Democracy Happy Hour – May 24, 2023

Democracy Happy Hour, May 24, 2023 - Meeting Recordings & Chat File:

• Speaker View Recording:  https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/DlsMXKmjlrojTi5elHWAGQtkXZEgaoXAaJyyEWwIlvLEp7FiXj35BfDUin8mGBnlRNHqT1x4N9gdXsFh.a6csNs79EYsUfNRK
• Gallery View Recording:  https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/eyKCRSjDnMvOgmC7JfqPH4PkEo96cjq8a7rM9K5Fd5biAcX0326b9AoHRPdZ8mDBIHsVnp3_1MWEqBFH.PbDJVh7wHhpjk12X

Fix Democracy First Links:

• FDF Donation Page @ fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate

• Fix Democracy First 20^th Anniversary Celebration - SAVE THE DATE! – Saturday, September 9, 2023 – Bloedel Hall @ St. Mark’s in Seattle - More details to come!
• You can view past Democracy Happy Hour recordings on our Past Events page @ https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/events#past-events

Democracy Happy Hour Upcoming Topics/Schedule:

• May 31st - What is the Federalist Society and what does it want from our courts? with Nick Licata
• June 7th - CANCELED - No Democracy Happy Hour this week
• June 14th - Fighting Back Against Authoritarianism with Vinay Orekondy  
• June 21st - Declaration for American Democracy Coalition with Christine Wood, Co-Directo

ACTIONS & EVENTS:

• Voting Rights & Registration Training for New or Returning Volunteers with Seattle/King Coalition on Homelessness -June 7^th @ 6 pm - https://homelessinfo.salsalabs.org/20230607VotingRightsRegistrationVolunteerTraining/index.html
• Citizen Connect - https://citizenconnect.us/
• 14Point3 Campaign - https://freespeechforpeople.org/the-14point3-campaign/
• Campaign to disqualify Trump from 2024 ballot - https://freespeechforpeople.org/trump-is-disqualified-from-the-ballot/
• People Powered Elections Washington - https://www.peoplepoweredelections.org/
• Email Sign Up - https://secure.everyaction.com/Kvt4e-0DY0yyLf_1C7y-og2  

Public Banking Links:

• Coalition for the National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) - https://www.nibcoalition.com/
• Washingtonians for Public Banking - https://www.waforpublicbanking.org/
• What is a Public Bank - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_bank
• Public Banks - How states can establish public banks to democratize capital, build resiliency, and better leverage state funds for public purposes. - https://democracypolicy.network/agenda/open-country/open-economy/public-banks

Democracy in the News Links

Georgia Prosecutor Signals August Timetable for Charges in Trump Inquiry - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/us/trump-georgia-fani-willis.html

Trump makes video appearance in New York criminal case, trial date set for March primary season - https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-criminal-case-manhattan-cc2dbf565678eeaf8246a96b0fd1f461

Trump was warned about retaining classified documents, notes reveal - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/22/trump-warning-classified-documents-mar-a-lago

Prosecutors Sought Records on Trump’s Foreign Business Deals Since 2017 - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/us/politics/trump-records-foreign-deals.html

D.C. police officer arrested, accused of leaking info to Proud Boys leader - https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/19/dc-police-officer-arrested-obstruction-jan6/

Trump's 2025 vision, revealed - https://www.axios.com/2023/05/21/trump-2025-vision

The deepening radicalization of Donald J. Trump - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/24/trump-language-policy-2024-race/

Ron DeSantis Starts His Campaign, Hoping to Topple Trump - https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/05/24/us/desantis-2024-election-president

DeSantis Floats ‘7-2 Conservative Majority’ on Supreme Court - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/us/politics/desantis-supreme-court.html

Why Republican-led states keep leaving a group that verifies voter rolls - https://missouriindependent.com/2023/05/22/why-republican-led-states-keep-leaving-a-group-that-verifies-voter-rolls/

Congress Can Restore Voting Rights for Nearly 3.5 Million Americans - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/congress-can-restore-voting-rights-nearly-35-million-americans

30 years after the NVRA, we’re still fighting for voting rights - https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4013239-30-years-after-the-nvra-were-still-fighting-for-voting-rights/

Is drawing a voting map that helps a political party illegal? Only in some states - https://www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1173469584/partisan-gerrymandering-explainer-north-carolina

‘Beware, your life is not valued’: NAACP travel advisory warns Florida is ‘openly hostile toward African Americans’ - https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/21/us/naacp-florida-travel-advisory/index.html

NAACP Issues Travel Advisory in Florida - https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-issues-travel-advisory-florida

Federal judge throws out Miami district map over allegations of racial gerrymandering - https://www.wlrn.org/south-florida/2023-05-23/miami-racial-gerrymandering-map-judge-districts

Georgia election chief on Trump 2020 claims: 'Every point that he raised, we've disproven it' - https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/georgia-election-2020-donald-trump-2024-brad-raffensperger-weve-disproven-claims/85-8db94979-e859-49b3-8177-be197ae37bfc

New Indiana law adds identity requirements for mail-in voting - https://www.thecentersquare.com/indiana/article_786d75ee-f5a8-11ed-8e82-5f9f51f855cb.html

TikTok sues Montana to block ban, citing First Amendment - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/22/tik-tok-ban-montana-lawsuit/

Montana influencers file lawsuit on state TikTok ban in federal court - https://dailymontanan.com/2023/05/19/montana-influencers-file-lawsuit-on-state-tiktok-ban-in-federal-court/

Senate budget would repeal NC’s membership in ERIC - https://www.carolinajournal.com/senate-budget-would-end-ncs-membership-in-eric/

Texas set to exit multistate program that cleans voter rolls - https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/23/texas-voter-fraud-eric-voting-roll/

Florida and Texas Go After Voters for Honest Mistakes - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/florida-and-texas-go-after-voters-honest-mistakes

Republicans Are Trying to Seize Control Over Voting in Texas’ Largest Democratic County - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/texas-republicans-just-passed-bills-to-takeover-voting-harris-county-houston/

Texas pushes church into state with bills on school chaplains, Ten Commandments - https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/05/23/texas-commandments-chaplains-christianity/

Voter registration is getting simpler in Washington state - https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2023/05/18/voter-registration-washington-state-online

Washington voters can soon register online with partial Social Security number - https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_16804c42-f8cf-11ed-87fa-d7c812a318a9.html

The Republican-Backed Group Behind the Surge of GOP Election Lawsuits - https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/the-republican-backed-group-behind-the-surge-of-gop-election-lawsuits/

Supreme Court rules for Google, Twitter on terror-related content - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/18/gonzalez-v-google-twitter-section-230-supreme-court/

Supreme Court punts Section 230 debate back to Congress - https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4015525-supreme-court-punts-section-230-debate-back-to-congress/

Supreme Court Dismisses Case on Pandemic-Era Immigration Measure - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/us/supreme-court-title-42-immigration-measure.html

Supreme Court refuses to block assault weapons bans in Illinois - https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/politics/supreme-court-refuses-to-block-assault-weapons-bans-in-illinois/index.html

U.S. Supreme Court Will Review South Carolina Racial Gerrymandering Case Next Term - https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/u-s-supreme-court-will-review-south-carolina-racial-gerrymandering-case-next-term/

What's Happening in the Supreme Court's Shadows Is Shaping America - https://time.com/6280539/supreme-court-shadow-docket-shaping-america/

Abortion ruling sends trust in Supreme Court to 50-year low, new poll finds - https://richmond.com/news/abortion-ruling-sends-trust-in-supreme-court-to-50-year-low-new-poll-finds/article_13e28ca3-442e-5293-9685-c66eb353fa32.html

Dark Money’s Behind The Debt Ceiling Plan To Punish The Poor - https://www.levernews.com/dark-moneys-behind-the-debt-ceiling-plan-to-punish-the-poor/

Big Banks Surge Cash to First-term Lawmakers That Oversee Them - https://about.bgov.com/news/big-banks-surge-cash-to-first-term-lawmakers-that-oversee-them/

ALEC Is Using Wolf-PAC to Help the Right Rewrite the Constitution - https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2023/05/23/alec-is-using-wolf-pac-to-help-the-right-rewrite-the-constitution/

School librarians face a new penalty in the banned-book wars: Prison - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/18/school-librarians-jailed-banned-books/

Book removals may have violated student civil rights, Education Dept. says - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/22/book-bans-georgia-hostile-environment/

False claims of a stolen election thrive unchecked on Twitter even as Musk promises otherwise - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/false-claims-of-a-stolen-election-thrive-unchecked-on-twitter-even-as-musk-promises-otherwise