Good Wednesday Good Newsies, Gnusies, Regulars and Newbies! Part of that quote in the title is from Black Panther. I really felt the whole thing is fitting for our fight right now.
I worry about a lot of our fellowship here at Kos. There is a lot of gloom and doomers, there is so much chaos everyday from, to quote Hunter, “the foamed brained jackass” sometimes you may want to crawl back under that 2016 blanket. But do not!! The right wing nut jobs want us to be discouraged and the dooms dayers just need to stop, focus and, even though we have to work hard, we have got this. The more the maladministration and it’s minions flap their lips, disregard the law and alienate anyone who does not look like them, the more people they are motivating to VOTE them out!
Our own founder Kos addressed this yesterday:
Are you panicking about the presidential race? If so, time to chill the f' out
If you have not read it do so. Not sure about the comments, I do not read those. :) For Kos, it is usually hot potatoes down there, best to avoid that part.
None of this means we take our feet off the pedal, of course. But really, is anyone going to do that anyway? We didn’t in 2018, despite all the great signs of impending victory. Heck, the sweet taste of big success is a motivator. So none of that silly “act like we’re 10 points down!” crap. That shit demotivates. No one likes to be losing. That’s why Republicans create an alternate reality where all news is fake and the polls are fake and all bad news is fake. Because if they looked at reality and saw how f’d they were, they’d call it a day and head home to do whatever it is conservatives do.
Anyway, don’t panic because things are going well. And don’t panic that we know that things are going well. No one is breathing easy. It’s all shaping up to be a great election, and our participation will decide just how big an anvil we’ll throw to drowning Republicans.
The harder we work, the bigger the anvil. The bigger the dagger to Trump’s ego. The bigger the Senate majorities, and with them, statehood for Washington, D.C. and, if they want it, for Puerto Rico. The bigger the House majority. The bigger the gains at state legislatures, which means better policy at the state level, and a greater say in the redistricting process.
See? All good reasons to work hard.
I know 2020 also seems to be the year of WILL IT JUST STOP! But Biden/Harris are going to turn it around, this will also be hard work, but we will smile again knowing we are in good hands. So chin up, fight on, lean on others when you need to and GOTV!
With all my encouragement and trying to stay positive, I have to say that Chadwick Boseman’s death hit me like a rock.
Onward Avengers!
Well I have to tell you what a time it has been for me and the hubby. We were completely ripped off with our last furnace, we had a new one installed on Monday. They were really nice but boy did I have a trust issue. I feel better about it now. We have suspended our plans to buy a smaller house and are shifting everything to one floor living. Now we will have a 4 bedroom, full bath “attic.” So why am I telling you my week life story? Because this will be more of an open thread diary. We have been working our tushies off, heck just trying to get the kids to help has been exhausting. Please share all the news in the best comment thread known to man (and woman)! I may not be around a lot as I actually have to go into the office tomorrow and check on our social enterprises.
Cincinnati Tenants Are Building Equity With Each Rent Payment
When Covid-19 hit and Louise Williamston worried she might lose her job, she took comfort in the fact she had a unique safety net: equity credits accrued over the past five years through her apartment lease. It’s a unique residential model in her neighborhood of Avondale, Cincinnati, in which Williamston rents but also participates in monthly tenant meetings and helps maintain the property she lives in. In exchange, she’s guaranteed permanently affordable rent as well as financial credits she can exchange for cash when the lease is up.
It does sound simple enough: Residents fulfill commitments in their lease agreement, like paying rent on time and helping to maintain the property, and in doing so, earn financial credits they can exchange for cash after five years. But the model, known as rental equity or dividend housing, has been slow to get off the ground and scale, despite interest from other cities. In spite of challenges, it continues to forge ahead in Cincinnati.
The Evolution of Trans Health Care
When Dean Alejandro realized he was trans he began researching local clinics in Orlando, Florida, that would prescribe him testosterone. At 27, he did not know how the process worked, or how difficult it would be to access hormone replacement therapy. Alejandro emailed every LGBTQ+ clinic nearby, asking about next steps. No one got back to him.
When he finally found a clinic that would see him, Alejandro had to wait three months before being able to start testosterone, with very little guidance from his health care providers.
After moving to Colorado, Alejandro had to go through the search process all over again. This time, he was met with more blatant discrimination. Though the doctor he saw was part of the LGBTQ+ community, he told Alejandro that it was a “privilege” for him to even be seen because he was trans, Alejandro recounts, and because of that, the doctor didn’t need to answer questions about his bloodwork.
After two years of constantly oscillating hormone adjustments, Alejandro met Jerrica Kirkley, a doctor specializing in trans care and one of the co-founders of Plume, a virtual telehealth company created in 2019 to fill the gap in access to trans-competent care and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). At his first appointment, Kirkley helped Alejandro create a plan that would work for him, including monitoring his blood monthly.
“For the first time I felt like someone saw me… I felt like I was actually listened to,” Alejandro says. “Now we are just really on the road to recovery.”
Meet the hero nurses who cared for 19 NICU babies during 'terrifying' Hurricane Laura
As the terrifying winds of Hurricane Laura shook a southwest Louisiana hospital last week, a group of determined nurses kept their focus on the 19 tiny babies in the neonatal intensive care unit whose lives depended on them.
The staff at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital for Women spoke on TODAY Tuesday about how, a few hours before the storm hit, they had to move the babies to another, safer building. Then, a team of one physician, two neonatal nurse practitioners, 14 nurses and three respiratory therapists rode out the frightening night in 12-hour shifts, all while assuring the parents of the infants, some only weighing a pound or two, that their children were in good hands.
'Fund Our Future': Nationwide Day of Action to Demand Safe Schools Planned for September 2
Students, parents, teachers, school staff, and other community members in dozens of cities across the United States will mobilize Wednesday to demand President Donald Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Republican senators provide schools with the resources necessary to "protect the students, educators, and their families from Covid-19; to save jobs; and to meet the academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of all our kids."
The nationwide day of action is supported by a coalition of social justice organizations and labor groups, including the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the country's two largest unions for educators and support professionals.
An Ancient Breed of Singing Dog Isn't Extinct in the Wild After All
A breed of wild dog known for its lyrical sounds may not be as extinct as we thought, according to a new paper out Monday. The study details genetic evidence suggesting that the New Guinea singing dog—thought to have only existed in captivity for the past 50 years—is still alive in the wilds of Indonesia. The authors say their findings confirm that the New Guinea singing dog is in fact the same as the Highland wild dog, a dog that’s been spotted in the area in recent years.
New Guinea singing dogs produce distinctive, high-pitched noises, and, unlike domesticated dogs, they don’t bark or yip. They’re native to the remote mountainous Highlands of the island of Papua New Guinea, and they’re closely related to the dingos found in nearby Australia. Spanish navigators described the dogs in written records during the early 17th century, and archaeological evidence suggests the dogs have existed there for thousands of years.
In recent years, however, there have been several alleged sightings of wild dogs in New Guinea that look very similar to the New Guinea singing dogs; these dogs were named Highland wild dogs. Some conservationists were quick to suspect these Highland wild dogs were a surviving population of singing dogs, but the evidence wasn’t definitive. Other experts have argued that the first singing dogs bred in captivity over 50 years ago weren’t fully wild dogs at all, but dogs that had long intermingled with domestic breeds raised by local villagers.
Just make & mail your original postcard creations (you can also recycle an existing one!) to "Postcards for Democracy, 8760 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069, USA
Now want to know all the ways to get out the vote? You need to follow, rec, tip, share and share some more of this:
Yosef52
A sample:
We need to give priority to REGISTERING our voters. Here’s how!
ID REQUIREMENTS FOR EVERY STATE, HOW TO OBTAIN VOTER IDs
1. Information from The National Conference of State Legislatures, located here. This is an excellent source.
2. Information from Ballotpedia, here. This has a wealth of detail.
3. VoteRiders will help people obtain voter IDs. Take a look here.
REGISTERING TO VOTE
1. State voting requirements can be found at U.S. Vote Foundation, located here.
2. You can register people to vote at Vote.Org, located right here.
3. You can not only register to vote at this site, you can check your current eligibility, right here.
4. NEW!! Voterizer.Org makes it easy to register online!
Awesome Kossack Old Redneck is showing the way.
If I may steal liberally from his diary of 26 July:
Voting in the 2020 Presidential Election starts on September 18, because of early voting and absentee voting.
Thirty-nine states and DC offer early voting. All states offer absentee voting, all of which starts before Election Day.
Seven states offer early voting beginning 45 days before Election Day, which is September 18 — only 50 days from today.
Why is this important? Because we need to get people to the polls. With so many states offering early voting, or absentee voting by mail, there is no excuse for not voting. We need to hammer away on this point, especially in states where voter suppression is rampant.
ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUIREMENTS, EARLY VOTING, VOTING BY MAIL
Vote.org
Absentee and Early Voting
WORKING WITH DEMOCRATIC GROUPS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
1. Act Local put this guide out last year. It has plenty of good information, and I’m sure they’re already cranking up for 2020. Take a look here.
2. You want to be part of a fighting organization? Check out Indivisible, right here.
3. Check out Wave 2020, right here. Their list of local organizations is here.
4. Take a look at SwingLeft, right here. And their swing state project is HERE.
5. The Action Network has links to let you volunteer in key states.
NEW!! FROM THE BIDEN WAR ROOM!! CHECK THIS OUT! WAY COOL!!
And MICHELLE OBAMA is ready to go BIG on GOTV!
Here are ALL of the state Democratic parties!
And help be a POLL WORKER!
We need your help BIG TIME this year! Never think we’ve got this in the bag. We need to be fighting EVERY day.
There is so much more. Did I say read, share, rec, tip, follow?
Copied here with permission from Yosef.
Perhaps old news, but I still found the orange idiots use of Hallelujah at the RNC hysterical because they are so clueless.
Okay good people you know what to do from here!
Peace!
