Some days I try to remember
I can be replaced by a rock.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
up + down the ballot
Six years later.
About 8 million Americans aged into the voting pool between the general elections in 2016 and 2020 …. and about 8 million more between 2020 to 2024.
Tell our youngest voters -- your grandkids and kids, nieces and nephews, colleagues and friends -- the truth about which candidates, up and down the ballot, have the most convincing records of defending the dignity, rights, health, voices, and contributions of women, people of color, working people, old people, political, social, sexual, and religious minorities, low income as well as middle and upper income Americans ... which candidates have the most convincing records of seeking to deliver equal justice and accountability before the law for *every* American without fear or favor ... which candidates have the most convincing records of defending and supporting the rules-based international order that has enabled us and our allies to resist authoritarians, aristocrats, *and* anarchists at home and around the world ... which candidates have the most convincing records of understanding, accepting, and acting on the best evidence-based knowledge and practices in response to climate change ... which candidates, up and down the ballot, have the most convincing records for protecting Americans from unregulated, unrestrained gun violence....
Our youngest voters are, on balance, more broadly and deeply exposed to all these things than our oldest voters (on balance). So tell them what you see. Talk them what you know. Tell them you are with them — even if 1/2 the other olds are not — and that you hope they'll be with you, too ... because long life has shown you we can do hard things, good things, fair and equitable things *together.*
Saturday, March 02, 2024
Updated . One man holds the power to kill a democracy...
... and all he has to do is stall.
Updated . April 21 2024
It was a long time coming, but one man holds the decides to not use his power to kill a democracy...
Here’s hoping…
This week the Kyiv Post reports:
Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, wrote on his Facebook page that the speakers of 23 parliaments, along with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, have written an open letter to the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.
They are urging him to submit the draft law that will provide Ukraine with $60.06 billion in military aid to continue its fight against Russian aggression.
Stefanchuk, who initiated the letter, expressed gratitude to his colleagues for “their quick and widespread support.”
Here's the transcribed text of that letter.
27 February 2024
Dear Mr Speaker.
In recent days a solemn anniversary loomed large, commemorating the two year mark since Russia and its dictatorial regime invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked and unjustified act of aggression. This invasion has obviously endangered not only the independence sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine but has also challenged the entire democratic, world jeopardizing the security in the whole European and Euro-Atlantic area.
Over these past two years the countries that remain committed to our shared values and believe in a world based on rules and respect to the UN Charter have united to help Ukraine and its people in repelling the brutal aggression that is claiming hundreds of lives every day. Our joint assistance has helped to stop the aggressor and liberate a large share of previously occupied territories of Ukraine. We welcome the indispensable and prominent role of the United States in this joint effort. The US has consistently demonstrated strong bipartisan support for Ukraine's victory in its fight against the Russian invasion.
We also observe that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a significant impact on the development of the security situation in the world. We see that while Iran and North Korea have begun to provide direct military support to Russia, the criminal actions of the Kremlin regime have inspired other dictatorial and undemocratic regimes, become a catalyst for the escalation of old conflicts and put us on the brink of new confrontations. Today, the world is rapidly moving towards the destruction of the sustainable world order.
We see it as our responsibility and our task to prevent this descent into chaos and impunity and therefore our countries are committed to further increasing our support to Ukraine and its defense forces, seeing it as a considerable investment in our individual and collective security. The axis of evil must be defeated, and all perpetrators brought to justice. This will serve as a significant deterrent to further conflicts and will return a sense of control and security to our peoples.
We believe that thanks to your personal leadership the Congress will demonstrate historic bipartisan unity in support of the collective efforts to assist Ukraine therefore we ask you to take the next step toward adopting a historic decision on HR 815 that will secure US assistance to foreign countries and provide Ukraine with the necessary funds to continue its fight.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has not, at this time, released the text of the letter, nor has he yet permitted the bipartisan bill passed by the US Senate, to come to the floor of the House, where it is almost certain to pass.
Speaker Johnson is (A) unjustifiably smug about being smarter than democracy's leaders in the US and around the world ... (B) weirdly dedicated to enabling Vladimir Putin's criminal acts in Ukraine, no matter what the cost to literally everybody else ... or (C) a genuine enemy of democracy and the rules-based international order.
None of these is a good look for a person who publicly claims the associations Speaker Johnson claims.
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