INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon: April 2023

Monday, April 24, 2023

4-24-23 Newsletter

ELECTION UPDATES

• If you have not received your Voters' Pamphlet for the May 16 election or need to update your voter registration, contact Clatsop County Elections ASAP, at 503-325-8605, or go to the office at 820 Exchange, Suite 200, Astoria.

• INCO salutes INCO leaders Cheryl Conway and Bebe Michel for taking the initiative as individual citizens to file a complaint with Oregon's Secretary of State about possible violations of election law by opponents of Measure 4-221. The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office announced it has opened an investigation into their complaint. Read more in the Daily Astorian.

As Cheryl and Bebe show, each of us can help safeguard our elections by staying informed and speaking out when we see potential wrongdoing.

This WWE photo accompanied the article in Congressman Jackson's newsletter.

THE OUTRAGE OLYMPICS

Jeff Jackson, a new US Representative from North Carolina, reminds us of something you probably already know:

"It’s very clear from working here for just a few months that most of the really angry voices in Congress are faking it. These people who have built their brands around being perpetually outraged - it’s an act." Read more in his Substack newsletter here.

EXTREMISM IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Right-wing extremists have transformed their Michigan county government since being elected. Read more of this cautionary tale here.

"Ottawa County stood out for a different reason. It was becoming a case study in what happens when one of the building blocks of American democracy is consumed by ideological battles over race, religion and American history.

".... Last November, commissioners backed by (right-wing) Ottawa Impact won eight of the 11 seats on the county board. They were now in charge of a government that they feared, overseeing county employees they did not trust."

"We need to ask not what will happen tomorrow but what we can do today. Then, when tomorrow comes, we arrive, realizing we have been so busy fixing our broken world that we had no time to be afraid."
-- Rabbi Marc Katz, New York Times, April 23, 2023

SIGN UP FOR THE ROP CAUCUS
Oregon's Rural Organizing Project Meets May 20

On Saturday, May 20th, more than 100 small-town and rural leaders, organizers, and activists will join together in Albany at the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session to share strategies, learn from each other, and set ROP’s priorities for the year to come, and we want you to be there! Human dignity groups have many irons in the fire, from electoral strategies to make sure their school boards have good representation, to organizing their community’s public pride celebrations, to confronting and countering white supremacist movement building in their communities, to holding local elected officials accountable, and much more!

Check out more details below and register for the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session. Contact ROP or INCO if you'd like financial support to attend.

Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page for more details including information about COVID precautions and physical accessibility and email Emma@rop.org if you have any questions.

LEGISLATORS NEED YOUR FEEDBACK

Visit COIN's Legislation 2023 web page for updates on bills COIN has endorsed or opposed, or bills we are still watching. Legislators won't know what you want unless you tell them. Please take a moment to comment on at least one of the bills on COIN's Legislation web page.

HAPPENINGS

Thursday, May 11 - INCO Community Meeting, via Zoom. Social time at 6 pm; meeting is 6:30-7:30 pm. All INCO members are invited to attend. We meet the 2nd Thursday of each month.
Link to join Zoom meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835618044
Meeting ID: 878 3561 8044
One tap mobile
+12532050468,,87835618044# US
+12532158782,,87835618044# US (Tacoma)

INSIGHTS

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon
it will be too late.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.
Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org.
Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here.
Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too.
INCO Weekly Newsletter April 24, 2023

Copyright © 2023 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or signed up at a community group meeting.

Indivisible North Coast Oregon (INCO) defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption.

Our mailing address is:
766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103

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Monday, April 17, 2023

4-17-23 Newsletter

Hi INCO friends,
We appreciate your good wishes for our leadership team. Thanks to Paxlovid, lots of rest, and chicken soup, INCO's two leaders with Covid are starting to feel better, despite ongoing symptoms. Their vaccines, boosters, and masks likely reduced the impact of the virus.
Please take care of yourselves!
Laurie and the leadership team

CHECK OUT THE CANDIDATES

The AAUW Candidates Forum
Tuesday, April 18 at 6:30 pm
Astoria High School Auditorium
Hosted by the American Association of University Women, Astoria branch

Check out the list of candidates here for the May 16 Special Districts election. Candidates in contested races are shown in this report from the Clatsop Democrats.

EXTREMISM IN OREGON

"Republican leaders are now adopting increasingly autocratic measures, using the police powers of government to impose moralized regulations, turning private citizens into enforcement officers and expelling defiant elected Democrats just as county Republican parties, particularly in western states, are electing militia members, Christian nationalists and QAnon believers to key posts.

"Here’s one example. Last November, the Republican Party of Clackamas County in Oregon chose a new vice chairman, Daniel Tooze, a Proud Boy from Oregon City, and Rick Riley, head of the county chapter of Take Back America, which denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, as chairman. Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that in central Oregon’s Deschutes County, the local Republican Party chose Scott Stuart, “a member of the county chapter of People’s Rights, a nationwide network of militia groups and anti-government activists founded by conservative firebrand Ammon Bundy.”
-- Thomas Edsall, New York Times, April 12, 2023

"I live in Deschutes County cited above. Scott Stuart’s Confederacy-praising parade performance was condemned by the vast majority of people in our area, which is heavily populated by Democrats and moderates in places like Bend, along with people largely from the rural right wing. The fact that he has become the head of the local Republican Party doesn’t show its strength, but rather that it has metastasized into a fringe, extremist movement about which we must be vigilant."
-- J., (no other ID), Readers Comment, New York Times, April 12, 2023

HOW TO BLOCK EXTREMISM IN OREGON
•  Check out the candidates in Clatsop County's May 16 election. Read your Voter's Pamphlet, attend the AAUW Candidates Forum on April 17, and check out other sources as you can.

•  Get active with COIN as it monitors extremism in Oregon and vets statewide candidates and officials, including Oregon's Members of Congress.

•  Support candidates who share your values and political goals by donating or volunteering with their campaigns.

SIGN UP FOR THE ROP CAUCUS
Oregon's Rural Organizing Project Meets May 20

On Saturday, May 20th, more than 100 small-town and rural leaders, organizers, and activists will join together in Albany at the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session to share strategies, learn from each other, and set ROP’s priorities for the year to come, and we want you to be there! Human dignity groups have many irons in the fire, from electoral strategies to make sure their school boards have good representation, to organizing their community’s public pride celebrations, to confronting and countering white supremacist movement building in their communities, to holding local elected officials accountable, and much more!

Check out more details below and register for the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session by April 22nd for an early bird discount (which also helps us make sure we have plenty of food, chairs, community housing, interpreters, and childcare for everyone to fully participate)!

Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page for more details including information about COVID precautions and physical accessibility and email Emma@rop.org if you have any questions! Let’s make a plan!

POLITICAL COMPETITION AND CONSEQUENCES

"Nationwide, candidates for roughly four of every 10 state legislative seats run unopposed in general elections.

"And across the country, one-party control of state legislatures, compounded by hyperpartisan politics, widespread gerrymandering, an urban-rural divide and uncompetitive races, has made the dysfunction in Tennessee more the rule than the exception.

"The lack of competition means incumbent lawmakers face few consequences for their conduct. And their legislative actions are driven in large part by the fraction of partisans who determine their fates in primary elections, the only political contests where they face serious opposition."
-- Michael Wines, New York Times, April 13, 2023. More from Wines about state legislatureshere.

LEGISLATORS NEED YOUR FEEDBACK

HAPPENINGS

INSIGHTS
"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered with prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered with fear."
~William E. Gladstone, Prime Minister of the UK, died 1898

Monday, April 10, 2023

4-10-23 Newsletter

FREE SPEECH, ELECTION DENIERS, AND POWER

Kudos to the Oregon Legislature for voting to condemn violence and threats against election officials. The state House voted 53-3 in favor, including a 'yes' vote from our state representative, Cyrus Javadi. The state Senate passed the resolution 22-8, including a 'no' vote from our state senator, Suzanne Weber. Weber told the Astorian her vote was a mistake because she was distracted at the time.

"The temptation is to ignore - or worse, try to silence - fringe voices determined to put our democracy at risk. With polls showing Trump as the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, it is difficult to distinguish the fringe from the mainstream of the Republican Party.

".... Election deniers have the same free speech rights as anyone and we should listen very closely to what they say. But if they do not believe in our elections process, they have no place holding positions of power in elected office, whether it's the White House, the Statehouse, the school board or the water district."
-- The Astorian, "An Important Declaration," April 8, 2023

INCO applauds The Astorian's April 8 editorial, "An Important Declaration," for its clear, unambiguous support for free speech, secure elections, and responsible elected leaders.

INCO COMMUNITY MEETING
Thursday, April 13, via Zoom
Social time at 6 pm; meeting is 6:30-7:30 pm.
All INCO members are invited to attend. We'd love to see you!

Link to join Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835618044

"THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND"
Music, hope, and smiles with Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, and more.

A TIPPING POINT

"In three respects, America reached a tipping point on Thursday. It may take months or years for us to appreciate that fact, but historians will mark April 6, 2023, as the high water mark of the retrograde, anti-democracy movement of MAGA extremism."

Read the rest of attorney Robert Hubbell's take on MAGA and the struggle for democracy here.

INCO was founded in January, 2017 to defend democracy against authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. Along with millions of others, we recognize the urgency of the challenges facing American democracy.
With your help, we continue that mission.

RSVP HERE: Bonamici.House.Gov/RSVP

LEGISLATORS NEED YOUR FEEDBACK

CHECK OUT THE CANDIDATES

HAPPENINGS

Thursday, April 13 - INCO Community Meeting, via Zoom. Social time at 6 pm; meeting is 6:30-7:30 pm. All INCO members are invited to attend. We meet the 2nd Thursday of each month.
Link to join Zoom meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835618044
Meeting ID: 878 3561 8044
One tap mobile
+12532050468,,87835618044# US
+12532158782,,87835618044# US (Tacoma)

INSIGHTS

"I always felt I was holding back, waiting for the right moment.
Then I realized the right moment was every day."
-- Bill Bradley, former professional basketball player and US senator