding in Plain Sight. Kendzior, an expert on authoritarianism, is one of those like Tim Snyder and Masha Gessen who warned us what to expect from the Trump Crime Mob. Links to get the book will be posted later.
How Fox News sees the pandemic
I wish I knew who created this.
Zoom link
Tomorrow’s meeting will be 4:30, and the Zoom link is below.
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You should know, we hit the big time. First piece of Russian spam, claiming to be a comment, sent to this blog. (I deleted it.)
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