I wrote postcards to Virginia!

I wrote plenty of postcards to voters in Virginia for their Senate and House of Delegate's races.  I don't know how many, at least 100, probably more.  Last time around, Dennis bought me 200 stamps and I used the up pretty quickly.  And looked it worked!  The goal was to turn the Virginia legislature blue and it worked.

Those postcards, they are the best thing I can think of to really make a difference.

Other than actually run myself.  Ilana did that and she's had a wonderful time.  She helped quite a few local candidates and she was very pleased at the result.

Now, Louisiana for the next week.

The postcard writers

My friend Laura and I wrote approx 700 postcards for Ilana's campaign,  Ilana wanted to thank Laura for her help.  So we bought two Pagliacci pizzas and went to Redmond last night.  Ilana and Matt also made a sizable pop purchase and brought some to share.

There we are, for real.  The ones that wrote the postcards.  Ilana thought they really made a difference.  One of her campaign theme was folksy and this fit the bill.  People told Ilana, "I got a postcard from your MOTHER and I was so touched."  Just for the record, Laura did not say she was my mother but a family friend.  But she did use cool purple pens.

I thought Laura would get a kick out of my dog tea-shirt.  Maybe next time I will think twice about wearing it in a picture......

Truth to power?

So, do you think that Michael Cohen is speaking truth to power?  As he claims?  Just a little?   In some ways, I find him believable and maybe sympathetic.  He's turned on his evil boss.  And, as he speaks and testifies, he take full responsibility for his action.  He does not blame anybody else or make excuses.  However he has acted like a slimeball for years as Trump's lawyer sometimes intimidating and threatening people.  Would he have done this if the feds hadn't gotten him first?  Unlikely, but it was a big deal to flip him.  These guys hate it when their families get dragged into it.  But likely they would be the first to do it themselves.


CNN's Brian Stelter wrote in his newsletter:

That's the thing about Trump's tweets, interviews, speeches, etc. He keeps proving that he can't be trusted. He has devalued his own words and, by extension, the people who speak on his behalf. Journalists are still trying to figure out how to adapt.

Does anybody believe him any more?  Maybe his 'base.'  Remember the 2020 election starts now.  Why would anybody want to interview him when, as Brian Stelter says, he has devalued is own word but demonstrating that he says things that are contrary to accepted facts; "without evidence" is what they say now.  Or directly contradicts previous comments.  I can believe that his speaking his own reality without evidence does devalue his own word.

I often check Fox News to see what 'the other side' is saying.  This is the main source of news for Trump voters.  Tonight they had some democrat saying that the move to the left "is a sign of the Apocalypse"  Really?

You gotta watch Ilana's campaign video

It's really great and I'm even in it a few times.

Sandy Postcards

Here's me holding ab out 140 potcards that I wrote for the Postcards for Washington project.  Just before mailing.  They were all supposed to be mailed on Oct 17.  I've written over 600 postcards for Postcards for Voters.  And I'm still writing!  I've also written over 300 postcards for Ilana for her County Council race (matched by my friend Laura).

Yup that corresponds with the number of postcard boxes I've got laying around here.

I believe it's going to make a difference, we'll see.  I know I'm going back to the Tennessee Senate race.

Here's the list I've written to so far.  It might not include my first few batches before I became acquainted with Abby the Addressbot:

100 addresses for O'Connor in OH
60 addresses for Vote by Mail for FL
90 addresses for Biaggi in NY
30 addresses for Goldberg in NY
30 addresses for Vargas in FL
1 addresses for Special Project
30 addresses for May in NY
30 addresses for Liu in NY
26 addresses for Bell in TX
20 addresses for Aftab Pureval in OH
30 addresses for Beto and Bell in TX
70 addresses for Phil Bredesen in TN
30 addresses for Katie Porter in CA
30 addresses for Harley Rouda in CA
30 addresses for Heather Buch in OR

Rosa Franklin - an inspiration for all

Last Saturday, I attended a Shero banquet with Dennis for Seattle National Organization of Women.  This is really his group rather than mine.  He's on the Board, is the Treasurer.  The banquet is to give out awards to community women; shero, get it?  It was down on Capitol Hill so we had to go early for setup.  At The Riveter on 12th Ane, nice venue.  So everybody is busy getting things set up, I'm just hanging out.

Until I discovered my job.  Somebody asked "Could you please get an orange soda for our honored guest?"  I looked back and there was Rosa Franklin sitting on a sofa by herself.  I could do that.  I could see my job was to keep our honored guest company.

I admit I didn't know about Rosa Franklin but I do now.  A small woman,, 91 years old.  She had been a nurse and a community activist, decided to run for the state legislature at age 63, served with distinction for 20 years. First African American woman to be in the legislature. Very sharp and fun to talk to.  We chatted, she was quite interested in Ilana's candidacy.  You could tell, she had been around the block, was nobody's fool.  But soft-spoken and thoughtful.

I was so glad that I had a chance to spend time with her!  My treat!

Tony the democrat

Today, Dennis and I went to a post card party at the Kirkland library.  But the real reason to go was to meet this man, Tony the Democrat.  Hopefully I will be able to post a better picture that we took at the end of the event. Actually I don't even know his last name but he is the founder of Postcards to Voters.  I found I had a lot of questions for him; specifically how to send postcards to voters in the Washington 8th and Washington 5th districts.  Extremely grassroots and operating outside the conventional campaigns, they started sending hand-written postcards to Democratic voters.  And making a difference.  I've been doing it for a number of months.  You sign up for a short time period, 3 days.  You request, through your phone, Abbey the Addressbot) the number of addresses you can do in that short time.  They pick the race, send you that many addresses plus what should be on the card.  You buy the postcards, you write the postcards, you pay the postage (.38, not real cheap).

But it's made a difference  in key places.  Not every canddate wins.  It's a great opportunity for those who want to work with a campaign, want to get out the vote but don't want to make phone calls nor knock on doors.  It's very easy to recruit people to do it.

He claims they have 20,000 volutnteers who have written 3,000,000 postcards.  Doesn't look like he's made money, he's taken time off his day job until the mid terms.

But how to get the Washington 8th to cooperate?  That's a toss-up seat.  But they say they will not do postcards.

I'm still a fan.

Ohio 12th District - I was going to claim full credit

If Danny O'Connor won. I don't think he did.  The race has been going back and forward all evening, and with 99% in, he's 1700 votes behind.  He and his opponent go again in November.  Democrat in a congressional district that hasn't had a democratic congressman for 30 years and Trump carried this district by 11 points.  Trump even did one of his deplorable rallies a few nights ago in this district.

I was going to claim full credit because, I, along with my neighbor Di and my friend Laura wrote lots of postcards for Danny O'Connor a few weeks ago.  I don't think he's going to pull it off but he's close.  It will motivate the democrats to even try harder and maybe make the republicans think it's not so bad.

Picture stolen from CNN.

Where's my Roy Cohn?

Today after class, I walked a few blocks with my professor.  I had been chatting with him about the movie (part of it anyway) Chaplin's "Modern Times."  None of the students had mentioned the main character's transformation after being stuck the the works of the machine.  He came out dancing and singing.

He mentioned the class last quarter and how, sometimes, he wish that he had that same class.  If only just to witness.  I immediately picked on what he meant.  Just a few days, President Trump,demanded "Where's my Roy Cohn?" meaning that he wanted an attorney, a fixer, who would make all things right, loyal to him.

The last quarter, Prof. Butwin assigned "Angels in America," the plays about the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.  Dennis and I watched the movie and he showed a lot of it in class.  Roy Cohn, played by Al Pacino in the movie, was truly a bad despicable guy, a villain, dying of AIDS which he insisted was liver cancer. Truly devoid of ethics, he prided himself on being able to manipulate things in his favor.

Roy Cohn, worked for Sen. Mcarthy, also behind the conviction of Ethel Rosenberg (who shows up in the movie to haunt him).  Later disbarred.

So why, why would anybody, anybody with any scruples cry out "Where's my Roy Cohn?"  Who would do that?  Prof. Butwin and I shake our heads, can't hardly believe it.

Picture about with the two of them.

The SS

This week my head spins.  I can only hope that the administration self-destructs.  But I'm constantly looking for a way to make a difference.  I worked on the Clinton campaign, gave money, we canvassed, I made phone calls.  Of course, my state (at least this side of it) is very blue.  So blue, that the two candidates on the ballot for congressperson were both liberal democrats.  Patty Murray (out of the Shoreline preschools, like me!) was re-elected with not much opposition.  So I've been writing and making phone calls.  Like every day.  Every day, there's something completely appalling.

I talked to Senator Murray's and Cantwell's offices and they said, the best thing to do is to write via the legislator's website.  So I've been doing that.  A lot.  Does it make a difference, I don't know.

Here's my piece for today, I don't know why the font's weird.  But that's how it starts, you take away people's citizenship (or declare them non-citizens), take away their rights, and then you abuse them.  That's how it happened in Nazi Germany

President Trump wishes to hire 10,000 immigration officers “to perform duties including interrogating, detaining, arresting and searching for people believed to be non-citizens or non-nationals.”  Will they perhaps wear brown shirts and call themselves the S. S.?  That’s how it happened in Nazi Germany; officials first stripped the Jew’s citizenship which made them ‘illegals’ and took away their rights.  Then special troops with broad powers, picked them up, and abused and deported them.  Is this what we want for America?