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trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!
Are you feeling depressed, defeated, and disempowered?

Do you wake up in the morning terrified and angry at the constant litany of abuses and idiocies coming out of the White House and its allies? Have you developed a Pavlovian aversion to checking the news?

Do the stories of border concentration camps, environmental policy rollbacks, recession-making tax cuts and tariffs, and the wholesale appointment of fascist federal judges make your blood boil?

Have you been shocked by the rise of right wing violence and the GOP’s all-too-willingness to coddle and equivocate? Do the recent actions by states across the country to pass laws effectively banning abortion, punishing those who would exercise their right to boycott Israel over their treatment of Palestinians, or tightening the screws on anti-fascist protesters and loosening the chain on police brutality have you worried for the future?

Are you just fed up with all of these goddamn racists? Wanna do your part to help kick Trump and his enablers out of government and maaaaaybe try to avert some of the worst climate and societal consequences of humanity’s bullshit in the coming decades?

Welcome to GOONPAC.

----------------------------------------
:911: :911: :911: :911: :911:

Lots of goons are mad and sad and scared as hell about what’s going on in politics today. Lots of goons are hopeful about the upcoming election in 2020. Lots of goons are also afraid about what might happen, or don’t know very much about the election and all of the many races being contested nationwide.

Lots of goons want to do their part but don’t know where to start or what they can contribute, be it nationally or at a more local level. Lots of goons feel alone where they live, or that whatever contribution they could make would be meaningless or a waste.

If you’re a longtime reader of D&D you may have noticed a pattern: every so often a candidate for local/state/federal office will get people’s attention. Someone in USPOL will post about so-and-so’s attempt to unseat a piece-of-poo poo right wing politician or about a charismatic and dynamic primary challenger to a stodgy DINO incumbent. People will come in to give updates and share tweets and encourage people to donate or phone bank, but for the most part that information gets buried in the hundreds and hundreds of pages of slapfights and Trump tweet reactions and posts about food. Same thing goes for ballot initiatives and other similar campaigns.

Similarly, after every major news scandal we’ll have people coming in just to vent. I’m scared and angry and I don’t know what I can do. I want to help beat these bastards but I don’t know where to start.

GOONPAC seeks to organize worthwhile campaigns and causes, and get goons together to give their time, money, and skills.

By creating a thread where all of the valuable "get involved!" stuff that gets buried in the D&D churn can live front-and-center, my hope is that we can harness some of the collective energy, expertise, and diabolical creativity that still drives these lovely forums, both dead and gay, for good.

When goons get together, we accomplish poo poo. From funding the building of schools in Haiti, to raising tens of thousands of dollars for various disaster relief efforts, to saving Lowtax from the gaping maw of spinal fuckery and medical destitution, to the ill-fated attempt to help one Doobie build his Doghouse. Goons have given money, made phonecalls, gone to meetings, made art, created memes, and even offered their professional services to those in need.

Imagine what a few concerned goons could do for some obscure state-level campaign in rural Maine or Ohio.

Cesspits like 4/8chan and Reddit have a rich and fragrant tradition of boosting fascist politicians and talking points, and getting their ideology on the international stage. It's about time for their decrepit, jaded, alcoholic parent to step in. The OG Mother of Exilestrolls (if you believe the news) birthed them forth. Let's do our small part to beat them back.

And that's not this forum's only connection to the political mess we're in. If Vilerat knew the extent of the far right's success in exploiting his death over the last decade, and just how badly they were loving up the world with the power that they gained from it, he'd be rolling over in his grave. I, for one, would like to notch some 2020 wins in his honor.

----------------------------------------

Is GOONPAC actually a Political Action Committee?

No. Not yet at least. This isn’t actually a PAC and we don’t need to register any financials with anybody. Maybe one day some goons will make a real deal org with money involved like those Chapo fellers, but for now let this simply be a place to post orgs/people worth donating to and to organize action. If you wanna make a facebook post to counter the garbage your chud aunt vomits onto the social media tubes then let this be a place to get support for that kind of thing. Or if you're organizing a signature-collecting trip and would like help or company. Or if you have a list of Justice Dem-approved candidates you'd like more people to know about. And so on.

Does GOONPAC have a primary focus?

Right now, I think our primary focus should be all of the races being contested in this US election cycle. That means November 2020 and also the various primaries and lead-up votes. So basically a wide open field within the United States. If anybody wants to start their own GOONPAC UK/Europe/Australia/Equestria thread they have my full endorsement. But we speak English'Murican here.

The White House and, to a lesser extent, both houses of Congress are up for grabs, along with literally thousands of seats at all levels nationwide. 2020 is probably our last best shot at averting multiple disasters on multiple fronts. Let's give it our best shot.

trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Aug 15, 2019

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trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!
:siren: Resources :siren:

DarkHorse posted:

Primaries For Progress is a great resource for targeting specific winnable districts and pushing the Overton window left. Check them out for good candidates to support!

:siren: Some good candidates to donate to: :siren:

Congress:

Sara Gideon- Democratic Speaker of the Maine House, challenger to Susan Collins (R, ME). If there's one Senate race worth paying attention to, it's this one. Join the upwelling of citizens working to make Collins pay for putting Judge Beer on the supreme court. Send the message that "bipartisanship" means more than just "shut your mouths and do what the right-wingers want". This is probably one of the Dems' best chances at getting a Senate pickup in 2020, and will be absolutely vital if we lose Jones in Alabama.

Main page
ActBlue

Integrated Houston posted:

Well, consider me stirred up! Here's $20 for Sara Gideon because Susan Collins of Maine is an unthinking tool who sees no alternative to sexpests on the Supreme Court.



In case you want to match: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai...6BAgKEAE&adurl=


McKayla Wilkes- Dem Primary challenger, MD-05. Running to replace high-powered House Dem and AIPAC fossil Steny Hoyer.

Platform and main site
ActBlue
https://mobile.twitter.com/meetmckayla/status/1124802649763786752

Inferior Third Season posted:

She's got a lot in common with AOC: great policy platform, straight from a struggling working class story, natural twitter pro, and going directly at a senior Democratic leadership position.

Even a small donation to her will go a long way.

Alex Morse- Dem Primary challenger, MA-01. Running to replace centrist Dem Richard Neal.

Main site
ActBlue
https://twitter.com/AlexBMorse

Kevyn posted:

30 years old, gay, progressive, and a 4 term mayor of one of the largest cities in the district. Also endorsed by the Justice Dems.

JD Scholten- Democrat, IA-04. Challenging Nazi rape apologist Steve King. This one should be a no-brainer. gently caress Steve King. Scholten got within 3 points in 2018, in a district that went +27 Trump in 2016.

Main site
ActBlue

Ginger Beer Belly posted:

May I suggest https://www.scholten4iowa.com/ in opposition to one Steve King.

Morgan Harper- Dem primary challenger, OH-03. Challenging centrist longtime CBC member and party leader Joyce Beatty with an aggressively progressive platform.

Main page
ActBlue
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/16/morgan-harper-congressional-black-caucus-primary/

Nevvy Z posted:

https://www.morganharper.org is challenging Joyce Beatty for OH3, Columbus. She seems mostly good.


Mark Gamba- Dem primary challenger, OR-05. Mayor of Milwaukie (yes I spelled that right, it's a city in Oregon), challenging Kurt Schrader.

main page
donation page

Mr. Dick posted:

Mark Gamba is running against Kurt Schrader in the Oregon 5th district race.

Schrader's recently voted against the Raise the Wage act and against Ocassio's House amendments to the defense authorization bill.

Greg Walden will, however, never die or be voted out.

Shahid Buttar- Dem primary challenger, CA-12. Long-shot primary challenger to Nancy Pelosi. If any of Pelosi's actions (or lack thereof) since the Dems retook the House have given you the impression that this 'appeal to the hypothetical moderate republican at all costs' strategy isn't really all it's cracked up to be, consider making a protest donation with Mr. Buttar. He probably definitely most likely super duper won't win, but making a credible strike against the party leadership helps push the discussion more in line with the base. As of this writing, he's ~$3k shy of making a $100k target.

Main page
ActBlue

Capn Jobe posted:

His chances aren't good, but even him getting the exposure is a net positive. People need to see that things don't have to be this way.

Ted Terry- Democratic challenger to Georgia senator David Perdue. Minor QueerEye celebrity, Mayor of Clarkston who implemented $15 min wage for city employees, made Election Day a holiday, signed a 2050 clean energy commitment, decriminalized weed possession, and implemented nondiscrimination policies. An all around cool dude compared to Perdue.

Main Page
Volunteering Signup Page
ActBlue

Mahoning posted:

So if anyone has been watching Queer Eye on Netflix, you might remember hippie rear end Mayor of Clarkston, GA Ted Terry.

Well, he's running for Senate in Georgia. I haven't delved too deep into his campaign yet but I remember from the episode of Queer Eye that he was super progressive.

https://twitter.com/tedterry1/status/1154349323800285187

C.B. Smith- Democratic Challenger to Tim Walberg, MI-07. This is the kind of campaign GOONPAC was made for. Started on 08/22, only a Facebook page so far. Let's see where it goes!

https://www.facebook.com/C-B-Smith-for-Congress-107994783902910/

CroatianAlzheimers posted:

I just found out my buddy is running to unseat known Republican ghoul Tim Walberg in MI-7. He just announced 8/22 and only has a Facebook page for himself so far. He's a pretty passionate progressive and I'm stoked that he's running. It's an uphill slog (MI-7 is R+7), but getting Walberg out and Chris in would be a godsend.
C.B. Smith for Congress

Marie Newman- Democratic challenger to Dan Lipinski in IL-03. Dan Lipinski is a loving ghoul. He's basically a terrible Republican- stridently anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, economically regressive- except he's a Democrat. Somehow. Also, he's apparently at war with the Squad since Newman got their endorsement (did I mention that Dan is anti-abortion?).

Main page
ActBlue


"I'm under your bed....also I got endorsed by the DCCC"

Integrated Houston posted:

See y'all on the streets of H-Town Sept. 20.

In the meantime, we've got another chode to protest with cash.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1174009740399128581

poo poo on the Squad, you're a Democrat waste. $25 to Marie Newman.


trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Sep 27, 2019

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!
:siren: THE VERY FIRST GOONPAC CHALLENGE :siren:

Alkydere posted:

Every 2 years everyone goes "BLUE TEXAS? BLUE TEXAS!" and as a Texan I laugh (and cry a bit, especially after Beto proved it was maybe possible if he had actually realized what he could do here because holy hell his coat-tails had some real pull). I would love it to happen but I try not to hope.

That being said, I love how much of a loving money pit we are for Republican efforts. Everything I understand about campaign spending is that unless you have some killer campaign with an 11th hour nuke that you quickly hit diminishing returns after a certain point and the rest might as well be set on fire for all the good it does (especially if you burn too much money on yard signs). So yeah, I'm totally fine with Republicans spending money they could better spend in just about any other region on the black hole that is Texas politics.

BLUE TEXAS? BLUE TEXAS!

From now (August 20, 2019) until the end of next month (Sept 30), let's throw our money at Texas races.

Let's do our part to keep inflating the Democratic cash bubble in the Lonestar State, buoying the hopes of candidates and voters, drawing the attention and resources of the Democratic machine to races statewide, and forcing regressives to spend money on what everyone's accepted as their homiest of home turf. Let's help run the map eeeeverywhere.

During the duration of this challenge, make donations to Texas races (follow the applicable laws). Then share them in this thread and reap the praise of your fellows. Brownie points will be awarded for finding interesting candidates, variety/breadth of candidate office, ability to cover the map, number of donations, etc. Judges, sheriffs, city councilors, state senators, water managers, it's all fair- as are donations to Texas based organizations doing progressive work. At the end of the challenge, we'll have a little celebration and hand out awards and give out participation trophies (gang tags?) and the teacher will bring in cookies and poo poo.

*once we get enough movement I'll put a spreadsheet here*



-----------------------------------



:pcgaming: $320 Raised So Far! (08/23/2019)$420$520 Raised so Far!!! (09/27/2019) :pcgaming:

HelloSailorSign posted:

Let's get this going!


Integrated Houston posted:

Well, can't very well sit by and watch you active-poster chucklefucks gang up on the peckerwood Repubs in my hood without me.



Ok, your turn

No Safe Word posted:

From the USPOL thread reminder (thanks EB)


Since I've lived here all my life, I guess I ought to contribute so here ya go another screenshot for the drive:



And I may take her up on that "stop by and say hello" thing because Lillie and I ran in some of the same circles in high school (20+ years ago :pwn: )

trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Sep 27, 2019

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Mr. Dick posted:

Mr. Dick brings back useful content from the reddit mines. For those looking in to local races, go here

https://www.fec.gov/

enter your zip, select your race, select your candidate and then hit browse receipts

for example, Greg Walden's (OR 2) long list of current transatlantic, transdemonic sponsors

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00333427&two_year_transaction_period=2020&data_type=processed

compared to Mcleod-Skinner's donor totals from the last race, mostly from constituents and unions

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00649004&two_year_transaction_period=2018&data_type=processed

trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Sep 4, 2019

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!
Placeholder, important info to come!

Inferior Third Season
Jan 15, 2005

I think a great place to start is with Mckayla Wilkes, who is taking on Steny Hoyer in Maryland's 5th district.

She's got a lot in common with AOC: great policy platform, straight from a struggling working class story, natural twitter pro, and going directly at a senior Democratic leadership position.

Even a small donation to her will go a long way.

https://mobile.twitter.com/meetmckayla/status/1124802649763786752

Nerd Grenade
Mar 27, 2010
If GOONPAC does ever want to become a legitimate, registered FEC PAC, I’m happy to help. Handling finances and federal filings is my job.

Ritznit
Dec 19, 2012

I'm crackers for cheese.

Ultra Carp
This is a cool idea and I hope it goes places.

My question as a non-US goon: Is there any way I can contribute? I know I'm not allowed to donate to campaigns and other such things.

CommieGIR
Aug 22, 2006

The blue glow is a feature, not a bug


Pillbug
I hope this goes through as well. My political activism just stems to protesting local bills that tried to restrict InfoSec stuff.

Really wish I had the gumption to run for office.

FizFashizzle
Mar 30, 2005







Inferior Third Season posted:

I think a great place to start is with Mckayla Wilkes, who is taking on Steny Hoyer in Maryland's 5th district.

She's got a lot in common with AOC: great policy platform, straight from a struggling working class story, natural twitter pro, and going directly at a senior Democratic leadership position.

Even a small donation to her will go a long way.

https://mobile.twitter.com/meetmckayla/status/1124802649763786752

I was sprinting in here for McKayla.

She's a justice dem taking on a legacy AIPAC stooge who's in a gerrymandered district. She's cool as hell and talks to me on twitter. She was the first supporter of the Wayfair walkout I had.

FizFashizzle fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Aug 15, 2019

Inferior Third Season
Jan 15, 2005

FizFashizzle posted:

She would absolutely coordinate with us as well.
Dear election officials and opposition researchers, GOONPAC is NOT coordinating with the Mckayla Wilkes campaign.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Inferior Third Season posted:

Dear election officials and opposition researchers, GOONPAC is NOT coordinating with the Mckayla Wilkes campaign.

For real, Jesus. We are NOT getting Lowtax a visit from the FEC now too.

FizFashizzle
Mar 30, 2005







Oh gently caress me yeah editing that

SneezeOfTheDecade
Feb 6, 2011

gettin' covid all
over your posts
What's a good way to find potential primary challengers? I just moved from MD-7 to MI-8, and going from Elijah Cummings to New Democrat Elissa Slotkin is depressing. Given her behavior I don't think she can be pulled left, but I also don't see anyone gearing up to challenge her, and Lansing deserves better than a milquetoast ex-CIA centrist. (I couldn't get elected myself if I ran unopposed.)

Dammerung
Oct 17, 2008

"Dang, that's hot."


Besesoth posted:

What's a good way to find potential primary challengers? I just moved from MD-7 to MI-8, and going from Elijah Cummings to New Democrat Elissa Slotkin is depressing. Given her behavior I don't think she can be pulled left, but I also don't see anyone gearing up to challenge her, and Lansing deserves better than a milquetoast ex-CIA centrist. (I couldn't get elected myself if I ran unopposed.)

I'd also be really interested to learn more about this in particular, if anybody knows anything more.

Thank you for getting this up and running, Electric Bugaloo, I can't wait to see where we all go and what we do from here!

Nerd Grenade
Mar 27, 2010

Inferior Third Season posted:

Dear election officials and opposition researchers, GOONPAC is NOT coordinating with the Mckayla Wilkes campaign.

As a registered PAC though, we could earmark donations for her the same way ActBlue does (although that’s a lot of extra work). We could also encourage people to donate directly to her and that would probably only require reporting an in-kind contribution. Trust me, there’s definitely legal ways for a registered PAC to help a candidate, that’s kind of the point.

Not a Children
Oct 9, 2012

Don't need a holster if you never stop shooting.

I really want to help McKayla in particular, I live in MD and want so badly for someone like her to replace Sarbanes. Is donating the best way, or is there something else I can do?

SneezeOfTheDecade
Feb 6, 2011

gettin' covid all
over your posts

Not a Children posted:

I really want to help McKayla in particular, I live in MD and want so badly for someone like her to replace Sarbanes. Is donating the best way, or is there something else I can do?

Man, I'm out of touch with Maryland politics outside MD-7. I read this and thought "wait, I thought Paul Sarbanes retired!". Turns out it's his son John in the MD-3 seat now.

Ginger Beer Belly
Aug 18, 2010



Grimey Drawer
May I suggest https://www.scholten4iowa.com/ in opposition to one Steve King.

Spiffster
Oct 7, 2009

I'm good... I Haven't slept for a solid 83 hours, but yeah... I'm good...


Lipstick Apathy

Nerd Grenade posted:

As a registered PAC though, we could earmark donations for her the same way ActBlue does (although that’s a lot of extra work). We could also encourage people to donate directly to her and that would probably only require reporting an in-kind contribution. Trust me, there’s definitely legal ways for a registered PAC to help a candidate, that’s kind of the point.

It does require extra leg work, filing for an official bank account and treasurer in charge of said account, holding accountability for records, etc. it’s not undoable but let’s start where we can and build up

RuanGacho
Jun 20, 2002

"You're gunna break it!"

I think helping Justice Dems primary out Hoyer-likes is one of the best uses of our activism, are there any other races like that we can bring the spotlight onto?

Kevyn
Mar 5, 2003

I just want to smile. Just once. I'd like to just, one time, go to Disney World and smile like the other boys and girls.
In MA-01 we’ve got Alex Morse as a primary challenger to Richard Neal. He’s 30 years old, gay, progressive, and a 4 term mayor of one of the largest cities in the district. Also endorsed by the Justice Dems. There are one or two other goons who probably know more about him than I do, but I wanted to get his name in here

https://alexmorseforcongress.com
https://twitter.com/AlexBMorse

Mr. Dick
Aug 9, 2019

by Cyrano4747
Mark Gamba is running against Kurt Schrader in the Oregon 5th district race.

Schader's recently voted against the Raise the Wage act and against Ocassio's House amendments to the defense authorization bill.

Greg Walden will, however, never die or be voted out.

Lightning Knight
Feb 24, 2012

Pray for Answer

Nerd Grenade posted:

If GOONPAC does ever want to become a legitimate, registered FEC PAC, I’m happy to help. Handling finances and federal filings is my job.

This is your preemptive reminder to both follow all state and Federal law regarding political donations as well as basic ethics, and if you publicly post about doing crimes you’ll get in trouble. If you are unsure about what constitutes crimes, check first tia.

edit: spelling

Lightning Knight fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Aug 15, 2019

J.A.B.C.
Jul 2, 2007

There's no need to rush to be an adult.


GOONPAC: We gave Lowtax a backbone, lets do it for America.

Nerd Grenade
Mar 27, 2010

Lightning Knight posted:

This is your pre-emotive reminder to both follow all state and Federal law regarding political donations as well as basic ethics, and if you publicly post about doing crimes you’ll get in trouble. If you are unsure about what constitutes crimes, check first tia.

Again, I get paid to make sure campaigns and PACs are obeying campaign finance laws and ethics, so if this ever becomes a real thing, I can definitely make sure we’re all following the law.

Lightning Knight
Feb 24, 2012

Pray for Answer

Nerd Grenade posted:

Again, I get paid to make sure campaigns and PACs are obeying campaign finance laws and ethics, so if this ever becomes a real thing, I can definitely make sure we’re all following the law.

I apologize, it wasn’t so much meant as a response to you as much as using your post as a jumping off point to remind people that this stuff is infinitely complicated.

Solkanar512
Dec 28, 2006

by the sex ghost
One other target we might to consider are state legislative races where the bodies are close to overthrowing a republican majority. Small dollar donations mean a lot in those types of races and turning a whole legislative body blue would be awesome.

Mahoning
Feb 3, 2007
Might I suggest the 2nd post be filled with direct links to the donate pages for the various candidates we collectively decide to support?

That way, when news gets bad and people say "gently caress, I'm so mad, what can I do?" we can just link to that post and say "pick a name!"

Harold Fjord
Jan 3, 2004
https://www.morganharper.org is challenging Joyce Beatty for OH3, Columbus. She seems mostly good.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Mahoning posted:

Might I suggest the 2nd post be filled with direct links to the donate pages for the various candidates we collectively decide to support?

That way, when news gets bad and people say "gently caress, I'm so mad, what can I do?" we can just link to that post and say "pick a name!"

ese es el plan, compañero

friendbot2000
May 1, 2011

Inferior Third Season posted:

I think a great place to start is with Mckayla Wilkes, who is taking on Steny Hoyer in Maryland's 5th district.

She's got a lot in common with AOC: great policy platform, straight from a struggling working class story, natural twitter pro, and going directly at a senior Democratic leadership position.

Even a small donation to her will go a long way.

https://mobile.twitter.com/meetmckayla/status/1124802649763786752

gently caress yes we start with Mckayla Wilkes! She is picking up steam and Hoyer hasnt faced a challenger in 20 years iirc.

https://twitter.com/MeetMckayla/status/1162081997327671302

420 Gank Mid
Dec 26, 2008

WARNING: This poster is a huge bitch!

https://twitter.com/mh4oh/status/1159113165894037505

Harold Fjord
Jan 3, 2004

His meltdown after the responses to this was so beautiful.

Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Aug 15, 2019

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!
Ok, so I've quoted your suggested candidates at the top of the thread for now, and I'll keep adding good suggestions as they come in. Eventually I'd like to clean that up a bit so that we have little blurbs on people with links to their sites, Actblue pages, etc.

If anybody wants to take a crack at making some of them I'd appreciate it. Nothing big- just a short paragraph (2-5 sentences) on the person, where they're running, and why that race is important/valuable/worth donating to, and then their requisite links.

I think it might be worth looking at people that we want to lose (every republican in AL, MO, and GA for starters) too, so that goons can track those races and provide help/raise awareness/add social or economic pressure/etc.

I don't think that GOONPAC can do very much to take down Mitch McConnell (though we should all do our part to help Amy McGrath!) but I think we can do a lot of good spotlighting people in local-level power who do bad poo poo (pointing out homophobic/transphobic city council members, etc) and signal boosting their challengers.

Eventually there's gonna be a big list, separated by tier/state/etc depending on how this whole project evolves.

Also if anybody wants to make some art or banners to dress this place up a bit, have at it.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

friendbot2000 posted:

gently caress yes we start with Mckayla Wilkes! She is picking up steam and Hoyer hasnt faced a challenger in 20 years iirc.

https://twitter.com/MeetMckayla/status/1162081997327671302

You finally showed up! I have a feeling I'm gonna need a lot of your help, in particular.

Gatts
Jan 2, 2001

Goodnight Moon

Nap Ghost
Thank you for starting this thread. I hope it works out and glad there are people taking active participation to do some good.

LorneReams
Jun 27, 2003
I'm bizarre
This was the first time I got involved with real local politics and it was crazy. We got a widely progressive candidate (Alex Kithes) elected over a very conservative and connected incumbent (who is also 70). He won by like 100 votes. I can't wait to get involved with something a bit bigger, but the poo poo that took place in just this little local election was insane. The local newspaper posted a direct opposition piece against Kithes like a few days before the election. The local radio talk shows were all against him. While canvassing, the police "encouraged" me to move to other areas of the city and basically were huge jerks. It was such a sweet thing. I was going to post a thread about it, but this seems like a good place to say never underestimate what a few people can do, and how important local politics are.

https://upriseri.com/2019-08-06-alex-kithes/

That Works
Jul 22, 2006

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy


LorneReams posted:

This was the first time I got involved with real local politics and it was crazy. We got a widely progressive candidate (Alex Kithes) elected over a very conservative and connected incumbent (who is also 70). He won by like 100 votes. I can't wait to get involved with something a bit bigger, but the poo poo that took place in just this little local election was insane. The local newspaper posted a direct opposition piece against Kithes like a few days before the election. The local radio talk shows were all against him. While canvassing, the police "encouraged" me to move to other areas of the city and basically were huge jerks. It was such a sweet thing. I was going to post a thread about it, but this seems like a good place to say never underestimate what a few people can do, and how important local politics are.

https://upriseri.com/2019-08-06-alex-kithes/

Oh well done. I'm hoping they can bounce out some of the old chuds down here in South county too.

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Mr. Dick
Aug 9, 2019

by Cyrano4747
Mr. Dick approved pending legislation:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2382/text

Cancel the onerous burden on the US Postal Service to provide a "prefunded retirement" slush fund for congress to dip its grubby hands into. Long and the short of it is that, under Bush, in an attempt to starve the postal service into privatization, it was forced to divert basically all of its income (the USPS does not receive ANY tax dollars, operations are funded entirely by postage) to prefund employee retirement 70 years in advance. It's been working, staffing is down to about half of what it was before the prefund got passed, mail processing machinery is decrepit, the vehicle fleet is 10-15 past its planned retirement, postal buildings are crumbling due to lack of maintenance. The fact that USPS service is still basically the best around only proves how wasteful capitalism is.

The bill is current sitting in the house oversight and reform committee. So these are the people to pester to get it out of committee and onto the floor for a vote:

https://oversight.house.gov/members

This is a good issue to discuss with older people and/or chuds. They still use first class mail, still get print magazines and would be hit hard by the price increase if parcel delivery weren't basically subsidized. The postal service also represents one of the biggest chunks of unionized American labor and is probably the biggest employer of veterans. The most immediate benefit of getting the prefunding overturned would be an increase in the number of good, well paying union jobs. Not having the threat of bankruptcy hanging over the agency would also give the APWU, MHU, NALC and NRALC much more leverage in contract negotiations.


This is probably Mr. Dick's favorite upcoming bill:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2474

Rewrite/reword substantial parts of the National Labor Act so that it has teeth.

Bill is currently sitting in the house education and labor committee:

https://edlabor.house.gov/about/membership

The Raise the Wage Act:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/582/text

Up the federal minimum wage to 15$/h over 6 years. Bill has already passed the house. Anyone who voted against it needs to be booted out.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2019/roll496.xml

Mr. Dick suspects that with senate amendments stretching the rollout time by a few years and providing exceptions for the wages of underage sex slaves, it will pass the senate and get signed in.

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