October 10, 2021 / Newsletter 245
HELP US FIGHT JIM CROW 2.0!

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This week's events
Hall County Democrats October Meeting
When: Monday, Oct 11, 6:00-8:00 pm (meeting gaveled to order at 6:30)
Where: Gainesville Civic Center

FEATURED SPEAKER:
The Honorable Mayor Paul Walton Mayor of the City of Hull and 2022 candidate for US House District 9. Join us for an informative Q&A!
Meet Matthew Wilson, Democratic Candidate for GA Insurance Commissioner
Fri, Oct 15, 8:00 AM
Law Firm of Hasty Pope Davies
529 Green Street, Gainesville
Click on the image below to RSVP
Learn more about Matthew: www.matthewforgeorgia.com
Rabun County Democrats Blue BBQ
When: Sat, Oct 30, 4:00-8:00 pm
Where: The Gatehouse at Parker Ranch, Clayton

Click the image for details.
EARLY VOTING STARTS THIS WEEK!
Blue To Dos
Don't let GOP Right-Wingers Intimidate Local Government Officials. Go to a meeting!

Click on the links below to see the public meeting schedules:

Georgia 9th Congressional District -GOTV Phone Bank ·...

Let's paint North Georgia Blue! On November 2nd, Georgians in many municipalities across the 9th district will head to the polls for local elections. These local races are crucial to guaranteeing that elected officials across the state are...

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www.mobilize.us
Sign up to canvass for Devin Pandy's mayoral campaign:
To volunteer for phone-banking for Devin's campaign, please email [email protected]
ENTER YOUR COMMENTS TO THE REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE

The GA Legislature is collecting citizen comments about redistricting. Click the link to add your comments so that those calling for fairness and transparency overwhelm any others.
 

If you haven’t already mailed your Fair District postcards, please do so ASAP.
MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE EARLY
EARLY VOTING STARTS OCT 12

Early voting for the Nov 2 elections is taking place October 12 - October 29 including two Saturdays, October 16 and October 23. Early voting hours are 9 am to 5 pm.  

Early voting locations vary based on municipality. Click the link to find your early voting location on the Hall County Elections site: https://www.hallcounty.org/249/Elections
Weekly Thoughts from the Chair:
Stepford Wives-- Republican Edition

Last week, we examined the soul of a Republican. Still, I know that many voters cannot believe that the Republicans mean what they say – but they do. The white supremacist playbook to counter demographic change is: Produce more white babies and disenfranchise those of color. How? By voter suppression and forcing women to have more babies. Presto! The abortion obsession is explained. The right of women to control their own body is abolished.

Republican Butch Miller, State Senator from Hall County, is an embarrassment. The would-be Lieutenant Governor, recently said: “We have attracted many people to the state of Georgia that don’t think like us. We need to make sure we are attracting people to Georgia that do think like us. And if they don’t think like us, they need to assimilate into our values and our culture.”

What, exactly does Butch mean? Well, “like us” is Butch Code for white – and male. Values? It’s conformity and subservience. Butch wants a world where white men are supreme, women produce babies whether they want them or not, those of color are disenfranchised and the only thing that matters is white dominance. Butch has exposed the Republican moral bankruptcy in all its evil glory.

Republicans like Butch care only about making Georgia into their own white supremacist state. The culture Butch wants to restore was supposed to be “Gone with the Wind.” Butch’s culture? “Massa” is what Butch wants to be, and you know what that means for the rest of us.

I worry that women do not clearly see their future as “Stepford Wives” under Republican rule. So let me make it plain: Republicans really do want to return women to mere chattels – the property of their fathers and/or husbands. The secret reason that white male supremacist Republicans are obsessed with abortion and birth control is the falling birth and fertility rates among white women. The CDC says the white birth rate is down 4% and the fertility rate is the lowest ever.

Republicans represent an existential threat to our democracy and our freedom. Republicans pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to prostrate themselves before the twice impeached, disgraced loser, Trump. The loser spews lies and hate to them while he waits in his lair like a gigantic toad plotting its next strike. Loser Trump formulates new versions of his big lie and sends forth his Republican enablers to plot his ascendence as Republican God Trump.

This is NOT fiction. It starts with women and they are coming for us all. Be prepared.

Mike
The Senate Report: Plans for a Coup
This week, the US Senate Judiciary Committee released an interim report on Trump's efforts to subvert the 2020 Presidential election. Based on hours of interviews, private testimony and hundreds of pages of documents, the report details numerous attempts on the part of Trump and his enablers in the White House to compel the Department of Justice to declare the election results invalid and make Trump the winner.

When the DOJ refused to go along, Trump threatened, in his habitual gangster way, that he would replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Trump sycophant Jeffrey Clark, acting head of DOJ's civil division. Clark had drafted a letter urging Georgia officials to call a special session of the legislature, wanting them to de-certify the state's official election results and appoint a new slate of electors for Trump.

Some other highlights from the report:

  • On January 3, Trump opened a WH meeting with Acting AG Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue by saying "One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren’t going to do anything to overturn the election.”
  • Trump held at least nine calls and meetings with Rosen or Donoghue or both, demanding to know why the justice department was not doing more to investigate his baseless claim of a stolen election.
  • Contrary to DOJ policy, Clark had been conspiring with Trump about how the department might “publicly cast doubt on President Biden’s victory.”
  • Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, asked Rosen to launch investigations based on at least four false election fraud claims, including the sci-fi conspiracy theory that Italian military satellites had flipped votes in electronic voting machines.
  • Trump forced the resignation of the US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Byung Jin Pak, on January 4 because Pak's investigation did not substantiate claims of fraud in Georgia.

Referring to the January 3 meeting, Senator Richard Blumenthal said, “This moment was spine-tinglingly, chillingly close to shredding the constitution because Donald Trump tried to subvert, corrupt the constitution and the Department of Justice.”

The Republicans published a minority report, claiming Trump didn't try to overturn the election, because the DOJ refused to do what he wanted. Gone are the days when Republican Senators cared about the country. Unlike in the Nixon era, they lack the spine to disavow a law-breaking President. Instead they promote denial and lies.

Trump knew what he was trying to do, the claims of his enablers notwithstanding. This wasn't an effort to address (non-existent) issues with the election process, it was an outright call to toss out the votes of the people. He said as much when he criticized Rosen for not helping to "overturn the election."

In the end, the DOJ held firm, threatening mass resignations from DOJ, including all assistant AGs and even US Attorneys. Even Trump enabler and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone threatened to resign if Trump installed Clark as acting AG.

Jamie Raskin, a member of the January 6 House committee said they will be including the findings of the Senate report in their investigation of the insurrection. We all know Trump's intentions. Let's hope that he sees consequences for his actions in the attempt to overthrow the electoral process. .
'Subverting Justice': Senate panel details the 9 times...

A new Senate Judiciary Committee report details Trump's 'relentless' against the Justice Department. A contentious Jan. 3 meeting in the Oval Office warned of a mass resignation of DOJ officials. It describes efforts to pursue unfounded voter...

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www.usatoday.com
Subverting Justice: How the Former President and His...

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

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www.judiciary.senate.gov
Opinion | Shocking new Trump-DOJ revelations should...

We're now learning that Donald Trump went to extraordinarily corrupt lengths to enlist the Justice Department's help in overturning his 2020 loss. This is filling in important details about Trump's months-long campaign to retain the presidency...

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www.washingtonpost.com
Georgia U.S. attorney quit after Trump pressure to...

Former President Donald Trump forced a top federal prosecutor in Atlanta to step down because he wouldn't help Trump overturn his loss of Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, a U.S. Senate report released Thursday said. The report, written...

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georgiarecorder.com
State & Local News (Some links may require a subscription)
State lawmakers protest Georgia labor department's new...

Georgia state House Democrats are expressing outrage over a state Department of Labor pilot program they claim unfairly burdens efforts to assist Georgians seeking unemployment benefits. Georgia House Democrats are calling on Republican Labor...

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www.gpb.org
Democratic Party of Georgia Statement on Butch Miller's...

State Senator Butch Miller, candidate for Lieutenant Governor, is coming under fire for comments he made on conservative radio yesterday suggesting some Georgians "don't think like us" and "need to assimilate." On the radio show, Miller said: "We ...

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www.georgiademocrat.org
Kemp's immigration policy could complicate bid for...

Gov. Brian Kemp's promise to enact sweeping crackdowns on illegal immigration on the 2018 campaign trail, still unfulfilled, now complicates his campaign for a second term.

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www.ajc.com
Here's a look at what's new in Nov. 2 election

"It's important to request and return your absentee ballot early," according to a State of Georgia website. "This will give your ballot enough time to travel through the mail and resolve any issues that may arise when voting by absentee ballot."...

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www.gainesvilletimes.com
How Georgia’s Tax Code Contributes to Inequality

The bulk of tax and revenue measures enacted from 2009 to the present day (2021) primarily benefit wealthy interests and corporations while harming the state’s lowest-income residents, who are most likely to be people of color.

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gbpi.org
National News (Some links may require a subscription)
On the Jan. 6 attack, Team Trump appears to have...

According to the new book from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Steve Bannon was in communications with Donald Trump in the runup to the Jan. 6 attack, and he reportedly told the then-president, "[I]t's time to kill the Biden presidency in the crib."

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www.msnbc.com
Fox News Climbed Up by Dragging America Down

I often dream of taking the DeLorean time machine back to October 7, 1996, the official launch of Fox News over 25 years ago.

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www.thedailybeast.com
Biden is first president to mark Indigenous Peoples' Day

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day, lending the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward...

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apnews.com
GOP Operative: Helping Kids of Color Feel Like They...

There has to be balance. For Obama, there was Trump. For Magic Johnson, there was Larry Bird. For every Ayanna Pressley, there is a Mary Beeman. Who is Mary Beeman, I hear you asking.

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www.theroot.com
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