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I believe in the Constitution of the USA. It defines our government as for the people by the people. My voice is my vote. I vote in my Representatives to make decisions in my best interest through a Democratic Republic.

The Constitution honors the separation of church and state so that I have the freedom to worship or not.  The way I want.

I believe in the equality of everyone that means no matter how much money I have, what color I am, whom I choose to love or no matter what gender I am or my disability. I believe this has to extend to every part of life for everyone from the justice system, to healthcare to housing and to education.

I believe in protections of the government. My government needs to protect me not just from outside tyranny and terrorists but from gun violence and military weapons on our own streets threatening the children and the citizens where I Live. The government needs to protect me from Corporate power. I want to make sure my government regulates industry, capitalism and monopolies so that I am not taken advantage of through scams and pollution.  That companies are not allowed to lie to me to get my money or to foul me into buying something that isn’t what they claim. They are not allowed to use poisons in my food. They are not allowed to pollute the land. 

Equality for all
The right to fair justice
The right to healthcare for all
The Right for Women to be in control of their healthcare
The Right for shelter
The right to eat
The right to have clean air and water
The right to be educated
The right to go to school without fear
The right to be safe form gun violence
The right to free speech yet the right to the truth in the news

What is happening in Gazza by the hands of Israel is wrong at every level.  It is breaking International law. But if we take a look at more of the history, this is bad guy vs bad guy.  The muslims were the conquerers. The Jews were thrown out, enslaved or put in ghettos all over the world all through history.

The British decided the Jews could buy the land of Israel and tell those living on the land to move off. Sounds like Wall Street here in in the USA. Wall Street buys up homes, apartments and property when they can no longer afford to live there. They are evicted and living on the streets. Not too different. The Jews didn’t shoot or bomb their way in. The bought the land. Ever since then, the muslims have been terrorists to the Jews. Israel is surrounded by enemies. The have steel domes to protect themselves against the bombs that are often sent to them from other countries. They all hate the Jews and want them all dead.

The Europeans came over to America and took the land away from the Indigenous and put them in reservations. The Indigenous have still lived in peace. They did not become terrorist.

There are 15 million Jews in all of the world. They do not recruit. They have no missionaries and they do not conquer but they are constantly being attacked. There are over a billion Muslims and 2.5 Christians. Where is the genocide? Yet, the Jews in Israel tell the Jews of the world to come home to Israel. It is the safest place for us.

Don’t Waste Arizona (DWAZ) found out from a concerned member about a proposed ethylene oxide medical equipment sterilization facility in Tucson. After researching and finding that the cancer rates in every community that have similar facilities are many times normal, Steve Brittle of Don’t Waste Arizona provided detailed information about the real hazards of regular emissions and problems in the event of a spill of the chemical to the Tucson City Council and Pima County Board of Supervisors. Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik pursued a solution, and got special permission from the USDOT to allow Tucson to regulate hazardous materials transportation on its city streets. With this in hand, Kozachik heroically challenged the facility owners to prove that a spill of their ethylene oxide could be handled with no injuries, or else he would block transportation of the chemical to the facility. With that, the company agreed to change the technology to irradiating the materials and withdrew its air permit. After learning about the dangers of ethylene oxide from the Tucson effort, Steve Brittle discovered that air monitoring for ethylene oxide in Phoenix air showed the highest levels anywhere in the country, but no one has an air permit to emit it. He has asked Governor Hobbs, the ADEQ, Attorney General Kris Mayes, and EPA to investigate who is using and emitting the chemical and stop.

I met Steve Brittle around the time that he was launching Don’t Waste Arizona (DWAZ).   I had received a flyer on my door from a Real Estate agent claiming that my house was in a Superfund site determined by the EPA and that Motorola was responsible for extensively polluting the ground water with TCE. Being related to a lawyer who worked on the first Superfund site in the USA, Love Canal,  I called him and he referred me to Steve Brittle, President of DWAZ, who was an organizer helping citizens in Superfund sites. Later, there was a settlement in the class action suit where many of those effected with cancer received some compensation. They also began the Superfund cleanup which is still ongoing today. Steve Brittle recommended that I move out of my home in the Superfund area because of the TCE fumes in the air there. I did. Check out a few of the other actions DWAZ has been involved with at http://dontwastearizona.org/

The news is dominated with corporate control. Major corporations are now allowed to take over the news. They own main stream media. Major corporations prefer Conservative control because they continue to be in their pocket. This keeps their taxes low and gets rid of regulations. Our main stream news does offer the truth but only on the subjects they allow and it tends to be slanted to the right.  They look to make Democrats and the Biden Administration look bad in a somewhat subtle way.

“Roughly 90% of the American media (by viewership, readership and listeningship) is owned by 6 companies. A handful of media executives decide what we’ll see, hear and read; and although they have a political agenda, in every case their support of their own monopolies in their media world is legally their first priority. That means oligarchy.”* Thom Hartmann

Then there is propaganda that offers very little truth and embraces the lies put out by billionaires who have moved away from Democracy and appear to be embracing Fascism. Fascism is not unlike Libertarianism where they believe in small government which means turn everything over to Corporations. We are at an Oligarchy stage where Corporations own much of our government. Rupert Murdock owns Fox News and pushes these lies. There is also OAN and Newsmax. There are 1,500 right-wing radio stations through out the country and most are far-right lies. That is at least 30 per state. If they want to know why Latinos are leaning right? They have moved into Spanish radio as well. They outright demonize Democrats. It is the right that created the conspiracy theories of QAnon.

Corporate Democrats (Moderate) like the corporate support and use it to get elected. They may agree with Democrats unless it damages their pocket book. It is the Progressive Democrat who truly wants the government to work for the people. That means it must be run by the people and not Corporations. It is a movement that is taking over Democrats at the local level. Because the choose not to be funded by corporations so they are not slanted in their governing. Therefore, the truth serves the Progressive Democrat. 

There is no Liberal media. They have no agenda to control, only to govern to make our communities better. They honor the truth. I am giving my take on some good Progressive media that can only work with the truth and work to change the issues and protect our freedoms. 

Please feel free to offer your favorite Progressive new outlet for the list.

* The Hidden History of American Oligarchy by Thom Hartmann

If you had wanted to drive cross country in the 1920s, you had to take gas with you. There were very few gas stations. WHAT? How about GPS to find the next gas station? That didn’t come out for another 100 years. If you were stuck because your car ran out of gas but the meter said you had half a tank, who did you call? Did you call AAA? It was a driving club in those days. And how would you call? There were no cell phones. How far did you have to walk to find a public phone? And you better have a nickel on you. Did they even have public phones then? How about tow trucks? How many were around? I guess you had to hope your neighbor with a car would tow you to the nearest repair shop 200 miles away. 

How about the 1970s when we had plenty of gas stations, but you got stuck in traffic because your car overheated. You still had to walk to the public phone, or you could take your chances and hitch to a repair shop that was willing to get your car. Life was tough but the oil industry knew they were about to be obscenely rich. They’ve since drained the earth of oil and still won’t give in. Suck it up, Chuck Koch. It is the end of the gas-guzzling era. It’s time for electric. Guess what!? The sun sends us all the energy we need, and it doesn’t charge us a cent.

Democracy is holding on by a thread as Fascist Republicans create laws that suppress the votes and control elections.

tRump must have known that he would not win the 2020 election. Even before the election, he was screaming voter fraud. Voter fraud occurs when voters vote illegally. Tell me, why would someone vote twice or illegally when they could be arrested? This is what tRump is claiming. He sued 240 times since then trying to prove it—with no evidence. Every lawsuit was kicked out because they had nothing to back their claims. He called secretaries of state to find more votes for him. Does he really think that he could find seven million more votes from those who voted illegally? Of course not. He is now setting up the elections to steal in 2022 and 2024 with voter suppression bills. He is harassing poll workers who are Black since most Blacks are Democrats. They have gotten death threats. He is working to replace the secretaries of states who are responsible for the certification of the votes after the election. 

Republican legislatures in several states have recently passed bills to make it more difficult to vote. It is also the election where we have redistricting in place. Republicans have found a way to gerrymander the districts to already claim the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. In Arizona, we have nine representatives in Congress; currently, there are five Democrats and four Republicans. The gerrymander for congressional seats has now produced six Republican districts and three for Democrats. It is the same in many states. This is how they are taking back the House—cheating. Republicans are cutting both polling places and hours for voting in Democratic strongholds. Some voters had to wait 12 hours to vote where in affluent, white neighborhoods, voting time averaged 15 minutes. They want strict voter ID laws. Many poor people can’t afford to get new IDs which sometimes require driver’s licenses—many poor people do not drive. Some states require mail-in ballots to be notarized. These same states have also purged voters from the voter lists—notoriously, the Democrats. When Brain Kemp was Georgia’s Secretary of State, he purged well over 100,000 votes to win the governorship against Stacy Abrams; he only won by 55,000 votes. The Republicans even have gone so far as to give state Republican legislatures the power to change the results of an election if they don’t like the outcome. This is why the Democrats want laws to oversee this suppression. When the election is rigged with a voter suppression bill, it is election fraud. 

Adrian Fontes was the Maricopa County recorder for the 2018 and 2020 elections. Both elections went smoothly. More people voted in 2020 than any election in Maricopa County history. Fontes made it easy for everyone to vote, and the Republicans hated it. Before Fontes, Helen Purcell held the office for many years. She cut polling places and made a mess of the elections, making it hard to organize the election and difficult to vote for many Maricopa County voters. Fontes cleaned up the election process and added safeguards to eliminate any possibility of fraud. Then came the “fraudit” audit, because tRump thought he should have won Arizona. He didn’t. He claims there was voter fraud. There wasn’t. The auditors couldn’t find anything. And the voters turned Arizona blue at the federal level since we have sent two Democratic senators and 5 Democratic representatives to the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, the Republicans won the state elections. So, that is more proof that the election was not rigged. Even Democrat Adrian Fontes lost his election to Steven Richer, a Republican. Arizona is fortunate that he is an honest Republican; he even commented on how fair and smoothly the 2020 election was run in Arizona. He called the fraudit a mockery of our elections. 

It is the responsibility of the states to run their own elections however, the U.S. Constitution says that if Congress finds that elections are not fair, they must step in. The Democrats in Congress are pushing to pass voter laws to make it harder for Republicans to suppress our votes. They are dealing with the filibuster to get these bills passed. Even though the Democrats have a majority of the Senate, if the filibuster is called—and it can be called anonymously by any senator—they will need 60 votes to pass the bill. It will never happen; Republicans fall in line again. Democrats need 50 votes to change the filibuster rule, so 60 votes will not be required to pass a bill. It’s an old Jim Crow relic. The filibuster could have been blocked or the rules could have been changed. Not one Republicans voted to do this and unfortunately, neither did Democratic senators Manchin and Sinema. If the Republicans succeed at stopping these bills from being passed, Democrats will have it even harder in 2022 and probably for good. We will no longer be a Democracy. The voter suppression bills will make it almost impossible for Democrats to win ever again. President Biden really thought he could get the support of the Republicans whom he has been friends with for 50 years. He knew how much Sinema and Manchin refused to do their job and change the filibuster in order to get a simple majority on the voting bills. The Republican Senators told their friend President Biden they would get primaried if they voted to change the filibuster. It failed. They all put themselves ahead of the country. Will President Biden find a way around this to save Democracy?

We need to put a BIG effort into contacting our constituents; I believe it is urgent for the 2022 election. I know we are at a transition in redistricting, but this goes beyond our candidates. It’s about our Democratic Party and Democracy. I would start, but I am unable to access Van anymore. 

I am a Bernie supporter and a Progressive. I was not happy when Biden won the primary, but he is doing a very good job. However, the media would prefer to point out his missteps rather than what he is up against and the fact that he has made progress for the people. It took Republicans—Reaganomics—40 years to destroy much of our government. Reaganomics was also embraced by Democrats. Our rebuilding will not happen in a year, and Democratic constituents deserve to hear that from Democrats—not biased media.

The mainstream media is owned entirely by Conservative companies who like Trump’s tax cuts. They do not like how President Biden will find a way for billionaires to pay for the Build Back Better bill. Meanwhile, the payment methods for the Pentagon’s bill, which equals 3 trillion dollars over 10 years, is not being challenged at all. What’s wrong here? The truth is even though President Biden has the Executive Branch, the Senate and Congress, it is still an uphill battle and constituents need to know how important their vote is in the next election. There are a handful of Progressive and Liberal radio talk show hosts while there are over 1,500 right-wing talk show hosts. The right-wing is now starting Spanish right-wing talk radio. We need to contact the Democrats. We need to give them hope and tell them how important their vote is.

I beg you to set up a team of volunteers to call, canvas, and mail our dedication to keeping Democracy alive and well. It won’t happen at the federal level. We need to start now. There is too much controversy over redistricting to wait for this to resolve. Calling Democrats, Independents, and even reaching out to Republicans. We did this in LD28 for the last election, and it worked. Let’s do it NOW for Democratic success in 2022. Democrats are doing what they always do after a Presidential election, kick back especially since tRump didn’t win. He is out there and not at all ready to give up. Let’s not relax. Let’s get active and save our country.

Many complain that we should have more choices on the ballot. I see many choices. It is up to us as to what we do with them.  I say we actually have seven different choices when we go from primary to general election. The primary breaks up the Democratic and Republican parties into divisions within giving us the seven choices. In a general federal election, our choices can be Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, or Green. Independent is not a party but is listed as such and is a choice. These are five different choices, although we know that if there is a Green candidate, it takes away from the Democratic candidate, and if we have a Libertarian candidate it takes away from the Republican candidate.

The Democratic Party believes in a women’s right to choose. Democrats believe in marriage for all. They believe in the separation of church and state as stated in the Constitution. They believe in regulations that keep corporations from taking advantage of the consumer in many ways, from pollution to scam advertising. They believe in free education. They believe that healthcare is a right not a privilege. They believe in asylum for immigrants and a fair course for citizenship. They believe in science and the truth. They believe we must give back to Mother Earth for all our abuse and solve the climate crisis. They believe in helping all states in the time of emergencies. Democrats believe in the bubble-up economy. This is when the worker is doing well and unions survive. They believe in gun control as well as the 2nd Amendment. They believe in a military but not aggression; they believe in diplomacy more than war. They believe in a police force without assault rifles. The Democrats started Social Security and continue to protect it. They initiated Medicare and Medicaid. There are three different left-leaning choices in the primary; Green Party, Corporate Democrat, or Progressive.

The Green Party claims they believe in everything that Democrats believe, but they put the environment first. My problem with the Green Party is that it doesn’t live up to it’s name. They haven’t done anything for the environment for a long time, and the only time they seem to have a candidate is when the Republicans want to the take votes away from the Democratic candidate.

The Corporate Democrat believes in the policies of the Democrats, but they like the corporate donations that help them get elected. Unfortunately, this gets in the way of what is best for their constituents. This is Sinema and Manchin.

What sets apart the Progressive Democrat is that they do not take money from corporations. They have to look to their constituents for donations. Once we get dirty money out of politics by changing the Supreme Court regarding, Citizens United, then we can set up better methods for campaigns. Progressives are the most ethical of all politicians. They follow the beliefs of the Democrats but realize the lobbyist control is overwhelming and that changes the politicians’ purpose to represent the people instead of the sponsor.

As mentioned earlier, under the Democratic Party, we have Corporate, Progressive and the Green Party. Those who identify with these will vote for a Democrat especially if there is no Green Party candidate. The Progressives are working to change the Corporate Democrats to Progressives. The Corporate Democrats, such as senators Manchin and Sinema, are not the only ones. As Democrats, it is our duty to check out our candidates and vote for the best ones. We make this choice in the primary. The Green Party rarely has a candidate and running is frowned on by Democrats, because a Green Party candidate will take votes away from the Democratic candidate often giving the election to the Republican. Republicans fear Progressives, because they want to take power away from billionaires and give it to the people. They try to claim Democrats are Communists. They say big government will take away our freedom, when the only freedom taken away is freedom from corporations to take advantage and pollute.

The Republican Party believes in a strong military and a strong police force. They believe in small government and want to privatize everything including Social Security, and President George W. Bush tried to do that when he was in office. Republicans created Citizens United, so that anyone should be able to contribute to an election without transparency.  Because they push low taxes for everyone and no taxes for the rich, they need Citizens United to compete in elections.

Under the Republican Party, there are conservatives or the GOP (some would say this is the neo-liberal group), the trumpers, the Libertarians.  All three follow the trickle-down economy. This has been around since Reagan introduced i,t and both Democrats and Republicans embraced it. Democrats have realized the trickle-down economy doesn’t work. The money stays at the top causing a great divide between the rich and poor. Republicans continue to support this economy that favors the rich and demonizes the poor. The Republicans also push small government which means eliminating regulations. They believe in deregulation so that corporations can thrive without any repercussions for pollution or poison. They want Christian values to thrive. This is ignoring the separation of church and state as laid out in the Constitution. Republicans like to have a very strong military. They want to stop immigration. They have not passed a bill that helps their constituents since Nixon. 

Even though the trumpers are not all racist, the White supremacists are trumpers. trumpers believe only Trump. As he spews his lies on the election, they follow. It appears to be setting up a Fascist regime: Trump is their leader. They will privatize everything. They believe in small government. They are dominating the Republicans and the right-wing propaganda supports this. That is why it is growing. You have three major networks that are right-wing, OAN, NewsMax, and Fox as well as 1,500 right-wing talk show hosts who spew the lies of tRump and do not care about the truth. Or if they do, it is very biased. Since they offer nothing to the people, their whole agenda is about making the Democrats look like Communists and to take down, public schools and the post office. tRump’s presidency has destroyed many facets of federal departments. He didn’t destroy the EPA, but he butchered it, as he did with many departments except the military and the police. Q-anon is moving into the tRumpers and taking over. They believe lying conspiracies. They are hateful and express that they are ready for violence.

The old GOP still believes in democracy. They do see through many of the lies of the trumpers but continue to justify small government and trickle-down economy and low taxes. They support much of what the trumpers do but not the lies of the election that are bringing down democracy. They are ridiculed and harassed by trumpers as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).

The Libertarian supports small government and trickle-down economy. These two policies are well-funded by billionaires and corporations. They favor deregulation, because it helps to take down the government in favor of profits for the corporations. They make sure they do not have to pay taxes. The Libertarian voter has been conned to believe this is freedom. They want to get rid of the war on drugs. Let all transgender and gays marry who they want. They are OK with immigrants seeking asylum unlike their other Republican counterparts. They do not believe in war. So they side with the Democrats on the social issues but not the economic issues. The party is highly supported by the billionaires. The Koch brothers superpac have been funding it since it started.  A lot of money is spent to convince the intellectual Republican that this is the smart decision when it believes in basically no government. They differ from the Republicans in social and military issues and are insulted to be called Republican. They normally vote with the Republicans in Congress and at the polls but are more open to voting for a Democrat than the Republicans. With Citizens United still around, the billionaires can spend all the money they want on controlling the narrative. They would rather do this than pay their fair share of taxes. They advocate for low taxes for everyone and no taxes for the billionaire class.

The best way to pick your candidate is to see what element of your party they align with. Do some research and see if their beliefs align with yours. The primary has much importance here. Being an Independent enables you to pick and choose your policies, but it also can be wishy washy.  As a politician, it can be a benefit but as a voter you are left out of the primaries. This eliminates some of your choices. As pointed out, there are different types of Democrats, and there are different types of Republicans. With the primary, I add up seven different choices.

An international propaganda threat is attacking many countries. It starts with Fox news, Sinclair Broadcasting and Breitbart.com. These are very right wing media. They go beyond bias with their reporting. The lies, falsehoods, and spins all align with the far-right agenda.

Fox news is owned by Rupert Murdoch from Australia. His network reach is worldwide. It is said Canada refuses to show without pointing to the fact they are not news but falsehoods spinning the news to come over as another perspective. England is said to have banned Fox and New Zealand has mentioned this problem. Fox probably the most powerful of all news (so-called) in the world. No other network spans this wide and they have convinced their audience they are one of the most trusted. Trusted only because they are popular. They do present some news accurately but only if it doesn’t offend their message. They are supporters of D. Trump. During the campaign the alleged Stormy Daniels crime was never shown on Fox news. The right-wing media spin his lies to make him look good and it would hard to find any message that reports anything positive about a Democrat. They twist the news to blame the Democrats and constantly call them socialist with a real bad twist on Socialism. Why because Democracy threatens their bottom line. The latest is a fake video of Nancy Pelosi slurring her words which is an altered movie. In the USA the Democrats are what are stopping them to being the only party.

Right now the right-wing nationalists has been moving into several countries throughout the world. It is not just the USA. The new young chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria is from the right wing and he just aligned himself with the freedom party which is the still the existing Nazi party. They are intentionally taking apart Democracy with the support of their followers. England is having it’s problems with Brexit which is their far right party. France is definitely being influenced and so is Italy. Watch these countries as they fall to this agenda.

Many of our habits throughout the earth have effects on the balance of nature. Unfortunately, greed plays a part in much of the abuse of our resources. From the pouching of animals for tusks, cutting down of trees for palm oil to the overuse of natural resources. We are faced with nefarious deceptions to fill the pockets of a few. SAM expresses her concerns over the use of petroleum oil during earth week.