Dear ones,
GEORGIA!!! Thank you for writing postcards, phone-banking, text-banking, and donating to grassroots organizers in Georgia. Trevor Noah read my mind:
The count continues in GA, but the real question is whether Ossoff will surpass the margin of victory that triggers an automatic recount. It looks promising. Counting resumes at 8:30 AM, but 98% of the vote is in.
When the dust settles, I hope that there will be a proper reckoning for the so-called lawmakers who decided that, lacking evidence to challenge the validity of elections, they should instead refuse to certify the electoral count. No one has been expelled from the Senate since the Civil War, but Lindsey Graham deserves expulsion. While the maggots who are staging today’s circus are reprehensible, it was Graham’s call to Raffensperger earlier in the post-election season that led the Georgia Secretary of State’s staff to record Trump’s call. Allegedly, Graham called to pressure Raffensperger to toss some of the mail-in ballots. Graham has denied doing this, and there’s a lack of hard evidence, but the Senate could take a powerful stand against criminality by expelling Graham. Now you know what I dream about.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, there’s a bizarre stepchild of Trumpism in the state legislature: after voting to remove the Lt. Governor as Senate president, Republicans refused to seat an incumbent Democratic legislator who narrowly won reelection. The victory was certified. The defeated candidate lost her case in state court and has filed a suit in federal court (where I suspect the case has no standing). I will be watching for PA legislative races to work on and organizers to support. Give us strength.
It is fascinating to recall that the so-called law-and-order president called for the death penalty in the 1989 case of the Central Park jogger. That the five teenagers who were convicted were ultimately exonerated did not change his position. Three of the five men wrote a powerful op-ed:
If confessions were evaluated for reliability before trial — the same way that the reliability of forensic evidence and eyewitness identifications are assessed before they are admitted as evidence — the use of false confessions could be drastically reduced.
Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana wrote their piece in support of legislation, introduced by State Senator Zellnor Myrie that would require interrogations to be recorded and ban the use manipulative interrogation methods involving false information. Statements obtained under such circumstances would be inadmissible.
Contact your State Senator and ask them to support Senate Bill S6806 (even if it gets a new number this session).
The folks at Citizen Action are hosting a forum tonight for the candidates for Manhattan District Attorney, where they will be asked about sentencing, the DA’s budget, and policies allowing the office to decline to prosecute. This is a chance to determine who will be working for justice.
Register for the Manhattan DA Candidates Forum tonight at 7 PM.
I’m going to stay away from the news today, content in the knowledge that Mitch McConnell is having a bad day.
with love,
L