It had to happen eventually. I spread some fake news.
The video of Gov. DeSantis praising the FBI for its search was edited in. It’s from 2020, when investigators were searching property of one of his political enemies. For Mar-a-Lago, he’s assumed the Republican beta male stance, condemning the raid. He’s one of many GOP VP hopefuls, who clearly think Trump can catapult them into the top spot in 2028, or even earlier given his McDonalds habits.
Postcards for Special Election NY-19 (Pat Ryan). The Special Election is Tuesday 8/23, same day as the regular NY Primary. So, any postcards have to go out now. Abby doesn’t have any addresses for this race at this writing, but if you have them, use them. (The same candidates are going to be running for the full term in NY-18, after significant redistricting.)
My polling update was generally positive. The Democratic brand is climbing. We are doing well in the Senate: 10-point leads for Fetterman (PA), Kelly (AZ). Down from there, 4 for Ryan (PA), 2 for Warnock (GA), only 1.6 for Cortez Masto (NV), and −0.3 for Beasley (NC).
Bruce reported on evidence that postcards and letters really work. (Fifteen emails every day, not effective.) Ann Overton gave us a list of “I vote because…” that test well.
Extensive discussion on who wants to canvass and where. Rudy Salas seems to be a little ahead. Lots of people already available to do the Southern California seat flips: Smith, Rollins, Chen. Maybe work for Kermit Jones (CA-03), closer and often cooler? Bruce passes along a note that Indivisible of Sonoma County is running a virtual fundraiser for him on Monday, 8/22.
Janice has sent an email about expanding assisted dying in California.
Back to the usual meeting place.
Bonus meeting. Aaron Frank will be doing another Focus for Democracy analysis on best bang-for-buck races over Zoom at 5:00. We are registered for the event, and anyone who wants to stay to watch is welcome.
And another highlight: Watch me eat crow as Merrick Garland’s champion, Babette, gets to point out that—at last—one DoJ case against The False Orange Messiah takes (beautiful) shape. And we can always hope this is but a small fraction of the trouble Trump is in; it couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. Minor note you may have missed: Ron DeSantis is pro-raid on Mar-a-Lago. Must be thinking this is how he clears the 2024 Republican primary field.
Just remember, if you are annoyed that Trump supporters claim he had the right to magically declassify documents (skipping all of the required procedures), luckily the same interpretation allows President Biden to re-classify the documents as Top Secret, meaning Trump can’t even read, much less possess, them.
Yesterday, Minnesota held primaries and a special election to replace the late Republican Rep. Hagedorn (MN–01). That race and two others had quite interesting results.
MN–01 is southern Minnesota and swung away from us in the 2018 election (which was elsewhere a great election for Democrats). Trump won this district by 10. In the special election, the Republican won by only 4. That is, a Blue swing of 6. The same two candidates are competing in the November general election for a full term. I strongly doubt this will be a pick-up, but a swing of 6 should have Republicans very nervous.
Two Democratic primaries also had unexpected results.
Rep. Betty McCollum (MN–04) was being challenged from the left, although she is one of the most active members of Congress on conditioning aid to Israel on settlement issues. (So, hard to get to her left on this issue without falling out of the mainstream.) McCollum was also left-of-center on BLM. Her opponent raised a fair amount of money and lost by almost 70. Not a typo. 70.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN–05) survived a primary challenge from the right. Her opponent Don Samuels picked up a number of endorsements from other elected officials. This happened the last two cycles but Omar crushed her opponents, anyway. This time she won by only 2½. I don’t think anyone expected this. The district is very Blue and this is unlikely to matter in the general election, but she’s going to face serious primary opposition from here on out.
You have been subjected, more than once, to my opinion that conservatives are using “belief” and “truth” in a way different than, say, a scientist—or even a judge. Last week serial liar Alex Jones found out about the difference, to the tune of $45 million, alas, likely to be reduced on appeal, and implication of a possible prosecution for perjury.
Lawyer/blogger Ken White (who goes by “Popehat” on social media) has a more sophisticated way of expressing it. His essay is entitled Alex Jones at the Temple of Babel. Excerpts.
When modern American political culture winds up in court… [t]he participants are speaking different languages, and using language in different ways. Courts are focused on a taxonomy of words. Are they factual? Are they opinion? Are they literal or figurative? Courts also care about the literal truth of words. That’s central to defamation law — it’s not defamatory unless it was false. Courts are about analysis, and the entire project of the law is about words meaning specific things.
But modern American political culture is emotive and even artistic. It uses language like a musician uses notes or an impressionist uses brush strokes. Whether it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about Bill Gates’ efforts to colonize our bowels through “peach tree dishes” or Alex Jones ranting about gay frogs, modern politicians and pundits use language to convey feelings and attitudes and values, not specific meanings…
The point is that courts are ill-equipped to deal with people like Alex Jones, and people like Alex Jones are ill-equipped to deal with courts. Jones’ catastrophic testimony in his own defense illustrates this. Jones struggled to fit his bombast within the framework of the law, within the distinction between fact and opinion. It’s a bad fit because that’s not how he uses words. If Jones had been honest — an utterly foreign concept to him — he might have said “I just go out there and say what I feel.” The notion that Sandy Hook was a hoax is a word-painting, a way of conveying Jones’ bottomless rage at politics and media and modernity, and he can no more defend it factually than Magritte could defend the logical necessity of a particular brushstroke.… Jones is loathsomely rich because people want to consume his art. His landscapes of hate and fear and mistrust resonate with a frightening number of Americans. The people who enjoyed his Sandy Hook trutherism didn’t enjoy it because it was factually convincing or coherent; they enjoyed the emotional state it conveyed because it matched theirs.
The Popehat Report
Despite the TV pundits predicting a GOP wave in the fall elections, there are many reasons to think there’s nothing inevitable about that at all. Follow this link to a remarkable sequence of slides showing how progressives can embarrass the doomsayers, yet again:
At Sunday’s Indivisible Elmwood meeting we’ll review this presentation and discuss possible future actions. If you can’t make it to the meeting (it’s at our alternative site), be sure to download the slides and be inspired!
Reminder: The next meeting is at our alternate location. We will send out the address. If you do not receive it, email us.
Bruce reported on the California Indivisible meeting. We had some good news about membership growth post-Dobbs. Canvassers are going to Washoe County (Reno), Nevada to defend Cortez Masto. You can go to insurrectionindex.org to find out just how bad a particular Republican is on the 1/6 coup attempt. Bruce recommended Thanks for your Servitude by Marc Leibovich. An interview with the author about the book, which discussed how “mainstream” Republicans capitulated to Trump, appeared in The Atlantic.
I talked about the Iron Law of Institutions, which I learned about from Alex Pareene. I think it applied both on the right of the Democratic Party, as he has it, and also on the Far-Left. I read a thread from Dante Atkins, a progressive strategist, about how John Fetterman is running a campaign based on authenticity instead of boring policy issues, no matter what pollsters are recommending.
Naomi contributed an optimistic Senate report from Axios and reminded us of the push to get poor, elderly voters any ID required by states trying to keep them away from the ballot box. The group is Spread the Vote.
Usual time and place.
Special postcard campaign for the Kansas abortion referendum. Conservatives thought placing it in a low-turnout election was a good idea. Let’s cross them up.
From Susie Buell’s email The Up-Rising
ABORTION RESOURCES
In this new section, we will share ways to locate and support abortion access.
Find Abortion-Related Care and Support:
• See if abortion is currently accessible in your state. Center for Reproductive Rights
• Understand how to get an abortion. I Need an A
• How to have a safe self-managed abortion. Doctors Without Borders
• Get physician-supported medicated abortion care online. Abortion On Demand
• Find a Verified Abortion Provider. Abortion Finder
• Access abortion pills. Plan C
• Find an abortion doula. DOPO Co-op
• Receive emotional support during a medication abortion. Reprocare
• For answers to medical questions during an at-home miscarriage/abortion. Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline
• Obtain financial assistance. National Network of Abortion Funds
• Receive help with child care, transportation, and other logistics. Apiary Collective
• Get emergency contraception and get your birth control automated. Pandia Health
• Find answers to your legal questions. Repro Legal Helpline
• Obtain legal support if you’re a young person who needs an abortion without involving your parents. Judicial Bypass Wiki
• Digital Safety Tips: For People Seeking An Abortion. EFF
• Keep Your Abortion Private and Secure. Digital Defense Fund
Fund Abortion-Related Organizations:
• Support over 80 abortion funds nationwide. National Network of Abortion Funds
• Give to independent abortion clinics. Keep Our Clinics and Abortion Care Network
• Help abortion providers and patients by ordering needed items from their wish lists. Adopt-a-Clinic
• Contribute to Your Local Abortion Fund. National Network of Abortion Funds
• Support direct service and social change strategies to promote unconditional support for people and their decisions relating to pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption. All-Options
• Fund abortion travel services. Brigid Alliance
• Cover bail and defense for people who are investigated, arrested, or prosecuted for self-managed abortion. Repro Legal Defense Fund
• Fund accurate legal and medical information to help people who choose to self-manage their abortion. SASS – Self-Managed Abortion; Safe & Supported
• Support and uplift the leadership of people who have abortions. We Testify
Fight Back:
• Register to Vote. Vote.org
• Check your voter registration status: Rock the Vote
• Tell President Biden: Declare a public health & national emergency around abortion, & hire federal abortion providers. MoveOn
• Eliminate the undemocratic Senate filibuster. Common Cause
• Demand Congress Pass the Jones Court Expansion Bill. Indivisible
• Tell Your Senators: Pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. Democratic Coalition
• Say we should codify Roe v. Wade in California. Newsom for California
• Defeat the August 2nd Constitutional Amendment in Kansas. KCF
• Support Reproductive Liberty in Vermont. Reproductive Liberty Amendment
• Fight Michigan’s antiquated abortion ban. Reproductive Freedom For All
• Keep abortion safe and legal in Kentucky. Protect Kentucky Access
• Give to 2022 candidates in toss-up races who have been endorsed by EMILY’s List, NARAL Pro-Choice America, or Planned Parenthood Action Fund(comprehensive list here)
• States to Save Roe. Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee
• Volunteer to help build a digital abortion access support network. I Need an A
• Become a practical support volunteer. Apiary Collective
• Contribute to the F*ck Bans Action Plan: The Fight Back Fund. Vote Save America
• Know Your Protestors’ Rights. ACLU
• Become a Poll Worker. U.S. Election Assistance Commission
• Run for office. Emerge America, EMILY’s List, and Run for Something
• Get involved in your community to protect abortion access. Defend Choice
• Stop the corporate funding of abortion bans. #ReproReceipts
• Support companies that stand against policies that hinder people’s health, independence, and ability to fully succeed in the workplace. Don’t Ban Equality
• Take the Pledge to Become an Abortion Advocate. The United States of Women
• Activate, educate, and mobilize male allies into the fight. Men4Choice
• Volunteer virtually for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Action Fund
• Sign up to volunteer for NARAL. NARAL Pro-Choice America
• Attend an advocacy event near you. NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund
• Share your abortion story. Shout Your Abortion
For More Information:
• Read and share the Pro Choice Resource Masterpost, How to Show Up For Abortion Access, and Abortion.Cafe
• Follow experts on social media like Dr. Jamila Perritt, President/CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, Gretchen Sisson, PhD, a Sociologist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), based at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and Dr. Sophia Yen, CEO and Founder of Pandia Health, the only doctor-led, women-founded, and women-led birth control delivery company
Even though it has been a slow news fortnight.
Indivisible Elmwood 