Doing my bit for Democracy (as it stands)
Apr. 9th, 2025 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyjax- Oakland is having a special election so that we can elect a new mayor. Our previous one got pinched in the FBI raids that took down her partner and then her administration. Per usual, I am working a voting center. Three days instead of four which I actually appreciate.
- The two front runners are Loren Taylor (booooo) and our former Congresswoman Barbara Lee. There's at least four other people running; although someone may have dropped out. But the real race is between Taylor and Lee and now we've got dark money apleanty in play.
- I still harbor a great deal of resentment that Newsom didn't just appoint Lee to fill in our open Senate seat and now we're stuck with Adam Schiff. The fix was in on that one and Katie Porter was not wrong when she talked about how the Senate campaign spun out. I don't care what anyone says, that shit had Pelosi's fingers all over it and her ass needed to have retired years ago.
- Gav (I can call him Gav because right now he has veered back over the line to frat boy) is doing whatever Gav does. He's doing podcasts with right wingers, all of whom deserve a punch in the face (we're past the point of being polite with these assholes). However, he's also giving the hoodlums in the District the finger. At the moment, he is not selling us out completely. HOWEVER:
- California is in grave danger from the wingers as we head towards the midterms next year and the governorship after that. This is where I am going to get a little shouty: California is not blue; we're reliably purple and downright red in big swaths in the state. What saves us collectively is that there's a super majority in our statehouse on the Dem side keeping things in check however, that could change.
- No firewall holds forever. If you want things to change, then show up and help change it. I have no time for people who want to do a protest vote; do that shit on your own time. Also, educate yourself on what it takes to get a third party on the ballot and then ask yourself why your favorite third party candidate never shows up to run for city council or even dog catcher but will always show up for the Big Job.
- The California Secretary of State website actually has a list of third parties going through the process of getting certified in the state. Look at that - knowledge!
- A friend hipped me to The Phoenix Project, a group that is tracking billionaire money in San Francisco politics. They have two Astroturf maps, one for Oakland and one for San Francisco that identify the groups operating under various names that sound nice but are a cover for getting a foot in the door. Loren Taylor is part of Empower Oakland. I already knew they were hinky but it goes deeper than that and it's frightening.
- I have thoughts about the recent protests that took place but I'm going to keep most of them to myself, except to say: anyone notice how the cops didn't show up to beat anyone's head in or snatch them off the street? Ask yourself why and then ask yourself how long that's going to last. At some point, whiteness or certain types of it will no longer protect one's body. Its just a matter of when.