Dear friends,
We have achieved Friday. It may not seem like much of an achievement, but it’s been pretty dire.
I managed to send some good news on Tuesday morning, but ended up sending out some bad news and some action later in the day. I’m linking to the good news because it got less traffic than any other October post, and we — including me — need to overcome the negativity bias.
The president made it back to the US from the mideast, which was a relief. Biden gave an Oval Office address last night, calling on Congress to provide military aid to both Israel and Ukraine. Even if you disagree with some of what Biden said, as I do, it’s a relief that there is an adult in the room.
Call for de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and Occupied Palestine. This quick action is from Congress member Rashida Tlaib.
Join a rally with Jewish Voices for Peace to call for ceasefire today at 5.
We can’t take anything for granted, given the wild dysfunction of the House Republicans. Jim Jordan no longer has the support of a majority of his own party. This is a relief of sorts, since he is unfit to lead a legislature; Jordan has been the lead sponsor on 53 pieces of legislation in the House, none of which passed, and most of which never saw a committee hearing.
And yet. The House has been without functioning leadership since Matt Gaetz blew up McCarthy’s speakership 17 days ago.
If this were not such an extraordinarily insane week, the headlines would be be dominated by the news that two major players in Trump’s 2020 election scheme, lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, have both pleaded guilty to the charges they face in Georgia. Both have agreed to testify against their co- conspirators.
Meanwhile, the judge in Trump’s civil trial in New York is threatening to jail the former president for his continued violations of a gag order that requires him to stop targeting the court staff on social media.
At times like this, I try to zoom out to bigger issues and zoom in on local issues. We are keeping the pressure on financial institutions that finance climate destruction, and calling on them to divest from fossil fuels for the sake of our communities.
Tell Citibank to stop funding the climate crisis! This quick action is from Stop the Money Pipeline.
Read about the two ballot proposals on the November ballot in NYS. Both proposals allow localities to take on debt. The first allows the state’s smaller cities to raise their debt limit from 5 to 10 percent. This is important because the flexibility to borrow money to pay for modernization and infrastructure repairs reduces costs that accrue when districts have to do the same work in smaller chunks.
Similarly, the second proposal permits borrowing for sewage facility projects.
[L]ocal government officials say the idea behind it is simple: Sewage treatment plants are hugely important, and you wouldn’t want to hamstring local governments from getting them fixed.
“The sewer debt exclusion from New York's constitutional debt limit was established, subject to voter approval every 10 years, as a way to ensure that the debt limit does not stop local governments from undertaking capital improvements critical to protecting public health, safety and welfare,” said Peter Baynes, executive director of the New York Conference of Mayors.
With wetter than average predictions for this winter, we want to ensure that all cities and towns can keep sewage treatment facilities operational.
I’ll remind you again, when early voting starts (next weekend!). The shorthand is yes, yes. We want government to function, and we know that debt limits can be insidious ways of disrupting good governance.
Have a good weekend.
with love,
L