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No Meeting this Sunday

/ Naomi Janowitz / Leave a comment

alternative actions

  1. join the Friday protests 5:00-6:00 at College and Ashby
  2. eleenson2@gmail.com is looking for people to take shifts on campus for student GOTV for Prop 50
  3. We have lawyer postcards. Let us know and we’ll put some in our Ridwell box for you.
  4. Canvas your neighbors to make sure everyone is turning in their Prop 50 ballots. The sooner the better.
  5. Voteforward (votefwd.org) has lots of suggestions. We can print letters for you if needed.
  6. Encourage your friends to listen to and support Substack news including The Bulwark and The Contrarian.

Minutes from the September 14 meeting

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / 1 Comment

My notes show three action items, besides finishing the Virginia postcards, which I have mailed to Jessica Anderson Campaign HQ in Williamsburg, VA.

  • Most of the donation action is going to happen in 2026, although I have gotten multiple requests from Dems running against each other in Michigan and Illinois. I haven’t looked hard at any of these races. Eighteen[!] Democrats have filed to replace retiring Jan Schakowsky in IL–09, a very blue district where the primary is everything. Sister District has sent a donation link for this year’s Virginia House of Delegates races. Early voting has just started in Virginia. Voting in swing districts has been off to a quick start, but not at all clear whose voters were in a big rush to turn out.
  • Buy Blue. We can see from Disney’s hasty and inadequate retreat that boycotts are a serious worry for the cowards running our major corporations. (The Washington Post has lost 500,000 digital subscribers since 2021.) But we can use our money two ways: depriving the bad guys, but also supporting the good ones. I think I was promised a source for politically liberal companies (e.g., Costco), but I don’t see it. Whoever promised, please send again. There was a Buy Blue website years ago, but it’s gone.
  • Thank the judiciary. Standing up to Trump is a thankless job. Judges have been doing it since the beginning of this Trump regime, even though the Supreme Court has seldom shown inclination to back them up. We can write them thank-you notes. I believe someone has assembled a list of addresses. I simply started with a list of some of the most heroic judges: Paula Xinis [immigration], James Boasberg [immigration], Allison D. Burroughs [Harvard], Beryl Howell [spite against law firms]. As you can see, Google finds email and snail mail addresses with one click. (Two for some of the snail mail.) I’m going to get out the nice pen and stationery.

Friday protests continue.

Yes, I know I haven’t done minutes of the previous meeting yet. And if I have omitted something from this meeting, the edit button is never far away.

Minutes of Aug 17 meeting

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / 2 Comments

California Indivisible is concentrating on the Newsom redistricting ballot measure, which will be Proposition 50 on the November ballot. Naomi and I are attending a statewide Indivisible meeting in Sacramento this weekend. We assume getting this passed will be Indivisible’s major project through November.

Sally and Jane reported some disappointment with the orientations at La Peña that we mentioned earlier. Many additional opportunities to help immigrants and melt ICE will happen. Judy reports that volunteers will be on corners where ICE is doing raids. (She borrowed our button-maker to do some for these volunteers to wear.)

We started postcards for Jessica Anderson, Virginia House of Delegates, district that includes Williamsburg. This would be a flip. We lost in 2003 by less than 1000.

Minutes from the 8/3 meeting

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / Leave a comment

Virginia, looking good. We pledged another 500 postcards, but the cards and script have not yet arrived. The Democratic brand is still far underwater, but much of that is Democrats unhappy with party leadership. We are nevertheless now ahead in party identification and the generic Congressional ballot. Trump’s approval rating with independents is dropping.

The Friday protests are continuing, with slightly increased turnout. And foot traffic should swell when Cal students return. We are looking for a politically-acceptable source for some yellow vests; we would like to have one person in a vest on each corner. I’m going to slightly enlarge our QR Code flyer, to produce an alternate version we will ask merchants to post visibly.

Bruce reported that Indivisible sees value in pushing for impeachment.

For those interested in working for immigrants, La Peña has been running training to become an “Immigrant Rights Ambassador”. The next session is Thursday, August 7, 7:00–9:00 pm. Free, but RSVP at that link.