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tanadrin · 9 months

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Imagine that a century or two from now, the eastern half of the United States is conquered by the Canadian Empire, its intelligentsia deported, its land colonized by Canadian immigrants, and its remaining people mostly gradually absorbed into a Neo-Canadian identity. The West reorganizes, developing a new political and cultural center, and comes to regard itself as the "true" United States, with the remnant culture of the East (by now much changed by Canadian rule) as representing an unchanged tradition stretching back to the time of George Washington. The holdout western half is subsequently conquered by the Reformed Mexican Empire, and while most of the population remains in situ, its elite is taken to Mexico City. There, for three or four generations, they do their best to maintain their distinct American identity, focusing on the American "civil religion," the distinctive political ideals and cultural features that mark them out as Americans, and come up with a new way of interpreting their history that allows America to be a perennial idea, something not directly physically tied to the territory of the United States, which no longer exists. They compose a body of historical works based on Washington Irving's rather fabulistic approach to early American history, the half-remembered popular versions of the stories of Columbus and the Pilgrims, the First Thanksgiving, even the Revolutionary War. They don't have access to the original texts anymore--let's say this is all taking place in a post-Collapse North America where long-range travel and communication is difficult and a lot of history has been lost--but they do their best. They append to these books, or include in their text, of history a copy of the Constitution, big chunks of the United States Code, and Robert's Rules of Order.

Subsequently, the Empire of Gran Columbia invades, conquers southern and central Mexico, and its Emperor lets the captive Americans go home. They return north, mostly to California, find that the version of American history and civics that is remembered there isn't the same as the version they have (not that the Californian one is correct--the Mexican Empire has suppressed English-language education and high culture in its Aztlani provinces), and set about reforming and reorganizing the Western States (as they're now called) to be more in line with the forms they brought back from the exile. In the meantime, other bits of important literature start being kept in libraries next to copies of the received histories: some bits of early American literature, like Hawthorne, the Song of Hiawatha, some highly abridged Herman Melville, Thomas Paine--heck, even some John Locke, and quotes or fragments from Shakespeare. Some traditionalists now argue the capital of the United States has always been located in San Francisco, and that Washington, D.C. only because the capital later, under the influence of Eastern heretics.

In the following centuries, the Western States retain their independence for a time, but eventually become a secondary battleground for a lot of other empires--the Mexicans, the Canadians, the Pan-Pacific Federation, and so forth. American culture remains distinctive, insulted in part by its unique traditions, though now everybody speaks Future Spanish, and only learns English to read the old texts. In this period additional material, including later compositions, continues to accrete, forming a distinct body of sacred American scripture, although it does not exist in a single canonical form. Attempts to reconcile distinct sources, like more literal and historically-grounded accounts versus the simplified narratives of figures like Irving, produce hybrid texts that sometimes are full of internal conflicts.

Oh, and through all this, some institutions of American government like the Supreme Court still function, although their rulings only apply to Americans, and there isn't much in the way of a federal bureaucracy.

Finally the Great and Sublime Brazilian Potentate conquers most of the Americas, sets up an American client state that roughly coincides with the heartland of the old Western States (California, Oregon, most of Washington and Nevada), and allows the Americans to elect their own President (subject, of course, to Brazilian approval). During this period, an apocalyptic street preacher from Los Angeles claims to have inherited the authority and power of George Washington, and is executed by the Brazilians; his later followers point to the prophecies of Emperor Norton, and out-of-context bits of a Quebecois translation of Moby-Dick and some Mark Twain stories to say no, really, he was George Washington. Inexplicably, a version of this religion becomes the dominant faith of the Brazilian Empire before it collapses. But long before then the American state in California fails, crushed when it tries to revolt against Brazilian rule; the remnant Easterners likewise dwindle down to only a few hundred souls living in a village in Alexandria, Virginia. Centuries from now, as the descendants of the descendants of the Brazilians colonize Mars, they will point to the sacred Americanist scriptures, the Neo-Americanist narratives of their prophet's life, and the letters written by the early leaders of Neo-Americanism, and say, "all of this was written by the spirit of George Washington, and is free from contradictions." Meanwhile the remnant Americanists, who have been writing about Americanism and how it applies to their everyday lives in the centuries since, and whose commentary has formed around the copies of the last editions of the U.S. Supreme Court Reporter (SCOTUS managed to outlast the final American state by a hundred years or so) plus the thoughts of the remaining Americanist community in Mexico, continue to regard their traditions as the unbroken and unaltered practice of American culture, politics, and ideals as they existed since the Revolutionary War.

This is, as far as I can tell, approximately how the Bible was composed.

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thewulf · 3 months

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Echoes of the Past || Aaron Hotchner

Summary: Request - Sooo, i have such a 😩😩 Hotch x reader idea. What if they have been to school togheter (you can decide whatever age and school they were in) and they were madly in love with each other perhaps they were even dating!!... Read Rest Here

A/N: Okay, wrote this one a lil different. Let me know if you guys like it or not. Trying to mature/up my writing style! And thank you for the request!

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader

Word Count: 1.8k

He was your first and truest love. It was the way his smile lit up the classroom of your first law school class at George Washington University that made you do a double take. The first words he mumbled to you all those years ago are etched into your memory. His eyes held yours for every single second of that very first conversation, making you realize that he was a very special person.

On your very first date with Aaron, you knew you would love him for a very, very long time. When he took your face in his hands and peppered kisses all over your blushing cheeks, it dawned on you that you did indeed love him. You fell for him hard and fast. He was the first man who made you realize that another human could possibly feel the same way you did about him. He was a marvel. An enigma. Aaron Hotchner stole your heart and never gave it back.

With him, it was the first time you could truly let your guard down. You could just be yourself unashamedly. He was the first man who truly saw you in your rawest form. It was the first time you felt loved. So loved, without a second trace of doubt. He loved you, and you loved him for four beautiful years.

But as they say, all beautiful things must come to an end, for isn’t that what makes them truly beautiful? Your last kiss with him was the first time you kissed someone while crying harder than you ever could have imagined. It was the first time you realized the tears would never cease to fall.

It was the first time that you understood that the man who made you the happiest in this world was also the man who brought you the most anguish.

He was your first love. The first time you held the metaphorical bow and let him pull back the arrow aimed square at your chest. Your first love was trusting him not to let go, trusting him to protect your heart.

Your first love was never thinking, nor expecting, him to let it go. But he did.

The loss of your first love was like watching the sunrise fade into the twilight, a gradual dimming of the light that once illuminated your world. It starts with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, a gnawing ache that refuses to be ignored.

At first, it was a distant whisper, a subtle shift in the air that hinted at the impending storm. You felt it in the way his laughter no longer reached your ears with the same warmth, in the way his touch left a hollow echo in your soul.

As the days passed, the void he left behind grew larger, swallowing you whole in its depths. It was a constant battle between holding on and letting go, between clinging to the memories like a lifeline and accepting the harsh reality of their absence.

Everywhere you turned, reminders of him lurked in the shadows, haunting your every thought and action. The places you once frequented together became battlegrounds of nostalgia, each familiar sight a painful reminder of what once was.

And then came the moment of reckoning, the realization that he was truly gone, never to return. It hit you like a tidal wave, crashing over you with a force that left you gasping for breath. The tears came freely then, a torrential downpour that washed away the remnants of your shattered heart.

In the aftermath of first love's loss, there was a profound sense of emptiness that permeated every corner of your being. It was as if a part of you had been ripped away, leaving behind a gaping wound that refused to heal.

But amidst the pain and sorrow, there was also a glimmer of hope, a faint whisper of resilience that echoed in the depths of your soul. For in the darkness of loss, there lay the opportunity for growth, for transformation, for the rebirth of a heart that had been broken but not defeated.

And so, you picked up the pieces of your shattered dreams, one by one, and slowly but surely, you began to rebuild. For though first love may be lost, its memory lingered like a bittersweet melody, a testament to the beauty and the pain of loving with all your heart.

The bustling streets of Washington D.C. hummed with the energy of a city in perpetual motion, a constant ebb and flow of life. Amidst the throngs of pedestrians, Aaron Hotchner navigated his way through the crowd, his mind heavy with the weight of his profession. As a seasoned agent with the BAU, his days were filled with the relentless pursuit of justice, often leading him far from the familiar streets of D.C.

It was amidst one such case, miles away from home, that the memories of you began to surface. You had been college sweethearts, your love a beacon of light in a world tinged with uncertainty. But as your careers diverged, your relationship faltered under the strain of distance and time.

The decision to part ways had been a painful one, a choice dictated by circumstance rather than desire. Aaron's commitment to his work with the BAU demanded his presence elsewhere, while you were on the brink of embarking on your career as a lawyer. It was a choice neither of you wanted to make, but one that fate had thrust upon you nonetheless.

And so, you said your goodbyes, your hearts heavy with the weight of unspoken words and unfinished dreams. It was a wound that had never truly healed, a scar that lingered as a constant reminder of what could have been.

As Aaron returned to D.C., the memories of your shared past haunted him like ghosts from another lifetime. And then, amidst the chaos of a particularly grueling case, fate intervened, bringing him face to face with you once more.

You stand before him, a vision of grace and beauty amidst the chaos of your surroundings. Your eyes meet on the busy streets of D.C., and for a fleeting moment, time seems to stand still as you take in each other's presence.

"Y/N," Aaron breathes, his voice barely above a whisper.

You smile, a bittersweet curve of your lips that speaks volumes of the years you have spent apart. "Aaron," you say softly, your voice laced with a mixture of emotions.

The air crackles with tension as you exchange hesitant glances, the weight of your shared history hanging heavy in the air.

"It's been too long," you murmur, your voice barely above a whisper.

Aaron nods, his heart pounding in his chest as he struggles to find the right words to say. "I never stopped thinking about you," he confesses, his voice raw with emotion.

And just like that, the floodgates open, words tumbling out in a rush of pent-up emotions and buried truths. You speak of the whispers of your long lost love, of the secrets that tore the two of you apart, of the regrets that haunted your dreams.

Over coffee, you expose your much more complex souls to each other, laying bare the scars of your past in hopes of finding solace in each other's arms once more. You reminisce about your college days, the late-night study sessions and impromptu road trips that had defined your relationship.

But amidst the laughter and shared memories, there is a lingering sadness, a sense of loss that hangs heavy in the air. For you both know that the reunion is bittersweet, a reminder of the years you have spent apart, the moments you can never reclaim. As the conversation progresses, you both find yourselves drawn deeper into the past, unraveling the tangled threads of your shared history.

"I still remember the first time we met," you say, your voice soft with nostalgia. "You walked into that classroom, and I couldn't take my eyes off you."

Aaron's gaze softens, memories flickering behind his eyes. "I was so nervous," he admits with a chuckle. "But the moment I saw you, everything just...clicked."

You share a smile, the weight of years melting away in the warmth of your reminiscence. It's as though time has folded in on itself, bringing you back to that moment when the world was full of endless possibilities.

"Do you ever wonder what might have been?" you ask, the question hanging between you like a fragile thread.

Aaron's expression grows somber, his eyes searching yours for answers. "Every day," he confesses, his voice barely a whisper. "I never stopped thinking about you, wondering if I made the right choice."

You reach across the table, your fingers brushing against his in a silent gesture of understanding. "We were young," you say softly. "We had our whole lives ahead of us, and we made the best choices we could at the time."

There's a heaviness in your words, a weight of regret and longing that threatens to pull you under. But beneath it all, there's also a glimmer of hope, a spark of possibility that refuses to be extinguished.

"We can't change the past," Aaron murmurs, his gaze never leaving yours. "But maybe...maybe we can learn from it."

The words hang in the air, pregnant with meaning. It's a fragile hope, born from the ashes of broken dreams and shattered promises. But it's also the only thing you have left to hold onto, the last vestige of a love that refuses to die.

And so, you lean into each other, seeking solace in the warmth of your shared embrace. In that moment, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city, you find a measure of peace, a fleeting glimpse of the happiness that once was and could be again.

The days that follow are a blur of stolen moments and whispered confessions. You walk hand in hand through the familiar streets of D.C., lost in your own little world of memories and dreams.

But among the joy of your reunion, there's also a sense of trepidation, a fear that history will repeat itself, tearing you apart once more. It's a shadow that lingers at the edge of your consciousness, a reminder of the fragility of your newfound happiness.

"I don't know if I can do this again, Aaron," you confess one evening, the words tumbling out before you can stop them.

Aaron's gaze softens, his fingers intertwining with yours as he pulls you close. "We'll take it one step at a time," he murmurs, his voice a soothing balm against the ache in your heart. "Together."

And in that moment, as you stand together beneath the star-studded sky, you know that you are embarking on a journey far greater than anything you could have imagined. It's a journey filled with twists and turns, highs and lows, but above all, it's a journey you will navigate together, hand in hand, hearts entwined.

For who said first loves can't also turn out to be your forever love? You are determined to prove them wrong, to rewrite the story of your love in a way that defies all expectations. And together, hand in hand, hearts entwined, you know that anything is possible.

Aaron Hotchner/Criminal Minds: Permanent Taglist (If you'd like to be added to any or all works please fill out the form here: (Taglist Sign Up) @loving-and-dreaming @kmc1989 @memeorydotcom @matisse556 @buckylov3r @taygrls @ah-blossom @daily-evanstan @hardballoonlove @14buddy22 @rosiahills22 @djs8891 @mrs-ssa-hotch @panandinpain0 @viscade @kreepja @il0vebeingdelulu @hiireadstuff @kajjaka @guacam011y @kreepja

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buckyseternal · 25 days

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regret

summary: after a heated argument ensues, frank accidentally does the unthinkable.

pairing: frank castle x reader

warnings: violence, blood, accidental domestic violence, angst, whole lotta comfort

word count: 1.2k

18+ only, minors DNI

main masterlist

“Can you just fucking let me finish?” you yelled across the apartment, stopping in your tracks as the big, bad Punisher continued to lecture and yell back at you.

“No, I’m not gonna let you finish! What you pulled out there was fucking inexcusable-”

“Since when do I take orders from you?”

It was already a long night, and it was going to be an even longer night. Your home was supposed to be your sanctuary, but right now it just felt like another battleground, like the one you just left on the streets of Washington DC.

“You take orders from me when we’re out there and your life is on the fucking line, that’s when you listen to me!”

“I was doing just fine when you met me, what makes you think I need you to protect me now?”

You could feel the vases rattle with each step that one of you took.

You two had finally tracked down the man you had been waiting to find for months now, and it had wound up in a firefight. You were known for your knife skills, the feared anti-hero of the city as you took out bad guys one by one with your array of blades. Your accuracy was like no other for throwing knives, your slashes and cuts were lethal and confident, and you never backed down from a fight. Your gun skills weren’t too shabby either, but you left that up to Frank ever since the two of you teamed up.

It was an odd team – starting out as a working relationship when he stepped into your city, but soon turning into a situation where the two of you became lovers. Your bloodlust matched his perfectly, you had never met a man who could hold his own like Frank could. You could appreciate the way he treated you kindly. It was a stark contrast to how you were normally treated by your enemies. But you didn’t need him to protect you. You had been doing that all on your own since you got here, and you would continue doing it.

The whole problem began when the firefight was just about to end. You had taken out half of the men in that warehouse, slinking around in the shadows; slitting throats, stabbing necks and hearts and arteries, using various takedown methods that you had learned in the martial arts years prior. Frank had set up traps for other men to walk into – which they did, and the traps had worked – and he had either sniped or shot the other men. The enemy was already dead, the mission was accomplished.

Frank stood in the middle of the warehouse, bodies littered around him, carnage from the both of you that you’d leave the DC police officers to clean up. He was so used to his brute force and bullets taking care of everything that he had already let his guard down, standing above the enemy as he studied the dead body.

“Get down!” and the sound of a bullet was the last thing he heard before you jumped in between him and the gunman that you both thought had already been dead for some time now. You managed to tackle the larger man to the ground, immediately unsheathing a knife from your thigh and throwing it directly into the man’s eye. Now everyone was dead. You laid back on the ground, breathing heavy, not even realizing the blood that had begun to trickle from your arm.

“Fuck, are you serious?” Frank all but yelled at you, hoisting you up to your feet with him. He tore a piece of fabric off from one of the dead men and wrapped it around your arm where the bullet had just grazed above your elbow, and he pulled you by the other arm and out of the warehouse.

Now here you were, back in the safety of your apartment, in a screaming match over your decision to protect your partner.

You walked up to him, steps eerily silent as usual. His back was turned to you, too busy mindlessly moving shit around on the hallway table.

“You need to understand that I care about you, Frank, and I’m not gonna let anything happen to you out there on the field-”

He turned around all of a sudden, raising his arms to a shrugging position to go along with whatever he was about to say, but it all went horribly wrong in that moment.

His quick movements had been too fast as he turned, and he had wound up hitting you square in the face. Everything was silent. Everything was still.

Your head was still turned to the side, hand coming up to make sure there wasn’t any blood trickling down from your mouth. Tears had immediately welled up in your eyes before you even knew it – it had all happened so fast.

“Sweetheart-” Frank had immediately pulled you into him, one arm pulling you in by your waist and the other hand cradling the back of your head. “I am so, so sorry. I didn’t realize you were so close behind me, I didn’t mean-”

He could feel you shake with your sobs, and tears began to come to his eyes too. He just held you tight against him, hand petting at your hair in his best attempt to comfort you. He backed away, holding your face in his large hands, getting a good look at you. He scanned your face, wiping your tears away with his calloused thumbs, making sure there were no bruises forming or no bloody nose or lip. You seemed to be physically fine, but nothing about what just happened was fine.

“Please, let’s go sit down,” you nodded, sniffling as you continued to sob. He led you to the sofa by the hand, gently sitting you down and kneeling in front of you.

“I didn’t hear you behind me, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. You know I’d never hit you, you know I’d never hit any woman but especially not you-”

“I know, Frank. I know.” You continued to cry, the emotions just bubbling over from the loss of adrenaline, the pain in your arm, and the heated conversation from just moments before. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, baby, I hit you straight in the face- are you okay? You look okay but are you really okay?”

“Hurts, but I’ll be fine.” He sighed shakily and pulled you into him again, burying his face in the crook of your shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I’d never do something like that on purpose, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”

You both stayed like that for a while, more minutes than you could count, until you calmed down some. Your mind was swirling with the events of the whole night, how everything was going so well and how everything just went downhill so fast.

By the end of the night, you both laid in your shared bed after washing all of the blood and dirt off of you, and after he had properly wrapped your arm. Your head was on his chest, his arm cradling you to him as you drew circles on his skin. Soon enough, you fell asleep, eyes still puffy from the crying, but still so beautiful to him.

“You mean so much to me…I can’t lose you. I don’t know what I’d do if I’d lose you,” he whispered, kissing the top of your head.

#frank castle #frank castle masterlist #mcu #mcu masterlist #frank castle angst #frank castle comfort

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tomorrowusa · 13 days

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Trump's offer to kill climate protection measures in return for about $1 billion in support from Big Oil has gotten little coverage in local media in swing states.

Make sure that people who care about climate change are aware of Trump's corrupt deal with already filthy rich fossil fuel industry. Don't assume people about Trump's deal with Big Oil.

Trump turns to oil industry for $1bn towards campaign as they draft executive orders for him to sign

#donald trump #big oil #fossil fuels #trump shakes down oil execs for campaign loot #mar-a-lago #republicans #political sleaze #climate change #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

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mariacallous · 5 months

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Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail.

So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification.

The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.

The new details provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the chaotic last-minute effort to keep Donald Trump in office. The fake electors scheme features prominently in special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictment against the former president, and some of the officials who were involved have spoken to Smith’s investigators.

The emails and recordings also indicate that a top Trump campaign lawyer was part of 11th-hour discussions about delivering the fake elector certificates to Pence, potentially undercutting his testimony to the House select committee that investigated January 6 that he had passed off responsibility and didn’t want to put the former vice president in a difficult spot.

These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was an architect of the fake electors plot and is now a key cooperator in several state probes into the scheme. Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to a felony conspiracy charge in Georgia in connection with the electors’ plan, and has met with prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, who are investigating the sham GOP electors in their own states.

Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference indictment against Trump.

CNN has obtained audio of Chesebro’s recent interview with Michigan investigators, and exclusively reported earlier this month that he also told them about a December 2020 Oval Office meeting where he briefed Trump about the fake electors plan and how it ties into January 6.

An attorney for Chesebro declined to comment. A spokesman for the special counsel’s office did not reply to a request for comment for this story.

‘A high-level decision’

Emails obtained by CNN corroborate what Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors: He communicated with the top Trump campaign lawyer, Matt Morgan, and another campaign official, Mike Roman, to ferry the documents to Washington on January 5.

From there, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and a Pennsylvania congressman assisted in the effort to get the documents into Pence’s hands.

“This is a high-level decision to get the Michigan and Wisconsin votes there,” Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors. “And they had to enlist, you know, a US senator to try to expedite it, to get it to Pence in time.”

Chesebro also discussed the episode with Wisconsin investigators last week when he sat for an interview with the attorney general’s office as part of a separate state probe into the fake electors plot, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Wisconsin prosecutors asked about the episode “extensively,” the source said, noting Chesebro discussed how a Wisconsin GOP staffer flew the certificate from Milwaukee to Washington and then handed it off to Chesebro.

The firsthand account from Chesebro’s perspective helps fill in the narrative behind the effort to hand-deliver elector slates to Pence, which is vaguely referenced in Smith’s federal indictment.

Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include conspiring with Chesebro and others to obstruct the January 6 certification proceeding. Before Chesebro’s guilty plea in Georgia, his attorneys reached out to Smith’s team. As of this week, he has not heard back from federal prosecutors, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Federal investigators have spoken with several individuals involved in the scramble with the phony elector certificates, according to a source familiar with the matter. This includes interviews with Trump staffers who were tapped to fly the papers to DC, and some fake electors who knew of the planning.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not reply to a request for comment.

Asked about the episode, a spokesperson for Johnson pointed to his previous comments, where he said, “my involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds,” and that, “in the end, those electors were not delivered.”

‘Day-by-day’ coordination

According to the recordings of Chesebro’s sit-down with Michigan prosecutors, he explained how a legal memo he wrote for Wisconsin transformed into a nationwide operation, where Trump lawyers were “day-by-day coordinating the efforts of more than a dozen people with the GOP and with the Trump campaign.”

On January 4, 2021, Morgan sent an email to Chesebro and Roman asking for confirmation that all of the Trump elector slates had been received by Congress, according to the documents obtained by CNN.

Roman responded that the Michigan certificate had been mailed on December 15 but was still “in transit” at a US Postal Service facility in DC. Wisconsin’s certificate also had apparently not arrived.

Chesebro told prosecutors that Morgan was “freaked out” when the campaign realized the phony certificates from Michiganwere still in the mail.

That same day, Morgan weighed in over email asking Chesebro and Roman to rethink how they would deliver the certificates to Pence.

“As I thought about this more, a courier will not be able to access the Capitol to deliver a sealed package,” Morgan wrote on January 4, according to emails obtained by CNN “You will probably need to enlist the help of a legislator who can deliver to the appropriate place(s). I strongly recommend you guys discuss a revised delivery plan with Rudy (Giuliani) to make sure this gets done the way he wants.”

‘Can we charter a flight?’

Roman was concerned the Wisconsin documents wouldn’t reach Washington in time.

“Can we charter a flight? The only available commercial from MKE (Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport) to DCA (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) arrives at 2130 tomorrow night,” Roman wrote to Chesebro on January 4 at 11:24 p.m.

The job of physically flying the elector documents to Washington fell to two people: A Trump campaign staffer and a Wisconsin GOP official, according to the emails and what Chesebro told prosecutors.

The Wisconsin GOP official who had that state’s elector documents landed after 10 a.m. on January 5 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, according to the emails.

Trump campaign aide Michael Brown flew with the Michigan certificates to Washington National Airport with a scheduled arrival around 1 p.m., according to emails obtained by CNN. A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Brown flew to DC from Atlanta, because the Trump staffers who had custody of the Michigan ballots were in Georgia for the Senate runoffs.

The campaign booked and paid for Brown’s flight on Southwest Airlines, the source said. Federal campaign finance records indicate that a pro-Trump super PAC paid the airline on the day of Brown’s flight for travel related to election “recount” efforts.

Trump Hotel meetup

The emails show that Brown and the Wisconsin GOP official were instructed to meet Chesebro at the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington to hand off the fake elector certificates. Chesebro said in an email that he’d keep the ballots in his hotel room safe until it was time to pass them along.

Wisconsin Republican Party officials were annoyed at the request to courier the fake elector certificates to Washington. “Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President,” a Wisconsin GOP official wrote to then-state party chairman Andrew Hitt on January 4, according to the January 6 committee report.

Hitt – who has provided information to federal investigators about the efforts to get the fake elector certificates to Washington, according to a source familiar with the matter – told the January 6 committee that the couriering ended up being overkill, because the original documents that the state party had mailed to Washington actually made it in time.

Getting the certificates inside the Capitol

The documents still had to be hand-delivered to Pence’s Senate office in the Capitol.

The electors plot – as envisioned by Chesebro and other Trump allies – was that Pence could reject Biden’s legitimate electors and recognize Trump’s “alternate electors” on January 6, while lawmakers tallied the electoral votes from each state. Per federal law, the certificates need to be physically presented on the floor of Congress during the joint session, while lawmakers tally the electoral votes.

Chesebro told investigators that Roman connected him with an aide for a Pennsylvania GOP lawmaker that he believed was Rep. Scott Perry to turn over the documents. Chesebro wasn’t certain which congressman the staffer worked for – and the January 6 report says a staffer for a different Pennsylvania Republican, Rep. Mike Kelly, helped shuttle the documents that day.

“I had the Wisconsin stuff. [Trump campaign aide] Mike Brown had the Michigan stuff. We walked to the Longworth Office Building, and the guy with Perry, or whatever his name is, and some other fellow, that were like staff members of the House, took them and said, ‘We’re going to walk them over to the Senate and give it to a Senate staffer,’” Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors, according to the audio obtained by CNN.

“I don’t know why logistically we didn’t take it directly to Johnson. But that’s how we did it,” he added.

Kelly and Perry’s offices did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

Brown did not comment for this story. CNN previously reported that he testified in June to Smith’s grand jury in the Trump election subversion probe.

CNN previously reported that Roman sat for a proffer interview with Smith’s team before Trump was indicted. He was also indicted in the sweeping Georgia election racketeering case, in connection with the fake electors scheme, and has pleaded not guilty.

Roman’s attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The details from Chesebro put a finer point on how members of Congress, including a sitting US senator, were involved in making sure the electoral certificates for Trump ended up in Pence’s hands.

The January 6 committee first revealed last year Johnson’s involvement in trying unsuccessfully to deliver the fake elector certificates to Pence, who announced on the morning of the joint session that it would be unconstitutional to do what Trump wanted and unilaterally overturn the election results.

The committee revealed text messages during their hearings last year that Johnson aide Sean Riley sent to Pence aide Chris Hodgson, saying that Johnson “needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise.”

“What is it?” Hodgson asked.

“Alternate slates of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,” Riley responded.

“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson said.

‘F**k these guys’

In his Michigan interview, Chesebro also dished on some of the internal disagreements among the Trump lawyers, campaign officials and other allies, who clashed over the purpose of the electors’ plan and how far to take things on January 6.

Chesebro has maintained – then, and now – that the plan was a lawful move to preserve Trump’s legal rights.

Even before the Trump electors met in their state capitals on December 14, 2020, to cast their fake ballots and sign the certificates, Chesebro heard about concerns from some of the electors about possible legal jeopardy, according to emails and text messages reported by the Detroit News and obtained by CNN.

Chesebro added hedging language for the faux certificates from Pennsylvania and New Mexico in response to those concerns. He proposed to Roman and Morgan that they add the contingency caveats to the paperwork for all seven states in the plan. But Roman rejected the idea, according to the emails.

“F**k these guys,” Roman texted Chesebro on December 12, 2020.

By this time, the Trump campaign had essentially cleaved in two. Top officials who had managed day-to-day activity for Trump up to the election, including in court, say they ceded responsibility to Rudy Giuliani and others, such as Chesebro, according to congressional testimony transcripts. Roman effectively switched teams to work under Giuliani’s structure, according to the testimony from Morgan and others.

A spokesperson for Giuliani did not reply to a request for comment.

‘It really went south on me’

Chesebro told Michigan investigators that his own emails show that Morgan remained deeply involved, including in the final hours before January 6, to ensure that the certificates reached DC.

“I don’t have a really warm feeling toward, at least, the top Trump lawyers that did this, hid from me what they were doing and then lied to Congress about me. So, it’s been really difficult,” Chesebro said.

In his congressional testimony, Morgan said he knew of the elector plan but wanted to distance himself from the effort, delegating the work to others, including those under Giuliani.

Morgan told the January 6 committee last year that he initially believed the electors were only meant to be used as a contingency. The electors, he believed, should meet in their state capitals and cast their electoral votes but “not necessarily submit” the certificates to Congress unless “we prevailed” in court.

Morgan told the committee that the plan changed in December, saying it morphed from a “cast-and-hold” operation and had “shifted to cast-and-send.” And that’s when Morgan told the committee that he backed out, testifying that he directed an aide to “email Mr. Chesebro politely to say, ‘this is your task. You are responsible for the Electoral College issues moving forward.’”

“This was my way of taking that responsibility to zero,” Morgan told the committee, later adding that he “moved on” after that email was sent.

Morgan explained that he was concerned that the new plan to try to count the fake electors on January 6 “would make the Vice President’s life harder, and I didn’t want to be a part of that.”

“Mr. Morgan stands by his congressional testimony,” his defense attorneys told CNN in response to his emails and Chesebro’s statements to investigators.

Ultimately, on the eve of the joint session of Congress, Morgan helped get the ballots in place, according to the emails and according to Chesebro, who blamed his legal troubles squarely on the Trump campaign’s legal team.

“I could have avoided all this,” Chesebro vented to Michigan prosecutors. “It’s been a real lesson in not working with people that you don’t know and are not sure you can trust, because it really went south on me.”

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robertreich · 2 years

Video

youtube

Big Midterm Victories That Give Me Hope For The Future

While it’s still too soon to know the full results of the midterms, there were some major victories on Tuesday night that spanned the entire country.

Numerous election denying candidates in key battleground states lost their races for both Secretary of State and Governor.

Abortion rights were protected in five states, minimum wage increases were approved by voters in Nebraska and Washington DC, collective bargaining rights were enshrined in the Illinois constitution, and Medicaid coverage was expanded to more than 40,000 people in South Dakota.

Control of state legislatures flipped to Democrats for the first time in years in Michigan and Minnesota — as well as in the Pennsylvania House. Maryland elected its first Black Governor – only the third Black governor elected in U.S. history. The first openly lesbian U.S. governor was elected in Massachusettes. New Hampshire elected the first trans man to a state legislature in U.S. history.

John Fetterman ran as a voice of the working class and flipped a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, dozens of other progressive candidates defeated big monied interests to win elections to the U.S. House, including Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z member of Congress.

Friends, regardless of the overall outcome of the midterms, have no doubt: progressives are the future.

Why else would election deniers, monied interests, and bigots be fighting so hard to defeat us?

For one simple reason: They’re terrified of our power.

America still has a long way to go. But it is far better and stronger now — more inclusive, more diverse, more dynamic — than it has ever been.

Remember this as we continue our work. The fight isn’t over — and it won’t get easier. But WE can win. Tuesday was proof.

#youtube #election #midterms #John fetterman #Donald trump #politics #video #videos

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ausetkmt · 2 months

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Donald Trump's Hate Has No Place in Black America. Let's Remind Him in November.

We are seven months out from the most consequential election in our nation’s history, and Black voters know what’s up: A recent survey conducted by Black pollster Cornell Belcher’s firm asked 800 Black voters in battleground states to identify the single greatest threat to the Black community.

Their answer? A second Donald Trump presidency.

We should not be surprised by this finding. Trump is prepared to enact – and in many cases, reenact – policies that will do great harm to the Black community and to communities of color. He is expected to authorize mass deportations, wage war on the federal civil service (of which Black employees comprise 18 percent), cut taxes for the rich at the expense of the middle class, fight to make healthcare more expensive and less accessible and support an abortion ban that will only worsen the maternal mortality crisis.

While we have focused a lot on what Trump would do during a second term with the stroke of his pen, we cannot forget about the damage he inflicted on our community as president without even lifting a finger. Over his four years in office, Trump normalized a culture of racism and xenophobia that trickled down from the highest levels of our government to everyday interactions in-person and online. The former president’s social media posts and speeches were laced with a mix of dog whistles and outright hate speech.

How could we ever forget his claim that the attendees of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. were “very fine people?” Or when he ordered members of the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” after being asked to condemn the white nationalist militia group? Or when he suggested that four Democratic members of Congress – all women of color – should “go back…[to the] places from which they came” in a tweet that a Republican congressman even described as racist?

Coming from the mouth of the President of the United States, this kind of rhetoric signaled that hate did indeed have a place in his America and gave top cover to those who realized they no longer had to keep their racism under wraps.

Consequently, racial violence skyrocketed during Trump’s presidency. In fact, this trend started before he even took office. The Washington Post found that counties that hosted a Trump rally in 2016 experienced a 226 percent increase in hate crimes in the months that followed. From 2016 to 2017, hate crimes across the country increased by 17 percent. From 2018 to 2019, deadly hate crimes more than doubled. And in 2020, more hate crimes were reported than in any year since 2001. Perhaps unsurprisingly, alleged civil rights violations went under-investigated under Trump’s DOJ. During its first two years, the Trump DOJ opened 60 percent fewer civil rights cases than did the Obama DOJ and 50 percent fewer than the Bush DOJ.

For those who think that the extent of the harm inflicted by Trump’s racism can be fully captured in those statistics, think again. In a multitude of ways, the Black community continues to suffer from the flames of hatred that Trump fanned while he was president. For example, racism is exacerbating the Black mental health crisis: Black youth experienced a 144 percent increase in suicide rates from 2007 to 2020, with both institutional and interpersonal racism identified as strong risk factors driving this trend.

While Trump was president for only a portion of that period, he was active in spreading racism – including promoting the Barack Obama birtherism lie – for almost the entirety of it.

Speaking of Obama, the election of our nation’s first Black president helps us understand why the election of Trump – which once seemed unthinkable – was actually an inevitable reaction to Black progress. Study after study has pointed to racial resentment as a significant driver of the support Trump received from his voters. His base wanted trickle-down racism, and trickle-down racism is what they got.

Fast forward to today, and like any other proverbial old dog, Trump is clearly stuck on his old tricks. On the campaign trail this time around, he has already evoked Hitler, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country, and suggesting that Black voters appreciate him because he is being “discriminated against” in the legal system. Naturally, Republicans have made him their nominee for the third time. But while he might speak for their party, we do not have to let him speak for our country. Not again.

In 2016, Trump promised his supporters the ability to hate openly with impunity, and he most certainly delivered. Now, he’s ready to do it all over again. And while it might be tempting to give into fear and cynicism, we should take hope in recognizing that thanks to our community showing up for Joe Biden in 2020, we helped elect a president who is committed to aggressively prosecuting hate crimes, who has appointed judges with a respect for civil rights, and who recognizes that “hate never goes away, it only hides.”

Donald Trump has never hidden his hate. This fall, let’s show him once again that it has no place in our America.

#Donald Trump's Hate Has No Place in Black America. Let's Remind Him in November.#trump #white supremacy #white hate #white lies #american hate #homegrown racism #race #race in america

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beardedmrbean · 18 days

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WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden is hiking tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors and several other goods imported from China, escalating a trade war between the two world's largest economies as the U.S. accuses Chinese competitors of unfair practices in industries the U.S. is trying to grow.

The moves, which come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, are designed to protect American industries in clean energy that the administration has targeted with major investments to try to catch up with China.

Other goods from China slapped with higher tariffs include solar cells, batteries, battery materials, cranes used at ports, and certain medical supplies, as well as steel and aluminum imported from China.

The Biden administration has for months accused China of unfair trade practices by flooding the global markets with goods at artificially low prices, putting U.S. manufacturing of electric vehicles, microchips and other goods at a steep disadvantage.

Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council in the White House, said the objective of the higher tariffs is to "make sure that historic investments in jobs spurred by President Biden's actions are not undercut by a flood of unfairly underpriced exports from China."

Biden, whose administration reviewed the tariff rates over the past year, is keeping intact more than $300 billion in tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump. Biden will announce the new increases during a White House speech Tuesday.

Some of the tariff hikes include:

Electric vehicles from China: from 25% to 100% beginning this year.

Semiconductors from China: from 25% to 50% by 2025.

Lithium-ion batteries from China used in electric vehicles: from 7.5% to 25% this year.

Solar cells imported from China: from 25% to 50% this year.

Steel and aluminum products: form 0%-7.5% to 25% this year.

Ship-to-shore container cranes imported from China: from zero to 25% this year

Hospital syringes and needles made in China: from zero to 50% this year.

China pushed back strongly against the higher tariffs.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the moves "self-defeating" and against the consensus reached last November by Biden and Chinese President Jinping Xi during a summit in San Francisco.

"More importantly, it will harm the world’s green economic transition and climate action," Wenbin said. "We urge the U.S. to stop repairing and digging up the road at the same time, so to speak, and create enabling conditions for China-U.S. climate cooperation and global green transition."

Another ministry spokesman last Friday said, "China will take all necessary measures to defend its rights and interests."

The moves come as Biden is courting the support of working-class voters in Midwest battleground states including Michigan, the center of the U.S. auto industry, for the November election.

Biden is borrowing from the trade playbook of Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee, who routinely raised tariffs on Chinese goods during his four years in office.

"Where have you been for the last three and a half years? They should have done it a long time ago," Trump said Biden's tariffs, speaking outside a New York courtroom, where is attending day 17 of his hush-money trial. "But they've also got to do it on other vehicles, and they have to do it on a lot of other products. Because China's eating our lunch right now."

Biden has sought to differentiate his tariff approach with his predecessor's plan for new tariffs. Biden last month slammed Trump's campaign proposals as "across-the-board tariffs on all imports from all countries that could badly hurt American consumers." Trump has proposed a 60% or more tariff on all Chinese imports and warned the U.S. auto industry will face a "bloodbath" if he loses his election in November.

Biden has staked his economic agenda on reigniting a U.S. manufacturing boom centered on electric vehicles and clean energy.

The Biden administration says it has helped spur more than $860 billion in private investment through legislation passed during Biden's first two years in office that incentivized the manufacturing of electric vehicles, clean-energy products, microchips and other investments.

Brainard said the tariff hikes will "ensure that American businesses and workers have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field in industries that are vital to our future such as clean energy and semiconductors."

Biden called for the tripling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from China during a campaign speech last month before the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh.

Each of the tariff increases reflect the recommendations of Biden's United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, who evaluated the rates as part of a mandatory four-year review.

#nunyas news

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zvaigzdelasas · 5 months

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[From Reuters]

A proposal for the permanent deployment of US Patriot missile defence batteries in Palau in response to China's expanding reach in the Pacific has come under fire as the nation's politicians debate the move ahead of elections in 2024.

The United States has begun work on an over-the-horizon radar system in Palau and the island nation's president, Mr Surangel Whipps, says he has asked Washington to install the missile shield given fears that hosting the radar could endanger the archipelago's 18,000 residents.

However, in late November, the Senate in Palau, where the population is sensitive to the islands' history as a bloody battleground in World War II, passed a resolution rejecting the deployment. The lower house of parliament has yet to consider the issue.

The Senate vote came after Mr Whipps announced in September that the US and Palau were discussing the permanent deployment of Patriots, as hosting the radar system made his nation of 340 islands halfway between the Philippines and Guam a potential target in any conflict.

Patriots will also help protect the new radar system, which is expected to be operational in 2026 to boost US capabilities as China expands its military operations in the Pacific. The US has already temporarily deployed Patriot systems in Palau and test-fired them during exercises.

A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.[...]

Under the terms of long-standing agreements, the United States is responsible for the defence of Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands and provides economic assistance, while gaining exclusive military access to strategic swathes of the Pacific.

In October, BenarNews, an affiliate of [US Congress-Funded Media Outlet] Radio Free Asia, quoted Mr Hokkons Baules, the president of Palau's Senate, as saying that US interests rather than Palau's were served by a military build-up in the country.

In a statement to Reuters, Mr Baules said that Palau should not be asking for the permanent basing of weapons.

"Permanent basing of purely military weapons in the Republic of Palau is not consistent with our nation’s history as an independent country, and not consistent with any current threats to Palau’s sovereignty or security," Mr Baules said.

Such opposition [sic] has brought suggestions of Chinese interference.

21 Dec 23

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theculturedmarxist · 7 months

Text

A few minutes earlier, Walz had been onstage in Washington at a Center for American Progress event, chiding a crowd of engaged but worried Democrats, “Everybody who says, ‘I wish he was younger.’ I wish I was skinnier! [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis wishes he was more likable! It’s not going to happen. … There’s a responsibility for us not to buy into that.”

STOP EXPECTING THINGS OF US!

Or as Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle told CNN more bluntly, “People should shut the hell up.”

STOP DEMANDING WE DO ANY BETTER!

“I deal in the real world,” said the Philadelphia-area Democrat, who has been proudly supporting Biden for years. “He is going to be the nominee, regardless of whether people think they can construct on paper a more attractive nominee or not.”

IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!

“Every time Democrats go on TV and say, ‘The president’s done a great job, but he’s 80 years old,’ all they’re doing is feeding this appetite out there by some for a third-party run,” said Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City-area Democrat. “And that could be the worst thing that happens in a century.”

WE LIVE IN THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS DON'T LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES AND RUIN EVERYTHING NOW!

“Joe Biden is on the freedom, democracy and opportunity agenda that beat MAGA Republicans in 2020, in 2022, and will win again in 2024,” Ben Wikler, the Democratic party chair in the top battleground state of Wisconsin, told CNN. “Every hour that someone spends fantasizing about some other ticket is an hour they could have spent calling voters or raising money to help reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

WE'RE GREAT! WE'RE DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB!! OUR POSITION IS COMPLETELY UNASSAILABLE AND WE'RE DEFINITELY GOING TO WIN EVEN THOUGH WE INSPIRE NO CONFIDENCE IN OURSELVES OR OUR SUPPORTERS.

“All these pundits will talk about polling, polling, polling — OK, fine, let’s talk about that,” Harris said, drawing an enthusiastic standing ovation during the DNC meeting in St. Louis. “What we did on the climate crisis: I think 80% popularity. Lowering the cost of prescription drugs to $35 a month, I think everyone loves that. $2,000 a year for seniors for prescription medication, hallelujah. Fighting for relief of student loan debt. 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. Popular, popular, popular.”

Delusional, delusional, delusional.

“That which doesn’t kill him,” the congressman said hopefully, “makes him stronger.”

lol, lmao

#joe biden #2024 presidential election

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kp777 · 15 days

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#donald trump #big oil #national broadcast media #news bias #cable news #media matters #2024 presidential race

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antidrumpfs · 13 days

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Trump’s promise to repeal climate action and solicitation of campaign donations from oil executives is vital information for voters

The Washington Post published an exclusive story on May 9 about a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month in which presumptive Republican 2024 nominee Donald Trump reportedly promised to reverse President Joe Biden's actions on climate change as he asked oil executives to raise $1 billion for his presidential campaign, assuring them that they'd be getting a “deal” due to the “taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.”

#media matters #corporate greed

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random-xpressions · 3 months

Text

Career life is something one needs to take very seriously, as much as they would for other aspects, like their love life or their spiritual life etc. Perhaps in the earlier years one may actually not kick off with a promising note. But those are essential too. Call it coincidence or signs that universe is so clearly sending, in just this week I came across three stories which actually was very intellectually pleasing and also quite soul awakening. Here they are:

Story no 1: I happened to stumble upon an interview that was taken with the famous soccer star, Messi, in which he was asked - "what would you be doing if you were not playing football?" Sensing that the interviewer was perhaps under the impression that there was hell a lot of money that was being made in all his club contracts and advertisements etc, the legend simply answered: "I will still be playing football even if i made no money!"

Story no 2: Two great individuals who have hit the success in their industry almost with no match, a movie director - Yash Chopra - and King of Bollywood - Shah Rukh Khan. Now the kind of movies this amazing pair has gifted to the world is unforgettable. So just last night I came across an interview in which the Director was saying that in his entire career span of 50 years of which 20 years he had worked with the actor, not for once did Shah Rukh Khan ever speak about his RENUMERATION! All that Yash Chopra did was to call him and say a movie is being planned and Shah Rukh was there. What happens is that once everything is completed and a day or two before the movie release date, a cheque will be sent to the actor and everytime upon receiving it Shah Rukh would say: "this time its really such a huge pay!"

Story no 3: Dr Mohammed Hisham Naji, an anaesthesiologist, leading rather a comfortable life in Washington (Syrian-American), after recently seeing the plight of Palestinians and the heavy casualty especially when it came to that point where there were no qualified doctors to do anaesthesia and treatments were being made without giving anaesthesia, his conscience got so badly shaken that despite his old age and despite that Gaza is literally a battleground with zero security he volunteered to go all the way down to the epicenter of war to make his contribution!

Now all of these individuals in their own circle of profession - be that sports or theatricals or medical - one thing is common in all of them. They did what they did not because of money but something within them was giving them a greater call to answer it. Their craftsmanship was in their DNA, inseparable. They would do it even if they're not paid. They would do it because they really enjoyed it. They would do it even if it cost their lives.

Money is just a result and a natural consequence that follows the zeal, the enthusiasm, the passion. Now comes the big question which each one of you must ask yourself:

"Is what you're doing right now to earn your bread something which you would do even if your bread is denied?"

If the answer is NO, then that's not what you're made for. Your calling is elsewhere - go find it!!!

Random Xpressions

#career #beyond money

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mariacallous · 2 days

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In Tonya Williams’ Mississippi family, they all vote. But last year, Williams’ uncle mentioned offhandedly that he hadn’t voted in an election for several years. Shocked, she helped him make a plan.

“We don't miss elections. We will go. If you need a ride, we will go pick you up and take you to the polls,” says Williams.

Relentless, a progressive group focused on relational organizing—individuals harnessing their personal networks to get out the vote—relies on people like Williams to get family members to the ballot box.

Since the 2022 election, Relentless has championed relational organizing, and this year the group is launching a $10.8 million program that will, in part, help pay participants in the program a $200 stipend to get out the vote. The organizers of the program say they plan to build out a network of more than 2 million voters across seven battleground states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

“Relational [organizing] is a way for voters to receive correct, accurate information in this time of unprecedented disinformation, because people trust their friends,” Davis Leonard, chief executive officer at Relentless, told WIRED. “And so the best way to get people accurate information that they are going to trust is from a trusted messenger. And that's somebody that they already know.”

By paying people like Williams, who participated in last year’s Relentless program, the group hopes to reach disenfranchised voters by accessing their personal networks. Relentless is particularly eager to do it this year, because of the amount of election disinformation already present online.

“One of the things we are learning is that the extent to which I trust information that comes to me, is only enhanced by me trusting the person who gives me that information,” says Hahrie Han, a professor who studies collective action and grassroots movements at Johns Hopkins. “And the extent to which I'm willing to be persuaded by someone is also a function of how much I trust the messenger.”

In 2022, political texts increased 158 percent compared to the previous year, according to data compiled by the robocall-blocking app Robokiller. That year, Americans received 15 billion political texts. For many, the content of these texts and other communications is suspect: More than 70 percent of voters say they are concerned about misleading election information, according to a recent poll from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Relational organizing is “actually communicating in a way that cuts through the noise in the blizzard of information and disinformation that voters are confronted with,” Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said in an interview on Tuesday. “And it's also helping people think through what their most fundamental values call them to do, even if it means voting for a candidate for a party that they haven't supported in the past.”

Relentless uses its own app, Rally, which allows program participants to log their contacts and interactions with their friends. Participants can post memes, text their friends, and throw in-person events over shared interests, as long as the contact is led by the voter and not a campaign. “I just think that everyone needs to know about voting, and this program helped us get it out,” says Williams. “We would meet at a location and then go in that community and get the opportunity to talk to people and see their feelings about voting in Mississippi.”

State parties, municipal elections, and even the Biden campaign have leaned into the idea in recent years.

Last November, the Biden campaign hired its own team of relational organizers to reach disaffected voters in states like Arizona. Around 60 percent of the people this team canvassed were not contacted in 2022, according to The Washington Post.

Other campaigns and political groups have adopted the strategy as well in recent years. When she worked for US senator Jon Ossoff’s campaign in Georgia in 2022, Leonard and her team first piloted their relational organizing program. They were able to build a network of 160,000 Georgia voters in less than a month. In 2020, the Pete Buttigieg campaign cited their work in recruiting volunteers to canvass their friends as one of the primary reasons the candidate won the Iowa caucus.

The GOP has also started to leverage relational organizing at scale. In April, The New York Times reported that Turning Point Action, the political arm of conservative youth group Turning Point USA, was building an app for volunteers to upload their contacts and contact them about elections.

Apps like Turning Point’s are a sign that Republicans are expanding the outreach they’ve traditionally done in churches and other faith-based institutions for decades. “We know that there's a big portion of the right that does a lot of outreach to faith institutions,” Han said. “They're doing relational organizing within the context of a network of people who are embedded within a shared institution.”

Groups like Relentless are betting that apolitical spaces like private Discord servers, group texts, and concerts could become the next frontier in political marketing.

“People know best how to talk to their friends,” says Leonard.

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robertreich · 2 years

Video

youtube

The One Thing to Know Before You Vote

Many of the biggest issues affecting our day-to-day lives are determined by state and local officials who are running for office down here — as well as ballot measures.

But these races at the bottom of the ballot often receive less attention — and fewer votes — than federal positions that appear at the top of your ballot.

Why? Well many people who vote simply don't fill out their entire ballot. It's a serious issue.

And I get it. I mean, how can you be expected to know what a comptroller does? Does anyone really know?

And you may not be familiar with all of the other names you see on your ballot.

But these state and local government officials are going to be vital for holding on to what we have –– protecting many of the rights that extremist Republicans in Washington and the Supreme Court are actively trying to erode.

Down ballot races are also critical if we want to advance progressive changes at the state level –– like raising the minimum wage, instituting ranked choice voting, inscribing abortion rights into state constitutions, expanding Medicaid, protecting trans youth, making public higher education more affordable. All of these become possible when we pay attention to down ballot races.

Control of many state legislatures is often determined down here — by a handful of races that can swing in either direction based on a relatively small number of votes.

Republicans have been focused on state and local races for decades — especially when it comes to funding them.

It’s long past time for the Democratic Party to do the same.

On top of that, ballot roll-off — a phenomenon where people vote for top-of-ticket candidates but then don’t vote for down ballot offices — has been a huge problem for Democrats as of late in key battleground states.

A recent analysis of presidential election results from 10 swing states dating back to 2012 showed that in contested races, the Democratic presidential nominee at the top of the ticket received more votes 87% of the time compared to Democratic state legislative candidates at the bottom of the ballot.

On the flip side, the Republican nominee for president received more votes than Republican state legislative candidates just 45% of the time.

Folks, it’s not enough to just vote for President — or even Governor — and call it a day. As we have seen, the consequences of doing so are enormous.

So here are a few things you can do to get prepared to vote down-ballot.

Get your ballot early — request a sample ballot from your local election office. Take it home and familiarize yourself with it.

Next, research ALL down ballot candidates. There are some great organizations to guide you — Sister District, The States Project, Bolts Magazine, and People’s Action are just a few. I’ve linked to them below, but feel free to leave a comment with other local resources you’ve found helpful.

Lastly, connect with your friends and share this information. Get them to vote down-ballot, too. Research shows that texting a friend about voting increases turnout.

We don’t win overnight. We win by connecting with our communities. Paying attention to candidates up and down the ballot — even organizing for them.

When it comes to power in America, remember to vote for the little folks down at the bottom of your ballot.

#youtube #video #videos #election #politics #midterms #Democrats #Republicans #Medicare For All

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