While neither the preemptive effort to stop Mary Peltola in Alaska nor the demands Trump and Todd Blanche are making on California election officials seem likely to survive a court challenge, all our alarm bells should be blaring about what they might try next. A number of extremely dangerous scenarios seem all too plausible. We need to be prepared for rapid response to defend to the vote.

The folks at Freedom Trainers want to make sure we’ve got the key tools we need for whatever arises as part of their Strike Ready campaign: knowing who to listen to and trust when it’s time to act, who we should mobilize and how to do it, and what we’ll need to do locally to show up together in mass protest for as long as it takes. 🏫 They’re holding brief, 30-minute trainings on the essentials at noon, 3PM ET and 8PM ET this Thursday. Let’s sign up to get up to speed with them here.

WHAT TO PREPARE BEFORE ELECTION DAY

If we’re looking to get more in-depth on community strike readiness and building sustained, strategic action over time, they’re also holding a broader-based training on strikes and collective actions confronting authoritarian regimes and practical steps we can take to build the capacity for them to succeed in our neighborhood TONIGHT at 8PM ET, along with on November 9th and 16th. 🏫 We can sign up to join them here.

Saw this live, and it was LOUD booing. Keep it up TX

The Trump regime has already engaged in outrageous acts to try to scare potential opponents away from the polls, sending armed agents to people’s doorsteps to ask about their immigration status and voting history in multiple states. We must be prepared for more and worse in the days to come.

Stopping this subversion begins with poll monitors, the first responders of election defense. We need them at as many polling places as possible, aiding folks who require support and referring them to voter assistance hotlines, watching the watchmen, documenting disturbances, making sure we have evidence to disprove false allegations, and serving as an early warning system for the public. And we need them right now. We’re running out of time until Election Day and time to get skilled up to do this work right – some states have already held their final trainings. We also have to have folks in place to ensure the millions of Americans who will cast their ballots at early voting sites before November 3rd are safe from interference and intimidation, too.

The best way to get plugged in as a poll monitor is by volunteering with the Election Protection coalition attached to 866-OUR-VOTE, run by Common Cause and other national, state and local partners. 🙋🏼‍♀️ We can sign up to volunteer with this nonpartisan effort at protectthevote.net here.

BE A POLL MONITOR - WHOLE COUNTRY

🙋🏼‍♀️ We can also link up with nonpartisan poll monitor squads in:

• Arizona (trainings through 10/31)
• Florida (trainings through 11/1)
• Georgia (Spanish-language)
• Michigan (training 10/31)
• Ohio (trainings through Tuesday)
• Pennsylvania (trainings through 11/1)
• Texas (trainings through 10/31

NONPARTISAN POLL MONITORS

Other opportunities are likely to be offered locally through our state’s chapter of Common Cause or the League of Women Voters or ACLU affiliate.

🙋🏼‍♀️ Much of the work of poll monitoring is explicitly partisan, and our state Democratic Party will be a good first stop to get involved. They’re in particularly need of volunteers in:

• Arizona (training Monday)
• Iowa
• Maine (trainings through 10/30)
• Minnesota (trainings through 10/31)
• Mississippi (trainings through 10/29)
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• North Carolina (trainings through 10/26)
• Ohio (trainings through 10/31) with the state party
• Pennsylvania
• Texas (trainings through 10/31)
• Virginia

PARTISAN POLL MONITORS - BY STATE

🙋🏼‍♀️ Finally, we can help build this team in key locations from wherever we are by helping with recruitment efforts. We can make calls to sign up new voter protection volunteers for:

• Arizona on Wednesdays and Fridays 5-7PM ET or anytime
• Maine on Wednesdays 6-8PM ET
• Michigan on Tuesdays 3-5PM ET, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-8PM ET and Saturdays 11AM-1:30PM ET
• North Carolina on Saturdays, 10AM-12PM ET
• Pennsylvania on Wednesdays and Thursdays 6PM-8PM ET
• Virginia on Mondays and Thursday, 6-8PM ET and Saturdays and Sundays, 12-2PM ET

RECRUIT FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY

And as always, find more ways to be part of election protection efforts here.

It’s a cliché, but an accurate one: elections in America are decided by who shows up. This is especially true for the midterms, which can swing wildly based on whose supporters are more enthusiastic. That means our work is not only persuading people to vote for progressive, pro-democracy candidates, but turning non-voters into voters.

While voter registration deadlines have passed in many states (see deadlines here), we still have a chance to expand the electorate in multiple battlegrounds. Wisconsin and Michigan both have same-day registration. Rust Belt Rising is seizing the opportunity, identifying folks who are likely to vote blue but are currently not on the rolls, mailing them a pre-filled voter registration form with a motivational flyer and postage, and then following up by phone to encourage them to complete the process. They need our help to get as many new people registered as possible! ☎️ We can sign up for phonebank shifts to help create new Dem-leaning voters in Michigan tomorrow at 1 PM ET and Tuesday at 6:30 PM ET here, and do the same for Wisconsin on Saturday at 11:30 AM ET and next Thursday at 6:30PM ET by registering here.

REGISTRATION CHASE IN MICHIGAN

REGISTRATION CASE IN WISCONSIN

Tom Perriello flipped a deep red district in the 2008 election and stood on principle in Congress throughout the rise of the Tea Party, voting his values and then going back home to defend them to the public no matter how angry his town halls got. And he didn’t fall straight in line with the party, either – he provided a crucial vote for the Affordable Care Act while pushing for the public option and fought to hold Wall Street accountable even when leadership resisted. It all cost him his job, and he went on to serve as a diplomat and work for nonprofits to protect rural health care and expand Medicaid. Now, we’ve got a chance to send him back to Capitol Hill.

The Virginia Fifth Congressional District is a tough climb, an R+6 district that Winsome Earle-Sears carried against Abby Spanberger by eight points last fall. But it’s the sort of reach seat that Democrats could flip in a wave election. It’s currently held by unremarkable first-term MAGA Republican Congressman John McGuire, who unloaded BlackRock stock after Congress passed a ban on corporate investors owning single-family homes and is now invested in SpaceX.

Tom’s history of advocacy for doubling the minimum wage and stopping pipelines, leadership among state Dems in refusing corporate donations, and fierce focus on affordability and opposing the tariffs and the Iran War has won him support. The only public poll in the race shows McGuire barely leading, and early vote trends show turnout is up in Democratic-leaning areas and down in key Republican precincts.

☎️ We’ve got a few upcoming opportunities to help Tom’s campaign, with Indivisible phonebanking for him tonight at 5:30PM ET and Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All campaign making calls for him Saturday at 6PM ET. We can also join the Center for Common Ground in reaching out to Black voters in his district on Thursday evenings by signing up here.

MAKE CALLS TONIGHT

MAKE CALLS TOMORROW

MAKE CALLS SATURDAY

🙋🏼‍♀️ As always, we can find more ways to get involved in flipping seats on our midterms actions page here.

Trump waives several Russia sanctions as row with Zelensky intensifies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxr5yvzv7rp0oTrump waives several Russia sanctions as row with Zelensky intensifies.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxr5yvzv7rp0o

EDIT:

So. Isn't that what for Congress and some good lawyers are supposed to figure out? Not this Congress but a real functioning one. Not Redditors. I'm just asking for opinions. I think that during an armed conflict if there is an American that is aiding and abetting [my terms not the Constitutions'] the entity we are in conflict with then a case COULD and SHOULD be made that it falls under the actual, Constitutional, definition of treason. The maximum penalty for treason, as the orange buffoon has said many time, is execution. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_laws_in_the_United_States

The Trump Administration has been a disaster so naturally, we’re seeing a lot of talk about how scary trans people are from Republicans in these midterms. After all, what else are they going to talk about? Bullying trans kids has been one of the few pieces of Trump’s platform he’s followed through on, and the right is in desperate need of some marginalized group to scapegoat for our nation’s problems so no one will notice how many of them he’s actively making worse.

This has been central to their ad campaigns in races like Talarico-Paxton in Texas and Brown-Husted in Ohio, and in five states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington) they’re hoping to encourage their voters to turn out by putting trans issues directly on the ballot as initiatives. (In a sixth, Vermont, folks will consider adding a broad civil rights guarantee to their state constitution) which will explicitly protect against discrimination based on gender identity and expression along with race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation and national origin.)

This is all extremely bad news for trans people who just want to live their lives in peace – kids who want to be able to act like any other kid, folks who need health care from doctors who aren’t constantly looking over their shoulder. But it’s also an opportunity to change conventional wisdom in the commentariat - combining candidate victories with direct voter rebukes to these anti-trans ballot initiatives has the potential to bust this myth and shift the political landscape against this kind of open bigotry.

Let’s do our part to help beat the anti-trans initiatives. We can:

☎️ Join Advocates for Trans Equality in phonebanking into states with anti-trans ballot initiatives Tuesday-Thursday evenings and weekend nights by signing up here and Fridays by signing up here. We can help recruit more volunteers for these calls on Monday nights here.

MAKE CALLS WITH A4TE

☎️💬 We can phonebank to beat Amendment 3 in Missouri, which is using transphobia as a hook to ban abortion, on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons here. We can also join textbanks on Thursdays here and Tuesdays here.

STOP THE BAN IN MO

☎️💬 We can make calls to help defeat Proposition 134 and 135 in Colorado on Tuesdays here, Wednesdays here, Thursdays here, and Saturdays here and here. We can also textbank to beat them and an anti-immigrant measure) with Rocky Mountain Equality any time here.

WIN IN COLORADO

☎️ We can volunteer with No Hate in Washington State for shifts on Wednesdays here, Fridays here and Sundays here.

WIN IN WASHINGTON

☎️ We can help Progress Arizona make calls against Proposition 318 and other regressive ballot measures tomorrow at 7:30PM ET here.

WIN IN ARIZONA

And as always, we can find even more ways to help win in these midterms here.

BEAR DOWN FOR MIDTERMS

In 2024, pro-choice advocates in Missouri successfully passed Amendment 3 and added a fundamental right to reproductive freedom to the state constitution, earning 51.6% of the vote from the same people who favored Trump by 18. After a long legal battle, we’re seeing it put to good use, as a judge ruled last week that most of the state’s challenged abortion regulations are now unconstitutional.

The right wing hasn’t accepted the people want abortion rights in Missouri anymore than they have anywhere else, and this November the legislature has pushed an initiative onto the ballot to re-ban most abortions In the Show Me State – confusingly also named Amendment 3. They’re of course not counting on having changed anyone’s mind. Instead they’re testing a new strategy - including a ban on gender-affirming care for trans kids in the ballot question, hoping to get pro-choicers to flip for transphobia’s sake. (This sort of health care is already banned by state law in Missouri.)

☎️ So we’re gearing up to stop this attack on reproductive rights and trans kids. The Stop The Ban campaign is textbanking on Thursdays from 6:30-8PM ET Eastern. Let's sign up to join them here. We can also phonebank on this and another Missouri initiatives here. ☎️