8-28-23 Newsletter

 

"My friends, let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution.  By and large, American politics is dominated by politicians who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic, and social exploitation.  There are exceptions, of course.  We salute those.  But what political leader can stand up and say, “My party is the party of principles”?  For the party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland.  The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.  Where is our party?  Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington?" -- John Lewis, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963 60 YEARS LATER "The struggle for civil rights is ongoing."  Heather Cox Richardson offers context and consequences about the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963 in Letters from an American, August 25, 2023. 103 YEARS LATER 19th Amendment, ratified August 26, 1920 “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” FOLLOW THE MONEY ... OR NOT " Oregon labor group launches end run around effort to curb political donations, shed light on dark money"  -- The Oregonian, August 21, 2023 "A political nonprofit long led by Oregon’s powerful public employee unions filed two ballot measure proposals last week that contain an end-run strategy aimed at killing a proposal that campaign finance reformers have been working to qualify for the ballot for more than a year to cap contributions and shed light on dark money. "The two measures that Our Oregon filed to get on the ballot in 2024 would similarly cap the size of political donations, but they would allow unions, business associations and other membership organizations to continue sending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to candidates." Register for this COIN Zoom event at https://bit.ly/coin-mtg WYDEN'S TOWN HALL ON THE ENVIRONMENT You can listen to the recent town hall on the environment with Senator Ron Wyden, hosted by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Among the topics are the affordable clean energy plan, including the historic climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, and the ongoing work to protect Oregon’s treasures like the Owyhee Canyonlands. THE FIRST STEP "It is certainly not an easy time to be alive in. Climate change is not a theoretical problem, decades in the future. We need political leaders who can preserve democracy and who want to understand the science, not pervert it .... "If we want the right leaders in place, we’re going to have to be relentless about vetting and supporting the right candidates in the next elections. We have to make sure we vote and that our votes get counted. This work is about preserving our democratic form of government. It’s also about living in a Republic where the government works to protect its people, not just the interests of a few billionaires who woo Supreme Court justices. The challenges we face have never been more critical. Being aware of them, and facing them head on, is the first step." -- Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse newsletter, August 22, 2023  NOT YOUR USUAL POINT OF VIEW Pod Save America and Pod Save the World offer interesting and informed commentary on current events - and often in strong contrast to the usual opinions from the NY Times and the Washington Post. The primary hosts were key figures in the Obama administration and are in their 40s, so it's a younger point of view than what is commonly available. This same group founded Vote Save America to promote civic and political engagement and activism. INSIGHTS    "Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star." --Paul Dirac, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1933 Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. 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    August 28, 2023 Website Email Twitter 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. Our mailing address is: *|766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103:HTML|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

8-21-23 Newsletter

 

CAMPAIGN FINANCE INITIATIVE The CLEAR initiative aims to increase compliance with Oregon’s campaign finance laws through greater transparency and education. See the new campaign finance materialsonline.   The CLEAR Initiative will be an ongoing project. Three initial steps were announced to support campaigns through education and training, while also improving transparency in campaign finance. This news release is from the Oregon Secretary of State, LaVonne Griffin-Valade. More Information is here. "The road to fascism is lined with people telling you to stop overreacting." --Unknown Register for this Zoom event at https://bit.ly/coin-mtg HOW TO DESTROY MAGA REPUBLICANISM "Holding Trump and his co-conspirators accountable is necessary, appropriate, and wildly overdue, but it will not solve our MAGA problem, which has metastasized to infect the entire GOP. "What will solve that problem? And what must? You and me. All of us, working together! Our advocacy. Our voices. And our tireless work to engage voters so that we can elect ethical, smart, and democracy-loving representatives to office everywhere. "That is what will not just save, but reform and reimagine the country we love. That is what will destroy MAGA Republicanism. That is what will preserve our freedoms." -- Jessica Craven, Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter, August 15, 2023 POSITIVE CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Check out Jessica Craven's August 20 newsletter for encouraging projects from all over.   Mosier, Oregon, population 500, is bouncing back from a series of environmental challenges by going green in a big way. More here from OPB.   "It's not that you see in America a great embrace of Trumpism, but you see an accommodation .... It's not that there's negative consequences, there are positive consequences." --Stuart Stevens, on Al Franken podcast, August 13, 2023 INSIGHTS    "Nobody ever tries to change the rules of a game when they're winning." --Stuart Stevens, political strategist and author Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. 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    August 21, 2023 Website Email Twitter 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. Our mailing address is: *|766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103:HTML|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

8-14-23 Newsletter

 

AMERICAN LANDSCAPE "America’s political landscape has always included those who would divide us, diminish us, and desensitize us to the urgency of equality and justice. Sometimes these forces seem to lie dormant, but in our short history they have risen often. And when they do, courageous and committed Americans have banded together to defeat them in ways that ultimately strengthened our nation." -- Dan Rather, Steady newsletter, August 8, 2023 On January 5, 2021, Judge J. Michael Luttig told VP Mike Pence he had no authority to accede to Trump's demand to stop the electoral college count. His conversation last week on Washington Post Live includes lots to say about United States v. Trump and other pressing issues. It's here on YouTube. 20 LESSONS Are you or your friends numb from the ongoing assaults on our democracy and feeling helpless to make things better? It's time to read ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. This pithy book by historian Timothy Snyder shows that each of us can do something to defend our democracy. --The New Yorker, August 9, 2023; by Teresa Burns Parkhurst SECTION 3 OF THE 14TH AMENDMENT Is Trump eligible to run for president? Historian Timothy Snyder says NO. What do you think? "One of the odd features about our political life is our capacity to look away from the obvious when the obvious might be “controversial,"" Snyder says. INSIGHTS    "Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." -- John Steinbeck, American author Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. 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    August 14, 2023 Website Email Twitter 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. Our mailing address is: *|766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103:HTML|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.