December 5, 2021 / Newsletter 253 |
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HELP US FIGHT JIM CROW 2.0!
Your donations help us in the fight for all eligible voters to be able to cast their votes & have them counted.
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The HCDP Committee will hold its quarterly business meeting on Dec. 18, 2021. Committee members will receive details soon.
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We will NOT have a general party meeting in December. Watch for information about our January 2022 meeting coming soon.
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Stacey Abrams is running for governor of Georgia again
Democratic rising star Stacey Abrams is running for governor of Georgia, ending speculation about her plans and setting up a likely rematch against embattled Gov. Brian Kemp in a state controlled by Republicans that voted for Democratic...
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www.gpb.org
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Weekly Thoughts from the Chair:
Butch Miller wants to relieve tax burden on the rich
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State Senator Butch Miller, Gainesville Republican and would-be Lieutenant Governor, has a new plan to get elected: repeal our state income tax. So, if Butch butchers the income tax, how will Georgia pay for its services to citizens? Hint: services to ordinary folks will be cut and the rich will not have to pay as much tax. What’s not to like – if you’re rich?
So, what’s butchering Butch really up to? Well, he’s sounding a lot like those who advocate the “Fair Tax” (translation, if you’re rich, you will really like the unfair “Fair” tax). What the butcher really wants is a “consumption” tax. That’s another way of saying “sales tax.” As a percentage of actual income, consumption taxes always impact those with lower incomes all out of proportion to those with higher incomes (see why the rich like the “fair” tax?). The butcher also claims, in a Times article, that a consumption tax would broaden the tax base. What a surprise – make the little people pay more so that the rich can enjoy their perks. Of course it’s a Republican plan.
Butch the butcher’s plan would dump 14 billion dollars out of the state treasury to be replaced with what? Apparently the butcher has not quite decided. Although the repeal of income tax is already prefiled for the January 2022 legislative session, there is no specified replacement. You will not be surprised to discover that when revenues fall, programs like public education pay the price. Republican State Representative Matt Dubnik of Gainesville, is all for this relief for the rich.
Butch the butcher is experienced in taking advantage of the “little people.” His car dealership managed to use adjacent government property for private use without payment for years. And Butch’s company eventually managed to purchase the property – even after failing to be high bidder by $160,000.00. How you ask? By magically besting the competing offer by – wait for it – $100.00! That’s Butch the butcher – he knows how to carve up things so that he and his pals have the filet mignon and tripe is left for us little people.
Butch and Dubnik are on the ballot in 2022. The Republicans and their rich pals count on your support.
Remember, voters really do get the government they deserve – because they voted for it! Plan accordingly.
Mike
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This extensive report from the non-profit, non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) explains how regressive taxes like sales tax punish lower and middle income people. https://itep.org/whopays/
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Are you all in to save our democracy? |
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As the zealots in the GOP wage a constant assault on progress, we are faced with decisions on how to retain the hard-fought gains in equal rights that have been legislated over the past half a century. For over 50 years, activists — black, female, LGBTQ alike — have sacrificed time, energy, money and their very lives to bring us to the point where women are allowed safe reproductive healthcare, people can marry whom they love, and the VRA protected the votes of Americans of color, especially in the Deep South, where Jim Crow laws and the intimidation of white supremacists had kept them from exercising a right granted 150 years ago.
It seems like the advent of Trump set all this progress to unravel. But the far-right has been gradually taking over the GOP since Goldwater. Like all reactionaries, they balked at the Civil Rights Act. They concocted outrage that women might access safe procedures to terminate a pregnancy. They continue to try to marginalize and humiliate LGBTQ people. Through funding from the extremely wealthy and support from big corporations, the weapons lobby, and the fossil fuel industry, they have been working to walk back equal rights, access to healthcare, and clean air and water, to return to a past that excluded the majority of people from power.
How can a minority do this, you may ask. How can what started out as a radical fringe now control so much of our lives?
They showed up. They got engaged with politics, and they showed up to make themselves heard at local town halls, campaigns for county commissioner, elections for dog-catcher—it didn’t matter how insignificant the role might appear, the Tea Party managed to gain an outsized voice, and to get a foothold in Congress as a reaction to the election of our first Black President. Now branded as “MAGA,” they managed to gain seats in Congress even as the majority was voting Trump out of office.
They’re on the wrong side of every critical issue: the environmental crisis, healthcare, income inequality, equal justice, women’s rights, immigration, racism, and responsible gun legislation. But they are working day and night to force their policies onto the rest of us.
If we are to counter their march to minority rule, if we are to stop the US from moving further away from being a democracy, we have to show up. At the polls, at council and commission meetings. We have to support teachers who are in danger of being fired for teaching the simple truths of history. We need to support our public health officials, our elections officials, and other public servants who are being bullied and threatened by the loud, ignorant voices of those who live in fear of being equal to everyone else.
Are you all in to save democracy? Because 2022 may be the last chance for at least a generation.
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Trump allies work to place supporters in key election...
In Michigan, local GOP leaders have sought to reshape election canvassing boards by appointing members who expressed sympathy for former president Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 vote was rigged. In two Pennsylvania communities,...
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www.washingtonpost.com
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State & Local News (Some links may require a subscription)
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Gainesville man arrested in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol siege
A Gainesville man, who authorities say was one of the first to get past the barricades in Washington D.C. during the Jan. 6 electoral vote count, was arrested by the FBI Friday, Dec. 3, in Cumming, according to court documents.
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www.gainesvilletimes.com
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Election workers sue conservative site over fraud claims
ATLANTA -- Two Georgia election workers filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against a conservative website, accusing it of knowingly publishing and spreading false stories saying they engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 general election.
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abcnews.go.com
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Opinion: List of Biden's 'errors' is erroneous
Dick Biggs had a letter to the editor published in the Nov. 17-18 edition listing 16 items he identified as errors by President Joe Biden. The items look like scabs to me. I stopped picking at scabs in the late 1970s.
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www.gainesvilletimes.com
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Flowery Branch announces plan for special election,...
FLOWERY BRANCH - First reading of an ordinance calling for a special election was approved by the Flowery Branch City Council Thursday evening. A final reading and vote on the ordinance will take place December 16. This because the Post 2 seat...
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accesswdun.com
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Democrats make gains in municipal elections across Georgia
Local elections are typically nonpartisan and lower turnout, but that doesn't make them immune to Georgia's battleground status. In the November general elections and runoffs, Democrats picked up 48 seats in mayoral and city council elections...
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www.gpb.org
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Battleground: Ballot Box | A conversation with...
Once a rural white Republican stronghold, McDonough just elected a Black woman to be their next mayor. McDonough, a city of about 30,000 that has grown nearly 30% in the past decade. McDonough is the county seat of Henry County...
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www.gpb.org
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National News (Some links may require a subscription)
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Top Georgia election official Raffensperger details...
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol interviewed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for several hours Tuesday in a meeting that included discussion of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn...
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www.nbcnews.com
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The Judge Who Told the Truth About the Mississippi...
The ban that comes before the Supreme Court tomorrow is "pure gaslighting," says the controversial judge who struck it down. About the author: Reynolds Holding is a journalist, a lawyer, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a senior fellow at Columbia...
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www.theatlantic.com
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Perspective | Barrett is wrong: Adoption doesn't 'take...
During Wednesday's oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court heard a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Through her questioning, Justice Amy Coney Barrett pursued a line of inquiry premised on the ability of...
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www.washingtonpost.com
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House probe will hold public hearings in 2022 detailing...
The House panel investigating the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol aims to hold lengthy public hearings next year detailing "in vivid color" the events of Jan. 6, both at the Capitol and in former President Donald Trump's White House, Rep. Liz ...
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www.cnbc.com
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