INCO endorses Kamala Harris for President of the United States.
* "We can win this election. I am confident of that. In part because Trump continues to be the ugliest thing we’ve ever seen, and with a new, younger ticket, his ugliness and age will become far clearer to the American people." -- Simon Rosenberg, Hopium Chronicles, July 21, 2024
HELP INCO BUY MORE STAMPS TO GET OUT THE VOTE
In only four months of writing to voters, INCO postcarders have written more than 4300 postcards! Now INCO needs your help to reach even more voters in Oregon and across the country to elect a Democratic majority in the US Senate and House.
Please help INCO buy more stamps! INCO postcarders have donated money and stamps, and they'd like your donations, too. Postcard postage stamps cost 56¢ each, so your donation matters.
* CHECK: Or mail your check payable to INCO to: INCO c/o Eric Halperin PO Box 2864 Gearhart 97138
* VIA USPS: You can also order postcard stamps through the US Postal Service and have them sent to: Laurie Caplan 766 Lexington Avenue Astoria, OR 97103
WRITETOVOTERS TUESDAYS, 3 - 4:30 pm -WineKraft, east end of Pier 11 Mall, 77 11th Street, Astoria No purchase necessary. Invite a friend to come with you! INCO provides postcards, scripts, pens, stamps, and Wite-Out.
BONAMICI TELEPHONE TOWN HALL Monday, July 29 at 6 pm "I always appreciate hearing from the people I’m honored to represent." The event will be livestreamed at https://bonamici.house.gov/live. Deadline for signing up to receive a call was July 28.
Thursday, August 1 at 5 pm • Patriot Hall Gym at Clatsop Community College, Astoria
EVENTS SUPPORTING HARRIS TONIGHT
"A Women for HarrisNational Organizing Call by the DNC garnered such an overwhelming response it has been moved back several days to Monday, July 29 at 7:00 pm Eastern. Sign up here: National Organizing Call.
"I am here as a scholar of authoritarianism because I know the stakes of this election: MAGA dictatorship or American democracy. Repression or freedom. I have seen what happens to societies when corrupt leaders and their allies gain power based on division and hate.
"Project 2025 is a recipe for mass chaos, abuses of power, and dysfunction in government. It aligns not only with the agendas of present foreign autocracies, especially the Hungary of Viktor Orban, which was just ranked as the EU’s most corrupt country, but also with the policies of past dictatorships.
"Project 2025 includes measures similar to Mussolini’s “Laws for the Defense of the State” that turned Italy into a police state after a series of assassination attempts on him in the mid=1920s. Among other things, it justified the firing of non-loyal civil servants and the dismissal of judges on grounds of “political incompatibility.”
"We don’t have to succumb to the horrors of authoritarianism. We can stop this before it starts, if we are informed of the stakes and best strategies for democracy protection." -- Ruth Ben Ghiat, "Harris Brings Hope," Lucid newsletter, July 23, 2024, speaking at an anti-autocracy in New York the same day.
•TRUMP WANTS THIS TO BE THE LAST AMERICAN ELECTION
"Donald Trump, speaking to the “Believers Summit Turning Point Action” in Florida [on July 26, 2024] went further than he has before about his plan to hold onto power permanently. It’s far worse than we thought. Trump, departing from reading the remarks on his teleprompter, launched into an extemporaneous shouted diatribe: “Christians, get out and vote! Just this time! You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you don’t have to vote.” Here's the link to the video.
"There it is, spelled out in Trump’s own words: a plan to get himself back into the White House and then “have it fixed so good, you don’t have to vote.”
"Donald Trump is laying plans for this to be the last American election. He is telling his crowds that he’ll “fix it” so he is, like his friend Vladimir Putin, president for life. -- Lucian Truscott IV, Substack newsletter, July 26, 2024
Psycho PAC's billboards in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.
POLITICS CAN BE SERIOUS - AND FUN
INCO recommends you check out this new anti-Trump organization: The Anti-Psychopath PAC. Founded by long-time Never Trumper Republican George Conway, the Psycho PAC's mission is to remind voters "A convicted felon, a proven rapist, and an anti-democratic nutjob with dictatorial ambitions should be nowhere near the White House."
"Remember: friends don’t let friends vote for a narcissistic sociopath."
INCO INSIGHTS
“I grew up with the idea that democracy is not something you believe in, or a place you hang your hat, but it’s something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles and falls apart.” -- Abbie Hoffman
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 here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter July 29, 2024
Jerzy Kosinski: "I think she's the only woman I have always loved."*
BE INSPIRED
In these fraught times, INCO recommends this stirring video by Ken Burns on PBS about the Statue of Liberty - what inspired her, how she was built, who made her happen. It's a lovely reminder of why we and other pro-democracy activists around the world continue to do this challenging and necessary work.
*Please note that a caption added by INCO allows mobile phone users to read them more easily.
PRESIDENT BIDEN'S ANNOUNCEMENT
"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term." -- President Joe Biden, July 21, 2024. His entire statement is here.
"It’s up to us. No more squabbling. No more dissension. Organize. Donate. Get behind our party and our candidate and work to win." -- Lucian Truscott IV, Substack newsletter, July 21, 2024
-- The Lincoln Project, July 21, 2024
WRITETOVOTERS TUESDAYS, 3 - 4:30 pm -WineKraft, east end of Pier 11 Mall, 77 11th Street, Astoria No purchase necessary. Invite a friend to come with you! INCO provides postcards, scripts, pens, stamps, and Wite-Out.
Wow!
Twenty-three climate activists, shown in the photo, braved 96+° heat to write 200 Get Out the Vote postcards to Florida voters for their primary August 20, 2024. They were attending a July 14th postcard potluck picnic in Charlottesville, VA.
CLATSOP DEMOCRATS MEET MONDAY
Monday, July 22 at 6 pm, via Zoom
Guest speaker: Eileen Kiely, Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon Register in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
ELECT ANDY DAVIS AS STATE REPRESENTATIVE
“My interest in running for this race is relatively simple: I think it’s important that the Democrats in the district and left-wing independents have a choice on the ballot.”
Andy Davis was selected as the Democratic nominee for state House District 32 on Thursday night. The Astoria city councilor will face state Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a Tillamook MAGA Republican, in the November election.
Davis described himself as pro-choice, pro-union and an advocate for housing. Davis works as an analyst for the Oregon Health Authority specializing in health care, -- Thanks to the The Astorian, July 19, 2024, for this information.
Thursday, August 1 at 5 pm • Patriot Hall Gym at Clatsop Community College, Astoria
PROJECT 2025: THE GOP'S ANTI-DEMOCRACY BLUEPRINT
• No climate research, no free weather forecasts “The preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded," says the Project 2025 document. Its backers also plan to end free weather reports and all but dissolve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Read more in this July 16th Atlantic article by Zoe Schlanger.
• "It’s the end of public education as we know it." Project 2025 plans to "end the Department of Education. A big part of its work is to guarantee equal access to quality education. Project 2025 calls for increased privatization of education and an end to programs related to diversity of LGBTQ+ youth." Other goals: more school vouchers, eliminate Head Start, allow public funding of religious education. -- Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, July 18, 2024
• "Project 2025's extreme vision for the West" Among other jaw-dropping plans, Project 2025 calls for • Expanding oil and gas lease sales onshore and offshore (p.522); • Opening large parts of Alaska to oil and gas exploration and development (pp. 523, 524); • Halting the ongoing review of the federal coal-leasing program -- More about the impact on the West in High Country News, July 19, 2024
"And, again, sir, I'm so sorry that I called you America's Hitler, and so relieved that you took it as a compliment." -- cartoon by Paul Noth, newyorker.com
INCO INSIGHTS
“For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” — President John F. Kennedy, 1962
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 here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter July 22, 2024
