Check In 7 November

[tanaqui]

The infrastructure bill has finally passed (with much difficulty) and we've just had a set of slightly disappointing (if not unexpected) election results. All of which emphasises the value of having a decent majority in every branch of government — and the importance of gearing back up at the start of next year to really fight hard for the elections in November 2022.

We have an old Election Resources Roundup post that's a good place to start if you're looking for actions or to reconnect with past efforts. Do let us know in comments if there's anything we should add to the list or anything we should drop.

We've had one new post in the comm since the last check in:

Contact Your Congresspeople About Finding Graves At Indian Residential Schools

Don't be shy of making your own posts about any issues and actions you think the comm should know about, or dropping some information into a comment to our sticky post if you'd like the mods to do it. And you can always use our tags to check for any ongoing actions or resources relevant to the issues you care about.

Meanwhile, use our poll (behind the cut) to tell us what you've been doing in the last few weeks and tell us in comments what you plan to do next.

Poll #26307 Check In

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

View Respondents

Since the last check in, I...

View Answers

called my one senator
0 (0.0%)

called my other senator
0 (0.0%)

called my representative
0 (0.0%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my state reps
0 (0.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter/fax
2 (40.0%)

attended a town hall
1 (20.0%)

donated money to a cause
3 (60.0%)

attended an in-person activist group
1 (20.0%)

participated in phone/online training
0 (0.0%)

went to a protest
1 (20.0%)

signed up for alerts
0 (0.0%)

worked for a campaign
1 (20.0%)

did textbanking/phonebanking
1 (20.0%)

took care of myself
2 (40.0%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
0 (0.0%)

did something else (tell us about it in comments)
2 (40.0%)

committed to action in the coming week
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[gingicat]

I was an impartial elections clerk this week in one of 16 voting precincts in my purple city outside Boston. We had a 33% turnout overall after being flooded with campaign literature. More people voted than last time, but the percentage was lower because we had a big increase in registered voters in 2020, as well as our city becoming more popular (and expensive!) over time.

The allegedly more-liberal candidate ran an aggressive negative campaign, and the incumbent was endorsed by Senator Ed Markey. (She won. The challenger is well-known and a lot of people were shocked by his negativity.)

One right-wing incumbent City Councilor was defeated in the preliminary and was ultimately replaced by an Our Revolution candidate, one of two POC running, both challengers. Otherwise, the incumbents won, including Our Revolution candidates.

One popular School Committee member retired and was replaced by an Our Revolution candidate. Otherwise it was all incumbents including Our Revolution candidates.

I'm working up the courage to ask our City Clerk if joining a SURJ Base Group will disqualify me for next year.

[acelightning73]

I sent in my mail-in ballot as soon as I got it. And I tracked my ballot, and they did indeed record my vote.

I was very upset when it looked as if my state governor (NJ's Democrat Murphy) was losing to the big-business Republican who was running against him. I had an irrationa fear that republican victories would make it possible for people to come racing down my street with pitchforks and torches, shouting "BURN THE WITCH!!!" Fortunately Murphy won.

[librarygeek]

My sister still lives in NJ and works for State of New Jersey in Trenton. I didn't like how close THAT governor election was, too.

[acelightning73]

Well, I am a Witch, and a few of the neighbors know it. And I don't like pitchforks.

[librarygeek]

We're Jewish, and people were burning us at the stake *before* burning witches. And I'm hanging out with the Jewish witches www.kohenet.org, so what will they want to do to me?

Sigh, all minorities have a bad time with the current Republican loudmouths. "Not all Republicans", just the loudmouths who want government up in the uteri and think human rights is as limited as slices of pie. "If minorities have more rights now, that means we had our rights taken away!!!"

And I'm from Atlantic City. Everything *bad* anyone has heard about our ex-President is absolutely true, based on my classmates, my family members, and personal experience. (Inarticulate rage screaming here)

[acelightning73]

My late High Priestess was a JeWitch, as were at least three other members of the coven. I grew up on Long Island, in a largely Jewish area, and most of the kids I went to school with were Jewish - the school had to close for all the Jewish holidays because nobody would have shown up for school. I learned about kosher food, Passover, kosher-for-Passover, how to curse in Yiddish, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs; I eat bagels (I've even baked them myself) and matzohs, and I've even consumed a glass of sweet Concord grape wine. (My voice and piano teacher when I was growing up was a cantor - he had been a operatic basso in Vienna, and he got out soon enough. I had him perform my wedding, and he drank a toast to our happiness in sweet wine, and sang the wedding blessing over us.) So I was damned close to being a JeWitch myself.

And then there's Historically, the pointed hat was often legally required for Jews, and my Priestess had a nose that drooped at the tip and a chin that turned up almost enough to touch the nose. At least she didn' have a wart on her nose.

I could tell by that capering baboon's speaking style, by his body language, and all of his other behavior, that he was dangerously mentally ill - and my son the psychologist told me he was forbidden to speculate about the mental status of celebrities, politicians,and fictional characters. But he did agree with me. I am terrfied that the Orange Menace is trying very hard to find a way to get around the Presidential term limits and run again.

[queenbookwench]

Voted early, and turnout in my deep-blue county was pretty good—but statewide in VA we got pretty crushed by the red tide. I’m pretty discouraged especially since I know a lot of activists who were really frustrated with the statewide campaigns.

[ekaterinn]

My mail-in ballot got there too late to be counted - I'm seriously annoyed at myself for this. Part of it is that I had a major deadline the day before Election Day (left work at midnight that night kind of major deadline) and was traveling on Election Day. Still shouldn't have relied on postal service and should have made time to either drop off myself or vote in person.

[jazzyjj]

I'm commenting here first this time because my Mac is misbehaving slightly, lol. Time for a new one, or time to ditch the Mac entirely or a PC and just go with iOS. But anyway, I haven't had time for much of anything as of late except for hanging out w/my tutor and a particular neighbor. This neighbor is extremely isolated, mainly due to something which I can't discuss here. But we always have fun together.





The installation of central heating/cooling in my building has taken a bit longer than I or any of us had planned, but the exec director-in-training of our organization now knows about it and is going to try and ruffle some feathers a bit. A meeting took place last week between him and 2 staff members here, where pictures of my building were shown. I'm told he was pretty turned off by them, so I think that's a sign of more good things to come.