Eleanor Goldfield & I are doing weekly live stream Q&As. Our next one will be this Friday at 8pm est on the Moment of Clarity YouTube channel — watch our last live Q&A here
Trump will win reelection unless we undo the massive voter purges that have happened. Read and share this article! — my latest article for Consortium News
The US blundered its coronavirus response by failing to value lives over corporate profits. I look at the smarter path taken by Denmark — and more on this episode of Redacted Tonight
Joe “the gaff machine” Biden puts his foot in his mouth on race — and more on my news podcast with Eleanor Goldfield, Common Censored
People are organizing a #GeneralStrike2020 — get more info from Popular Resistance!
Florida’s Supreme Court slapped down a poll tax placed on people with prison records who are trying to get their right to vote — on Common Dreams
A former Trump official took a $3 million contract to deliver medical masks to Navajo hospitals. The masks he obtained are coming under scrutiny over complaints that they’re faulty — from ProPublica
Prison abolition activists continue to push for justice for incarcerated people in the US. Their action is needed more than ever— on The Real News
Welcome back to the Ledger,
I have some interesting stories for you this week & another live stream coming on Friday evening.
Keep fighting!
- Lee
Live Stream with Eleanor Goldfield
Trump Will Win Reelection Unless We Do One Thing
We — the American people — have a right to participate in the last vestiges of this tattered democracy.
Donald Trump will win reelection. I take no pride in saying that.
I will feel no thrill or joy to witness the Oval Office occupied for another four years by the most grotesque, venal, incompetent, amateur megalomaniacal man-child this country has ever seen. He’s bush league, and he’s not even in Bush’s league of idiots.
And no, the reason Trump will triumph is not just because Joe Biden happens to be the most pathetic, contaminated, befouled, out-of-touch hapless candidate the Democratic Party has ever put up since Hillary Clinton way back in… WAS THAT JUST FOUR YEARS AGO?! Seems like 900. Ugh, god. (Is life slowing down? Speeding up? Are we in purgatory? Perhaps a collective hideously-gruesome dreamscape that’s supposed to teach us some kind of lesson?)
No, Donald Trump will likely prove victorious because nearly 17 million Americans have been purged from the voter rolls over the past four years and your corporate media doesn’t have the genitalia to effectively report on it.
Biden Gaffs, The Consumerism Crisis, & A Pipeline Stopped
A Crisis Of Our Own Creation: It Didn't Need To Be Like This
#GeneralStrike2020: How To Participate
Popular Resistance | Margaret Flowers, Kevin Zeese
Learn more about the overall campaign in our newsletter, “The Era of Mass Strikes Begins On May 1; First Day of General Strike Campaign.”
This prolonged and broad campaign will organize around a list of basic demands, as outlined here. Not on the list, but included is the demand to save the US Postal Service. The campaign will follow a three-prong strategy – resistance through noncompliance, mutual aid and building alternative systems in our communities rooted in cooperation, solidarity and participatory democracy.
On the next national day of action, June 1, there will be many activities. Read through and decide how you can best participate in the actions. There is something for everyone to do. Be creative!
Join the next organizing call on Thursday, May 28 at 7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific. Our featured speaker is Kali Akuno of the People’s Strike and Cooperation Jackson who will describe the organizing behind the General Strike campaign. Register at bit.ly/MayDayMeeting for the Zoom information.
'Watershed Moment in Election Law' as Judge Rules 'Modern Day Poll Tax' in Florida Unconstitutional
Common Dreams | Jessica Corbett
Advocates for restoring the voting rights of people with past convictions welcomed the ruling as "a powerful reminder that no one can trump the U.S. Constitution."
Civil liberties advocates celebrated after a federal court on Sunday struck down as unconstitutional a Florida law that would have denied the right to vote to nearly a million recently enfranchised state residents with past felony convictions until they paid all outstanding legal fees, fines, and restitution.
After Florida voters in November 2018 overwhelming backed Amendment 4—a ballot initiative that restored the voting rights of Floridians who have fully completed their sentences for felony convictions other than murder or sex crimes—state lawmakers passed legislation that critics condemned as a "modern day poll tax."
The Feds Gave a Former White House Official $3 Million to Supply Masks to Navajo Hospitals. Some May Not Work.
ProPublica | Yeganeh Torbati, Derek Willis
Zach Fuentes, former deputy chief of staff to President Trump, won the contract just days after registering his company. He sold Chinese masks to the government just as federal regulators were scrutinizing foreign-made equipment.
A former White House aide won a $3 million federal contract to supply respirator masks to Navajo Nation hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona 11 days after he created a company to sell personal protective equipment in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, secured the deal with the Indian Health Service with limited competitive bidding and no prior federal contracting experience.
The IHS told ProPublica it has found that 247,000 of the masks delivered by Fuentes’ company — at a cost of roughly $800,000 — may be unsuitable for medical use. An additional 130,400, worth about $422,000, are not the type specified in the procurement data, the agency said.
Rattling The Bars: Grassroots Organizers Continue To Move The Needle For Change Despite Little Fanfare
The Real News |
Activists like Cameron Miles, Vonya Quarles, Erica Smith, and Amber Rose-Howard discuss organizing tactics that work in the continued fight for social justice and prison abolition.
Keep fighting!
- Lee