GOP Hijacking of Kansas Supreme Court Goes to The Voters (8/3/26, 92 Days to Midterms)
Plus fighting the information wars with targeted postcarding, Big Oil rakes in the dough, a week of action to say Flock off to ALPRs and more
š„ No clarity on status of crypto corruption Clarity Act, which will need cloture filed by Wednesday to get a vote before Senateās August recess - tell senators weāre saying no š„
TOO LONG, DIDNāT READ
Phonebanks tonight, tomorrow to keep the GOP from dynamiting another check on their power in Kansas
Connect Spanish-speaking voters with trustworthy information sources about voting by postcarding with Cartoons for Democracy
Taking on Flock and all automated license plate readers ā new toolkit from the ACLU, national week of action in more than 300 communities starting August 16th
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
CHECKS AND BALANCES AT STAKE IN THE SUNFLOWER STATE
Weāre finally seeing the national media wake up to the importance of tomorrowās vote in Kansas, where folks will weigh in on an attempt by the reactionaries and the billionaires to seize control of the judiciary.
After a series of decisions by the state supreme court protecting reproductive freedom and increasing funding of public schools, Attorney General Kris Kobach and the Koch Network have put a measure on the ballot to end the merit-based selection process for the justices and replace it with partisan electionsā¦ figuring theyāve got enough corporate money to swing them. A win would be a disaster for abortion and voting rights in Kansas, and it could encourage similar efforts to change the rules in conservativesā favor in other states.
This is our last chance to help Kansas United for Impartial Courts turn out the pro-choice majority in this state. āļø Letās sign up to phonebank TONIGHT from 7-9:30 PM ET and TOMORROW from 4:30-7:00PM ET here. āļø
A DIFFERENT KIND OF POSTCARDING TO SPANISH-SPEAKING VOTERS WITH CARTOONS FOR DEMOCRACY
Cartoons for Democracy is a nonprofit whose goal is to break through information filters of voters whose main news sources are controlled by corporate media moguls. Their Votando Unidos postcard kits focus on Spanish-speaking voters in Texas and California, communities that were heavily targeted with misinformation before the 2024 election. Volunteers write short 1-2 sentence messages -- we do not need to understand Spanish to write these cards! -- to voters who did not show up in 2024 and do not have strong party affiliation.
Marginalized communities have made it clear theyāre frustrated with only being contacted when āsomeone wants their vote.ā These cards take a different approach: they donāt make an āaskā of the recipient to vote a particular way. Instead weāre reminding recipients that they matter and inviting them to learn more about the process from trusted Spanish-language websites that provide useful community-based information. By directing folks to these resources now, before the right-wing advertising floods in the fall, it allows them to build a base of trust and information from honest sources within their own community that they can rely on later to help filter the noise.
Cards and addresses are available for the California 22nd District, where Randy Villegas is running to unseat David Valadao, along with six key congressional districts in Texas! š¬ We can buy address kits for this campaign here. Roganās List readers who are new to Cartoons for Democracy can also sign up for their email list and get an additional discount. š¬
š«±š»āš«²šæ And if weāre looking for even more ways to help advance our values during these midterms, check out Roganās Listās continually-updated action page here. š«±š¾āš«²š¼
KEEPING RECENTLY RELOCATED DEMS ON THE VOTER ROLLS IN TEXAS
The choirboy versus crook race for the Senate in Texas continues to look like a real shot at a flip for Democrats. The GOP is currently sweating a recent poll from Fox News that had state rep. James Talarico up 51-48 over the scandal-ridden Republican AG Ken Paxton, taking 68% of independents and 24% of self-identified non-MAGA Republicans, and with a favorability rating of +12 compared to Paxtonās -13. This is the latest in a series of surveys that show Talarico has a narrow lead. By contrast, at this point in 2018 polls almost exclusively had Cruz up by several points over Beto OāRourke.
OāRourke himself is committed to helping Talarico find every edge in this race. His organization Powered by People is focusing on a neglected demographic ā likely Democrats who have recently moved within Texas. Theyāve mailed hundreds of thousands of people voter registration forms to help them get back on the voter rolls at their new addresses, and now theyāre following up to help them navigate the process of updating their information. This month, theyāre holding weekly phonebanks to reach out to these folks. āļø Letās make sure these recently relocated Texans get counted by joining PxP on the phones starting this Wednesday from 6:30-8:30PM ET ā we can sign up here. āļø
WHILE THE MISSILES FLY, BIG OIL PROFITS SKYROCKET AT OUR EXPENSE
The United States is losing Trumpās Iran War. Some of Trumpās biggest donors, on the other hand, are winning big. The fossil fuel industry is cleaning up as we pay an average of $4.10 a gallon for gas, with Chevron recently announcing its highest quarterly earnings ever at $12.1 billion, Shell its second-highest at $9.8 billion, and ExxonMobil doubling its profits from the second quarter last year to $14.5 billion. The Guardian has estimated they could make more than $200 billion extra off the same levels of production by the end of the year if the war keeps going. And there is no end to the violence in sight.
There may be no easy way to get us out of the quagmire Trump charged into. But our politicians can do more than post on social media about high prices in the meantime. Democrats led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Ro Khanna has introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax (S.4111/H.R.7960), which will claw back some of these excess gains and return them in rebates to the taxpayers. š£ļø Letās reach out to our members of Congress and tell them to stop trying to ram through billions more for Trumpās war and prioritize this bill to get us some of our money back ā we can find scripts and language here. š£ļø
GET THE FLOCK OUT: TOOLS AND ACTIONS
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) like Flock are dystopian surveillance tools that police and ICE are using to spy on our movements and track our relationships. Theyāre also ripe for abuse ā a recent review found that cops in at least 12 states have been accused of misusing them to spy on family members or romantic interests. There are between 80,000 and 100,000 Flock devices installed nationwide, conducting more than 20 billion scans per month, and more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies are putting them to use. Communities are rising up to push back against the surveillance state, with 39 contracts canceled in the first five months of this year. Activists at the national and grassroots levels are working to make sure thatās just the beginning.
The ACLU recently rolled out its āGet The Flock Outā toolkit, consulting with the folks who have won these fights and pulling together tools, resources and best practices to help us push back. It will help us find where ALPRs are deployed in our area, give us model bills and tools to pressure our state and local governments to cancel their contracts and outline steps to keep them from expanding their reach. āļø We can check it out and put it to use here. āļø
The DeFlock campaign is now organizing a national week of action this month, from August 16th to 22nd, to help put the spotlight on our efforts against ALPRs. More than 300 communities are already set to participate! šš»āāļø We can find events to attend near us here, find an organizing toolkit to set up our own here, sign up to connect with others interested in our area here, and check out the director of local groups already in this battle here. šš»āāļø
š KEEPING AN EYE ONā¦ š
NEWS: Ahead of committee vote tomorrow on AG nomination, Todd Blanche issues written order formally rescinding slush fund - tell senators to hold firm against him
NEWS: Gallup poll indicates 24% of American workers remaining in jobs they want to leave out of fear of losing health insurance, up from 16% in 2021
Looking for more ways to get engaged in the midterms? Hereās a full list!
The Trump regime is trying to crush dissent and pro-immigrant advocacy - stand with targeted activists including VC Defensa, the Prairieland defendants, the Spokane 3, University of Michigan pro-Palestine organizers, the Minnesota 15, and lawyers for unaccompanied migrant children
Hotel workers in Seattle, warehouse workers in California and transit workers in Mississippi are on strike, refinery workers in Indiana are locked out - show solidarity!
We will not stop demanding justice for Kohen Wiley - keep pressing Senatobia officials to release body cam, dash cam and Walmart surveillance footage of his killing
National week of action against automatic license plate readers August 16th-22nd