A Get Off Your Couch Saturday: Car Caravan, Post Office Protests, & Critical Candidate Forum
It may be the Dog Days of August, but that isn’t stopping activists in San Diego.
Saturday will be a big day locally to express your views in socially distanced, non-violent, and high profile ways. And with a little planning, it will actually be possible to participate in all three events.
Getting your activist hat on has been challenging during pandemic. But people are learning new, creative, and safe ways of making their voices heard.
In a nutshell, here’s what’s happening:
8:30 am - The Asian Solidarity Collective, backed by several dozen community groups, has organized the Portal to Liberation Car Caravan: Asians in Solidarity for A World Free from Police, Prisons and Borders.
Sadly, we live in a world where enhanced security measures need to be taken for public protests to minimize official harassment and violence from right wing extremists. So the meet up location will be announced on Friday and the route publicized on Saturday morning.
11 am - "Save the Post Office Saturday" is part of a nationwide mobilization. The basic idea is to have small, socially distanced gatherings (with creative protest signs!) in front of neighborhood postal offices. At this point there are events scheduled for North Park (John Adams Post Office/92116), Hillcrest (92103), Ocean Beach (92107), Pacific Beach (92109), University City (92122), Encinitas (92024), Escondido (92025), and Vista (92083)
An overwhelming bipartisan majority of Americans say funding for the U.S. Postal Service "should be increased" to ensure timely delivery of the mail, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday. That support was solidly bipartisan, including 88% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans.
The poll, taken August 14-18 following revelations that Donald Trump's Postmaster General has been sabotaging the Postal Service, also found that fully 78% of respondents believe a well-functioning Postal Service is integral to fielding a "smooth and successful election during the coronavirus pandemic.” Once again, the view was overwhelmingly bipartisan, shared by 92% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans.
2 pm - Meet the candidates we need to support! Terra Lawson-Remer (Running for Board of Supervisors) and Ammar Campa-Najjar (Running for Congressional Seat D50), from (what I consider to be) the two most crucial election contests in San Diego will participate in an online forum hosted by San Diego Indivisible Persist.
🤔❓Submit questions HERE: https://forms.gle/nHdpP43V9j7KkZRU8
💻 👉 Register to get the Zoom link HERE: https://bit.ly/isdp2020aug22
How do I know these are the most critical contests? Look at the crap Republicans are throwing at these candidates (more coverage here soon).
Ye olde anti-semites’ boogeyman, George Soros, is being invoked to scare voters away from Lawson-Remer. She’s running against Trumper Kristin Gaspar, whose ideas on the environment are what people really need to be afraid of.
And if you’re not afraid of Jews, perhaps the imaginary Campa-Najjar connection with Arab terrorists will do the trick. Darrell Issa, last seen fleeing from a cushy seat in the 49th Congressional district, is now the GOP candidate running for convicted felon Duncan Hunter, Jr’s seat.
Former President Barack Obama all but begged America to get active in saving what’s left of our Democracy on Wednesday night at the 2020 Democratic Convention.
There are --as of when I’m writing this on 8/20/20-- 74 days and 12 hours until the general election. All of us in California will have the opportunity to cast our ballots prior to the big day, and we should... vote early!
Voter’s Edge is a non-partisan website with information about what will be YOUR ballot.
Words&Deeds election coverage articles are here. (Includes some past primary info) I will also publish a quick and easy progressive voter guide with endorsements just before ballots get mailed.
The BallotBook includes searchable data on all 400+ elections appearing on various San Diego ballots
Indivisible San Diego Persist will also publish a volunteer researched voter guide (no endorsements, but lots of signposts) in early October. (Disclosure: I’m the editordude for that project.
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com