Poor Stallman

5. Stallman has a history of sexism [...] and just plain misogynism behind him. >>237

The smoke from wildfires, when breathed by pregnant women, causes lasting harm to their fetuses in later life. In some US states, women could be prosecuted for breathing the smoke. Perhaps millions of women would commit this "crime". One could imagine prosecuting oil companies too, but the right-wing officials in those states don't want to go after oil companies, only women.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#20_September_2020_(Reversal_of_DeJoy's_postal_sabotage) -- A US court has ordered reversal of DeJoy's postal sabotage. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/18/denouncing-intentional-effort-sabotage-election-judge-orders-nationwide-reversal -- Denouncing 'Intentional Effort' to Sabotage Election, Judge Orders Nationwide Reversal of DeJoy Mail Changes -- Friday, September 18, 2020 -- "At the heart of DeJoy's and the Postal Service's actions is voter disenfranchisement," said Judge Stanley Bastian. >>277

5. Stallman has a history of [...] racism >>237

Racist bigotry is more prevalent in China than in the US. In the US, many of us campaign against it.

The expression "playing the race card" is the racists' excuse to bury the issue of racism. For burying the issue of gender bias, the expression is "You must be a feminist." Meanwhile, the supporters of plutocracy say you are "trying to start a class war" if you talk about their War for Poverty.

*Want to dismantle structural racism in the US? Help fight gerrymandering.*

The UK needs to recognize and break up the racism that pervades its thug departments. It is difficult to correct racism in thug departments by hiring from minority groups, because the same racism targets them and forces them out.

US citizens: call on Faux News Advertisers to stop supporting racism and disinformation — that is, to stop advertising in Faux News.

A black man watching birds in Central Park asked a woman to put her dog on a leash. She responded by calling 911 and making a false accusation against him. She now faces criminal charges. One aspect of racism is that whites think they can get away with bullying blacks with false charges. To Kill a Mockingbird presents a fictional example.

Americans are rapidly becoming aware of systemic racism and the systemic injustice of the thugs.

Georgia Republicans made an all-out attack on voting while black. *"It's their test run for November," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.* * What Georgia did yesterday was criminal, a racist crime against our democracy, and it’s time to criminalize voter suppression once and for all.*

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#24_September_2020_(Counting_valid_postal_ballots) -- The cheater hopes courts will stop states from counting valid postal ballots that arrive after election day. By itself, this is merely unfair. But when combined with DeJoy's efforts to delay mail, it adds up to sabotage. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/21/trump-says-he-counting-federal-court-system-declare-winner-election-night-many -- Trump Says He Is 'Counting on the Federal Court System' to Declare Winner on Election Night—Before Many Ballots Are Tallied -- Monday, September 21, 2020 -- "This is an open admission that Trump hopes to use the Supreme Court to steal the election."

President Donald Trump said during a campaign rally over the weekend that he is "counting on the federal court system"—which he has packed with right-wing judges—to declare a winner of the presidential election on the night of November 3, a statement that one journalist described as an "outright pledge to use the courts to stop votes from being counted." "We're counting on the federal court system to make it so that we can actually have an evening where we know who wins, OK," Trump said during an event in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Saturday. "Not where the votes are going to be counted a week later, two weeks later." Trump appeared to be referring to states that have extended absentee ballot deadlines to accommodate the unprecedented surge in mail-in voting driven by the coronavirus pandemic, which is expected to delay the announcement of an election winner. In the key battleground of Pennsylvania, for instance, the state Supreme Court ruled last week that mail-in ballots received by November 6 must be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. More than 20 other states are similarly allowing mail-in ballots to arrive days after November 3 if postmarked on time. Watch Trump's remarks, which came just 24 hours after the Supreme Court announced the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

"We're gonna have a victory on November 3rd the likes of which you've never seen. Now we're counting on the federal court system to make it so we can actually have an evening where we know who wins" -- Trump pic.twitter.com/q5bfsJQb76 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 19, 2020

"Trump said he wants to use the federal courts to cheat in November by denying Americans’ lawfully-cast mail-in ballots," Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) tweeted Sunday in response to the president's comments, which came less than 45 days ahead of the November election. "This is an open admission that Trump hopes to use the Supreme Court to steal the election," added Beyer. MSNBC's Garrett Haake noted that while declaring an Election Night winner is "not a thing courts do," the "fact that the president is calling for it demands our attention."

This shouldn't get lost. At last night's rally, President Trump said he was "counting on" the federal courts to declare a winner on election night. That's not a thing courts do... but the fact that the President is calling for it demands our attention. https://t.co/m1AZHjBqVW — Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) September 20, 2020

Trump's comments further validated growing fears that the president could attempt to falsely declare himself the winner on Election Night, even with many mail-in ballots—which Trump has baselessly characterized as uniquely vulnerable to manipulation—left to be counted.

"It's easy to imagine the president, a geyser of self-serving lies and conspiracies, prematurely declaring himself the victor, crying foul as his lead evaporates as additional votes are counted, and challenging any loss based on the mail-in ballots he's already condemned as fraudulent," Vanity Fair's Eric Lutz wrote earlier this month. "Such a scenario would be every bit as dangerous as one in which he tried to postpone the election."

As Common Dreams reported last week, major corporate media outlets are facing pressure to craft and publicize a plan to combat any misinformation or premature victory declarations by the president or other candidates on Election Night.

The National Task Force on Election Crises, a coalition of election experts and academics, warned in a letter to news outlets last Wednesday that the "period of uncertainty" caused by the historic flood of mail-in ballots "will add further pressure to an already strained system and allow bad actors to attempt to undermine our democratic process."

New York magazine's Ed Kilgore has argued that any effort by the president to falsely declare victory on Election Night will depend on media outlets echoing and failing to adequately debunk his "bogus claims."

"Challenging the lies at the very point of utterance," Kilgore wrote earlier this month, "will be essential to stopping them from developing into a contested election and possibly a constitutional crisis."

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#24_September_2020_(Plotting_violence_ahead_of_rallies) -- *Revealed: pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies.* *Patriots Coalition members suggested political assassinations and said ‘laws will be broken, people will get hurt’, leaked chats show.* We all suspected this, but we could not be sure. Now we know that the bully's supporters are a criminal gang. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/oregon-portland-pro-trump-protests-violence-texts -- Wed 23 Sep 2020 -- “I’m waiting for the presidential go to start open firing”

Leaked chat logs show Portland-area pro-Trump activists planning and training for violence, sourcing arms and ammunition and even suggesting political assassinations ahead of a series of contentious rallies in the Oregon city, including one scheduled for this weekend. The chats on the GroupMe app, shared with the Guardian by the antifascist group Eugene Antifa, show conversations between Oregon members of the Patriots Coalition growing more extreme as they discuss armed confrontations with leftwing Portland activists, and consume a steady diet of online disinformation about protests and wildfires.

At times, rightwing activists discuss acts of violence at recent, contentious protests, which in some cases they were recorded carrying out. At one point, David Willis, a felon currently being sued for his alleged role in an earlier episode of political violence, joins a discussion about the use of paintballs. Where other members had previously suggested freezing the paintballs for maximum damage, Willis wrote: “They make glass breaker balls that are rubber coated metal. They also have pepper balls but they are about 3 dollars a ball. Don’t freeze paintballs it makes them wildly inaccurate” [sic.] Willis did not immediately respond to voice and text messages sent to his listed cellphone number.

Another prolific poster is Mark Melchi, a 41-year-old Dallas, Oregon-based car restorer who claims to have served as a captain in the US army. Melchi has been recorded leading an armed pro-Trump militia, “1776 2.0” into downtown confrontations in Portland, including on 22 August. At several points in the chat he proposes violence in advance of those confrontations, and appears to confess to prior acts committed in the company of his paramilitary group. In advance of the 22 August protest, Melchi wrote: “It’s going to be bloody and most likely shooting, they’re definitely armed… so let’s make sure we have an organized direction of movement and direction of clearing or other Patriots will be caught in the possible cross fire. When shit hits the fan.” He advised other members to ignore weapons statutes, writing, “I saw someone say bats, mace, and stun guns are illegal downtown. If you’re going to play by the books tomorrow night, we already lost. We are here to make a change, laws will be broken, people will get hurt… It’s lawlessness downtown, and people need to be prepared for bad things.” Following these comments, several rightwing demonstrators were recorded using gas and bats on 22 August, where Melchi and his militia were also present.

In other remarks ahead of the day, Melchi draws on what he claims is his group’s history of traveling to multiple states to engage in violence at protests. “My Group 1776 2.0. Has been fighting Antifa in Seattle, Portland, for months”, Melchi writes, adding “this won’t be a simple fist fight. People will get shot, stabbed and beat.” He also claims police cooperation in interstate violence, writing “Yes, going after them at night is the solution… Like we do in other states, tactical ambushes at night while backing up the police are key. You get the leaders and the violent ones and the police are happy to shut their mouths and cameras.” Melchi nevertheless recommends that members disguise themselves to avoid the consequences of homicide. “We must be ready to defend with lethal response… Suggest wearing mask and nothing to identify you on Camera…to prevent any future prosecution.”

In response to detailed questions about these contributions, Melchi responded with an email that falsely suggested his comments might have been photoshopped, and concluded with direct threats. Melchi wrote: “I suggest you don’t threaten combat veterans sweetheart, might get a little uncomfortable for ya big guy!” Melchi’s sentiments in the chat logs were in keeping with fantasies of, and plans for, violence, which are constantly discussed by group members. Although some members are connected with extremist groups or militias, on the whole they describe themselves as “patriots”, and they express no clear ideology beyond a hatred of the left, and a preparedness to use violence. The shared allegiances expressed in the group are mostly to the police, the United States and Donald Trump, a person whom some say they are prepared to kill for. Ahead of 22 August, a user “Paige” says “I’m waiting for the presidential go to start open firing”. Melchi, the militia leader, responds, “Well Saturday may be that go lol”.

Alex Newhouse, the digital research lead at the Center for Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute, said of the group that “the main mechanism that makes these communities so dangerous is the incessant desensitization to the idea of political violence”. Newhouse said that the ideas expressed in the group were entrenched in “extreme nationalism – that a few strong men with guns can together take out an evil that is at once imagined as an existential threat, and pathetically weak”. Newhouse added that the group’s discussions “fit within a broader trend of rightwing extremists becoming more accelerationist over time”.

The chatlogs became fractious at the peak of Oregon’s recent wildfire emergency. While some members said they had gone to rural areas to “hunt” imagined antifa arsonists, others became concerned about the dangers. As early as 9 September, the baseless idea that the fires were a coordinated arson attack was treated as settled fact, with Melchi writing: “People have officially died from these Antifa Fires. I’d shoot them on site” [sic], and another user, Dub, responding: “Yes sir if I see them they are getting dropped where they stand.” When adverse consequences of vigilantism became evident, leadership attempted to bring the group back under control. After a member of the group reported that an associate had been arrested in Lane county for “holding [someone] at gunpoint”, the group’s administrator, who used the user name Patriot Coalition, wrote “STOP HOLDING PEOPLE AT GUN POINT- STOP PULLING YOUR WEAPONS… VIDEO- TAKE PICTURES AND CALL 911.”

Mary McCord is the legal director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law School, which on Wednesday released a series of fact sheets on anti-paramilitary laws in all 50 states. Given details of the content of the chats, McCord said that “this is the kind of thing that might allow authorities to take action”, and that members of the group may “already be in violation of Oregon’s anti-paramilitary laws”.

The group also talked about coordinating at the rally with the Proud Boys, an extreme rightwing group. One user, identified as Bravo91 and a part of the group’s leadership, spoke of phone calls with the Proud Boys. Along with antifascist demonstrators, Democratic politicians are also the target of violent fantasies in the chats. In particular, Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, is demonized and nominated as a possible target for assassination by the group. On 24 August, a user identified as “Trent-Medford” writes, “Fuck wheeler… guess what soon as we are done with these punks. He’s next freakin coward !!!!!!” User T Durden went further. In response to news that an alleged arsonist had been released on bail, and without encountering disagreement, they wrote: “Maybe we need to start taking care of the justice ourselves!”, adding, “Start with justice on our DA and then move on to the governor. Maybe by the time we get to the first judge, they will have changed their tunes.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#25_September_2020_(Stealing_the_election) -- *Trump Keeps Telling Us How He and Republicans Plan to Steal This Election. Can we stop him and save our republic before it's too late?* Is "steal" the correct word? The final step would use a loophole in the Constitution, and that a such would not be stealing it. But the first step is a fraudulent accusation of fraud, and I think that would justify the word "steal". Why are Republicans in control of all the swing states' legislatures? Some of those states now vote majority Democrat, but gerrymandering has prevented the voters from electing legislators that reflect their views. -- https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/23/report-trump-campaign-actively-discussing-radical-measures-to-bypass-election-results/ -- Report: Trump Campaign Actively Discussing Radical Measures To Bypass Election Results -- Sep 23, 2020

A jarring new report from The Atlantic claims that the Trump campaign is discussing potential strategies to circumvent the results of the 2020 election, should Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump, by first alleging the existence of rampant fraud and then asking legislators in battleground states where the Republicans have a legislative majority to bypass the state’s popular vote and instead to choose electors loyal to the GOP and the sitting president. Following the casting of ballots and counting individual votes in a presidential election, the United States Constitution prescribes that the 538 electors who constitute the Electoral College cast their electoral votes, determining the winner. Customarily, electors are chosen by popular vote, but nothing in the Constitution mandates that tradition, with Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 merely asserting that each state shall appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.”

Since the late 1800s, every state in every presidential election has ceded the decision to its voters, but the Supreme Court affirmed in Bush v. Gore that a state “can take back the power to appoint electors.” The Atlantic report claims that sources in the Republican Party at the local and national levels confirm that “the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors” in red battleground states. “The push to appoint electors would be framed in terms of protecting the people’s will,” an unnamed Trump-campaign legal adviser tells The Atlantic, adding, “The state legislatures will say, ‘All right, we’ve been given this constitutional power. We don’t think the results of our own state are accurate, so here’s our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state.’”

The chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party says, on the record, that he has discussed appointing loyal electors with the Trump campaign: “It is one of the available legal options set forth in the Constitution.” A critical factor in the Trump campaign’s approach is delegitimizing mail-in and provisional ballots and any other votes that are not counted by the end of Election Day, November 3, as those other votes are expected to heavily favor Biden. Earlier this summer, Trump tweeted, "MAIL-IN VOTING WILL LEAD TO MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE. IT WILL ALSO LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY. WE CAN NEVER LET THIS TRAGEDY BEFALL OUR NATION." Later, in a Twitter post in July, Trump wrote, "With Universal Mail-In Voting, 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history." However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 will feature more voting by mail than any other election in history. Earlier this week, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he plans to spend the next six weeks urging the country to prepare for a "nightmare scenario" in which Trump declares himself the winner of the election and refuses to leave the White House. Thus, Sanders recommends states tally mail-in ballots as quickly as possible, urging them to begin processing and counting ballots before Election Day. When The Atlantic asked the Trump campaign to comment on the quotes in the article, and about possible plans to take the unprecedented step of appointing loyal electors, the president’s deputy national press secretary, Thea McDonald, did not address the questions directly. “It’s outrageous that President Trump and his team are being villainized for upholding the rule of law and transparently fighting for a free and fair election,” McDonald said in an email. “The mainstream media are giving the Democrats a free pass for their attempts to completely uproot the system and throw our election into chaos.” When asked by Fox News' Chris Wallace earlier this summer if he would accept the election results, President Trump said, "I have to see. Look, you—I have to see. No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no, and I didn't last time, either." 31: An investigation by Justin Levitt at Loyola Law School uncovered a total of 31 credible allegations of voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion votes cast in the United States from 2000 to 2014.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#10_September_2020_(Justice_Department_taking_up_liability_for_damages) -- The wrecker has told the "Justice Department" to make the US take up the liability for damages, as well as defense costs in E Jean Carroll's lawsuit accusing him of raping her. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/08/trump-defamation-justice-department-e-jean-carroll-rape-accusation -- US justice department seeks to defend Trump in lawsuit tied to rape allegation -- Wed 9 Sep 2020 -- Attorneys seek to substitute US for Trump as defendant in E Jean Carroll case, meaning tax dollars could cover any payout -- Carroll is trying to get a DNA sample from Trump to see whether it matches as-yet-unidentified male genetic material found on a dress that she says she was wearing during the alleged attack >>259

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#6_September_2020_(Republican_congresscritter_who_fanatically_defends_the_right_to_carry_guns) -- A Republican congresscritter who fanatically defends the right to carry guns says he would shoot any blacks that carry guns at a protest. Does this mean he advocates the right to carry guns only for whites? Does he now believe that guns should be prohibited at demonstrations? I'm in favor of that, as long as it applies to everyone. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/03/id-drop-any-10-you-gop-rep-clay-higgins-threatens-shoot-armed-black-protesters -- 'I'd Drop Any 10 of You': GOP Rep. Clay Higgins Threatens to Shoot Armed Black Protesters -- Thursday, September 03, 2020 -- The Louisiana lawmaker is a staunch gun rights advocate in an open carry state. >>236

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#25_September_2020_(Stealing_the_election) -- *Trump Keeps Telling Us How He and Republicans Plan to Steal This Election. Can we stop him and save our republic before it's too late?* Is "steal" the correct word? The final step would use a loophole in the Constitution, and that a such would not be stealing it. But the first step is a fraudulent accusation of fraud, and I think that would justify the word "steal". Why are Republicans in control of all the swing states' legislatures? Some of those states now vote majority Democrat, but gerrymandering has prevented the voters from electing legislators that reflect their views. -- https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/23/report-trump-campaign-actively-discussing-radical-measures-to-bypass-election-results/ -- Report: Trump Campaign Actively Discussing Radical Measures To Bypass Election Results -- Sep 23, 2020 >>286

>>252 I am aware that he insists on differentiating between minors he labels children and minors he labels adolescents, and his belief that the latter can consent regardless of the age from which he chooses to label them adolescents. This is obviously indefensible. He holds plenty of indefensible views especially on anything related to sex and women. But that is precisely why there are plenty of things he can be legitimately criticized over without resorting to strawmen. >>242

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#24_September_2020_(Plotting_violence_ahead_of_rallies) -- *Revealed: pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies.* *Patriots Coalition members suggested political assassinations and said ‘laws will be broken, people will get hurt’, leaked chats show.* We all suspected this, but we could not be sure. Now we know that the bully's supporters are a criminal gang. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/oregon-portland-pro-trump-protests-violence-texts -- Wed 23 Sep 2020 -- “I’m waiting for the presidential go to start open firing” >>285

5. Stallman has a history of sexism [...] and just plain misogynism behind him. >>237

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#23_September_2020_(Working_against_womens_rights) -- *AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber all target female consumers and promote women-friendly work environments, yet they bankroll candidates who actively work against women’s rights.* -- https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/09/21/new-corporate-accountability-campaign-puts-six-major-companies-notice-anti -- New Corporate Accountability Campaign Puts Six Major Companies On Notice For Anti-Choice Political Giving -- Monday, September 21, 2020 -- The #ReproReceipts Campaign by UltraViolet Highlights Hypocrisy in Corporate America and Calls for Accountability at AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber

Today, UltraViolet announced a new campaign to hold six corporations accountable for their political giving to anti-choice, anti-women candidates and calls on them to end their support for such politicians entirely and to commit to investing in reproductive health and justice. AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber all target female consumers and promote women-friendly work environments, yet they bankroll candidates who actively work against women’s rights. The #ReproReceipts campaign highlights the discrepancy between corporate America’s public statements in support of gender equity and their political giving to extreme anti-choice candidates. These contributions not only work against equality for women, but also racial equity and justice. In a year marked by a global pandemic, uprising against racial injustice and a historic election underway, during which each of these companies are showboating their stands on racial and gender equality, we must highlight the hypocrisy of corporate social responsibility posturing and demand companies walk their talk. Companies need to know that they can’t have it both ways. More than 80 percent of millennial consumers believe it is important to buy from companies that align with their values, according to a recent report on consumer behavior. Yet, outside of public statements, buyers often don’t know where their frequented brands’ values actually lie. #ReproReceipts shines a spotlight that exposes which anti-choice politicians are receiving large sums of money from some of the largest consumer-facing retailers and brands. “These six companies embody the disconnect between corporate social responsibility efforts that are just PR posturing and actually doing right by their employees and customers. Corporate America is eager to show their support for women and diversity, but they actively work against their statements by supporting and funding anti-women candidates,” said Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet. “The receipts are clear: these companies continue to give politically in ways that don’t align with their value statements. We invite these companies to be leaders by ending their anti-women and anti-equality political contributions.” Supporting anti-choice politicians often is tantamount to endorsing an ideological framework that leans anti-racial justice, anti-science and anti-immigrant. These views have plunged our nation into a political crisis, hampered our response to the pandemic and endangered the lives and well-being of women, especially women of color, Indigenous women and other communities.

UltraViolet’s campaign will include ongoing actions to call on these companies to make change, such as:
* Petitions calling for change to UltraViolet’s more than 1 million members
* Digital and print ads targeted at each company noting the misalignment of their values and political giving
* Public actions to inform consumers these companies are anti-women
* Polling of consumers to demonstrate political giving matters
* Coordinated social action among UltraViolet’s members calling out corporate targets across digital platforms

The correlation between private political giving and the impact it has on gender equity and racial justice is impossible to ignore. Topline findings include:

AT&T was named to the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and came out at the top of DiversityInc.’s 2020 list of top 50 companies for diversity. While it pledges to support the growth of its employees who are people of color and women, including reproductive benefits...
* $1,956,953 (56 percent) of AT&T’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), David Perdue (R-OH), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY), Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Steve Scalise (R-LA). Vice President Mike Pence’s Great America Committee PAC also received support.
* Women only make up 33.2 percent of AT&T’s U.S. employees and only two of nine executives at the company.
* People of color are 39.4 percent of AT&T’s U.S. management and 44.8 percent of its total U.S. workforce. But as recently as July 2020, AT&T workers in Memphis were protesting the company’s commitment to racial equality and treatment of workers.

Coca Cola As the fifth best company on the Forbes Best Employers for Women 2020, Coca-Cola also placed at the top of Comparably’s Best Company for Diversity in 2018 and 96 on the Forbes’ Global 2000 in 2020...
* $1,028,838 (59 percent) of Coca Cola’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs such as Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Steve Scalise (R-LA).
* Only three of the top ten company executives are women and people of color make up only four of ten executives.
* Recently retired Executive Vice President Carl Ware warns that Coca-Cola is behind in shepherding women and people of color to top leadership positions.

Disney Seventy-two percent of Disney’s workforce is women and/or people of color and yet...
* $203,350 (51 percent) of Disney’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE), Marco Rubio (R-TX) and David Perdue (R-GA); Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin Brady (R-TX). Both former or then (he is in the US Senate now) Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) Vice President Mike Pence’s PACs received financial support.
* Only 25 percent of the C-Suite is made up of women.
* Disney was sued in April 2019 for the unequal pay of its female employees.
* On diversity and inclusion, former CEO Bob Iger failed to make good on his promise to make changes in Disney’s C-suite before his tenure ended earlier this year.

Nike may be noted as a 2020 Forbes Best Employees for Women, has promised pay equity, and 49 percent of global employees are women, but…
* $99,000 (27 percent) of Nike’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators John Thune (R-SD), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and Representatives Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Greg Walden (R-OR).
* Nike has been called out for its lack of representation in leadership and discrimination against pregnant female athletes.
* The company faced a class-action lawsuit in 2018 on systemic gender pay discrimination and rampant sexual harassment.

Procter & Gamble P&G is recognized in the Working Mother 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women, but...
* $144,000 (55 percent) of Procter & Gamble’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and the Ohio Republican Party.
* These contributions counter the very initiatives and partnerships P&G pushes publicly for gender equality. They also work against the best interests of the six of 13 board members and eight of 14 executive officers who are women.

Uber The number of female employees at Uber grew 42.3 percent in 2019 and four out of ten board members are now women, however...
* $148,000 (36 percent) of Uber’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) as well as the Republican Governors Association and Republican State Leadership Committee.
* It is involved in a host of lawsuits for sexual harassment and settled with the EEOC at the end of 2019 for $4.4M and requires monitoring for the next 3 years.
* Uber hired its first-ever diversity and inclusion officer only recently in response to the 2017 “Holder Report” documenting rampant harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and toxic workplace culture for women and racially diverse employees.

[1/2] https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#24_September_2020_(Austin,_Texas_voted_to_cut_the_thug_department's_budget) -- Austin, Texas, voted to cut the thug department's budget. Texas Governor Abbott threatens to cut Austin's taxes as a punishment for this, and put the city's thug department under the control of the lawless and cruel state thug department. The article starts by describing how the state thugs attacked Lauren Mestas. Her car had slogans such as FUCK THESE RACIST POLICE, and "all cops are bastards." A thug was so offended by this that he believed he was entitled to bring many thugs to point guns at her, then force her out of the car, which they ruined ‐ demonstrating that at least Texas state cops are bastards. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/09/22/texas-austin-police-militarization-budget/ -- Texas Deployed SWAT, Bomb Robot, Small Army of Cops to Arrest a Woman and Her Dog -- September 22 2020 -- She had done nothing wrong. State troopers started following her because of “anti-law enforcement rhetoric” on her car windows.

Twenty-four-year-old Lauren Mestas was already having a bad day when she noticed a cop car tailing her northbound on Interstate 35, headed into downtown Austin. She wasn’t overly concerned at first, as she wasn’t breaking any laws, but the patrol vehicle remained on her tail as she exited onto Riverside Drive, headed west. She started to suspect that it might have something to do with the slogans soaped all over the windows of her 2001 Toyota 4Runner. In addition to “BROWN PRIDE” and “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” written across the rear window were the words “FUCK THESE RACIST POLICE.” Two days earlier and not even a mile away, a few blocks south of the Texas Capitol in the center of Austin, Mestas had witnessed an off-duty Army sergeant named Daniel Perry shoot and kill an Air Force veteran named Garrett Foster, who had been at a BLM protest with an AK-47 slung across his chest, pushing his quadruple-amputee fiancée in a wheelchair. At the sound of gunfire, Mestas and two other young women had fled across Congress Avenue, the main downtown boulevard, and hidden behind a column of the Frost Bank Tower. In the process, she had accidentally lost her cell phone, as well as the remote control to open the gates of her apartment complex. That night, on arriving home, she’d parked in an ungated portion of the sprawling, 42-building apartment complex, located in far South Austin. Badly shaken by the shooting, she must have confused the spot, because when she went out the next morning, a Sunday, she couldn’t seem to find the 4Runner anywhere. “I was not in a good headspace,” she told me. “I thought somebody had stolen my car.”

She called the city’s non-emergency line to report the suspected theft. Eight hours later, she stumbled across the 4Runner while walking her dog, a chihuahua named Optimus Prime, and redialed 311 to retract the stolen vehicle report. The operator, Mestas told me, assured her that the 4Runner’s vehicle identification number and license plate number would be removed from the police department’s stolen vehicle list, and gave her a confirmation number for verification, should she happen to get pulled over. Monday morning, she went to her job at Planet K, the longtime Austin smoke shop where she was employed as a shift lead. She had yet to recover, emotionally, from witnessing Foster’s murder. “I spent two hours on my shift sobbing,” she told me. “I had just seen somebody get shot and killed. I was pretty much catatonic.” A little after 10 a.m., her manager sent her to the bank to break $200 into small bills and coins. She took Optimus Prime with her for company. It was on the way to the bank that the cop car picked up her tail. The officer, a state trooper from the Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, later filed an incident report which made clear that his reason for running a license plate check was that, in his words, “the vehicle had anti law enforcement rhetoric scribble [sic] all over the outside.” He followed her for a mile on Riverside Drive along the south shore of Ladybird Lake, and waited a full five minutes to hit the siren and lights.

“Oh my God,” Mestas thought, surmising what must have happened. “They think I stole my car.” She panicked, and instead of pulling over, she came to a dead stop in the middle of the First Street Bridge, blocking the inside lane. The spot where she braked to a halt might well have been the precise geographic center of Austin, with Ladybird Lake flowing beneath her toward Longhorn Dam, Auditorium Shores and all of South Austin to her rear, and City Hall directly in front of her. It was 10:40 on a weekday morning, and normally the bridge would have been packed with traffic, but four months into the pandemic, there were hardly any other cars. The state trooper, Garrett Ray, was joined by a second DPS officer, Jason Melson. Instead of approaching the 4Runner, they drew their service weapons and took cover behind the open doors of their patrol vehicles. According to Ray’s incident report, it was an “HRS,” or high-risk stop, also known as a felony stop: a procedure employed when an officer believes that someone in the car has committed a serious crime and could be dangerous.

The tactical terminology is worth noting because earlier that very same morning, the Austin Police Department had released damning dashcam footage of officers shooting and killing an unarmed man named Michael Ramos in a high-risk or felony stop that, like this one, had been based on faulty dispatch information. A 911 caller reported that Ramos and a woman had been using drugs in a parked car, and that he was holding a gun. Ramos had been spooked by the sight of eight armed officers pointing weapons and screaming at him to get his hands up. When he tried to flee, one of the officers opened fire with an assault rifle. APD later confirmed there was no gun in Ramos’s possession. One hour after Mestas was pulled over, at 11:40 a.m., I happened to come across the scene by accident. I was riding my bike around Ladybird Lake, and I counted at least 40 DPS vehicles blocking the south end of the First Street Bridge. There had to be 80 cops on scene by that time, if not 100. The emergency vehicles included a fire truck, an ambulance, and two BearCat armored personnel carriers. Every minute or so, a mechanical RoboCop-like voice repeated, “Driver, exit the vehicle with your hands up.” The dystopian intonation sounded over Auditorium Shores, where a crowd of people who had been exercising or playing with their dogs had gathered on the sidewalk to watch the spectacle unfold.

Like other bystanders, I initially assumed that it was a hostage situation, bomb threat, or active shooter. The first clue that it might be something more farcical or absurd were the slogans soaped on the windows of the weather-beaten old 4Runner, which the police had so thoroughly surrounded. From 100 yards away, in the blinding sunshine, I couldn’t quite read them, but on one rear window I distinctly made out the acronym ACAB, which stands for “all cops are bastards.” Ever since the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25, cities across the United States had been convulsed by protests against police brutality, and Austin was no exception. Like virtually every other big city in America, the lion’s share of our municipal budget goes to an increasingly militarized department of police, and all through June and July, there had been rising calls for APD to be defunded, and for the chief to resign. In response to indications that Austin’s relatively liberal city administration would give in to protester demands, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, had deployed thousands of DPS troopers to Austin, as well as to Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, to combat “violent extremists, anarchists, and antifa,” as DPS Director Steven McCraw put it in a June 2 press conference. “They just can’t help themselves,” McCraw said of the out-of-town antifa operatives believed to be besetting the city. I had seen the newly arrived formations of state troopers standing guard around the Capitol but never out in force like this. The officer who appeared to be the incident commander was a relatively young man with black hair, shiny black cowboy boots, and a black tie under his flak vest, which identified him as a DPS special agent.

Other agencies were present as well. A U.S. Marshal in boots and jeans suited up in a bulletproof vest alongside his Ford F-150 4×4. Texas Army National Guardsmen patrolled the side of the bridge, lest an amphibious threat come from the paddleboarders on Ladybird Lake. City bike cops in blue polo shirts held the outer perimeter. Overhead, a police helicopter circled. Technicians in T-shirts and camo pants were unpacking a drone the size of a coffee table on the pavement. A smaller police drone, consumer-grade, already hovered above the beleaguered 4Runner. I had only been there a few moments when an APD SWAT team arrived. They pulled up in eight blacked-out Chevrolet Tahoes with all the insignia removed, and commenced to unload an arsenal of military weapons and body armor from big drawers that pulled out of the beds. The sound of multiple firearms being locked and loaded echoed from the face of the apartment building across the street. One SWAT officer with tribal tattoos had his shirt off as he changed uniforms. A SWAT sniper with a heavy backpack went trotting off in the direction of Aussie’s, the sand volleyball bar, presumably to find a shooter’s nest in the urban terrain.

A vehicle like a refrigerated truck pulled up, and police technicians placed an antenna on the roof and busied themselves assembling some kind of machine in the cargo area. The surface of Mars would have seemed a more suitable place for the thing that they eventually rolled out than the First Street Bridge. It was a bomb robot on a platform of tracked wheels the size of an ATV, bright silver in color. It must have made some kind of ultrasonic noise when they booted it up, because it set a dog walker’s clutch of terriers barking. Half an hour passed, and nothing seemed to happen. Under the glare of the midsummer sun, it was impossible to see inside the motionless 4Runner at a 100 yards’ distance. Some bystanders got bored and drifted away or sought shelter in the shade. A potbellied DPS officer in a felt cowboy hat walked up to those who remained and began to take photos of us with a digital camera. It was an unexpected thing to do to unoffending pedestrians, and chilling the way he went about it, coldly making eye contact with each person in turn. But then, it’s not for their friendliness that Texas state troopers are so famous. Anyway, we were all wearing face masks, as was he, on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

[2/2] >>299 https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#24_September_2020_(Austin,_Texas_voted_to_cut_the_thug_department's_budget) -- Austin, Texas, voted to cut the thug department's budget. Texas Governor Abbott threatens to cut Austin's taxes as a punishment for this, and put the city's thug department under the control of the lawless and cruel state thug department. The article starts by describing how the state thugs attacked Lauren Mestas. Her car had slogans such as FUCK THESE RACIST POLICE, and "all cops are bastards." A thug was so offended by this that he believed he was entitled to bring many thugs to point guns at her, then force her out of the car, which they ruined ‐ demonstrating that at least Texas state cops are bastards. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/09/22/texas-austin-police-militarization-budget/ -- Texas Deployed SWAT, Bomb Robot, Small Army of Cops to Arrest a Woman and Her Dog -- September 22 2020 -- She had done nothing wrong. State troopers started following her because of “anti-law enforcement rhetoric” on her car windows.

Shortly before noon, the SWAT team — about two dozen men — stacked behind one of the BearCat armored vehicles and began to advance on foot toward the stationary 4Runner. Behind them, a line of half-ton police SUVs crept forward at a walking pace, their bright LED light bars flashing silently in the heat. The two BearCats boxed in the 4Runner, front and rear, and physically sandwiched it in place, crushing both bumpers. The big gray police drone hovered directly above, like a UFO about to abduct the driver. Finally, the bomb robot moved in and used its mechanical arm to smash a window that said “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.” At that point, the 4Runner was completely blocked from view. It would be another 18 days before I obtained the incident report from DPS through a public records request, and three weeks before I tracked down Mestas and learned from her what happened next. After coming to a stop, Mestas told me, she couldn’t understand why the officers didn’t approach. She only saw them standing behind the doors of their cop cars with their guns drawn. She says she never heard their commands, which they made over a megaphone, for her to exit the vehicle. Her windows were rolled up, her hands were in the air, and she was too afraid to reach down and switch off her blasting music. “They might have thought I had a weapon or something,” she explained. As a first-generation Mexican American, “I didn’t want to give them any reason to think I was a threat.”

She saw more police cars arriving, many more, which only worsened the incipient panic attack she was suffering. She told herself that she would not lower her hands, not move a muscle, no matter what happened next. Optimus Prime could sense her terror. “He was trying to comfort me. He was up on my lap licking my face like, ‘It’s OK, mom.’” She saw the drone hovering by her window and tried to talk to it. “I was screaming at the top of my lungs: ‘Hey, this is my name, this is my car. You guys are going to look so stupid after this, when you realize it was you that messed up.’” She couldn’t believe it when the armored vehicles crushed her bumpers. “I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ At this point in time, there were dudes in military gear all around me. I’m worried about my dog because that’s my baby boy, and I don’t know if he’s going to jump out and how they’re going to react. I’m trying to tell them, ‘Dudes, this is a misunderstanding. Someone didn’t file the paperwork. I have my driver’s license in the car. I have the case number in my purse written down.’ They’re like, ‘Don’t talk, don’t talk.’”

The SWAT officers instructed her to reach with her left hand and open the door from the outside, step out slowly, and lie face down on the ground. She was wearing a stretchy black dress and boots, and the hot pavement burned her bare knees. Next, they had her crawl backwards toward the sound of their voices. “They’re shouting all this stuff at me: ‘Go forward. Now actually back up. All right, go forward. No, no, no, wrong. Go back.’ I’m like, ‘What do you want me to do? I’ll do it.’” She was literally shaking with fear, and could not help thinking of the 2016 killing of Daniel Shaver, an unarmed and unoffending 26-year-old who was mercilessly executed by police in Mesa, Arizona, for failing to follow their confusing instructions— screamed at him like some cruel game of Simon Says — to crawl backwards toward them in a hotel hallway. Mestas avoided that fate, at least. The SWAT officers zip-tied her wrists, jerked her to her feet, put her in a black sport utility vehicle, and transported her to the DPS building just north of the Capitol. The state troopers detained her for the purposes of a “CID interview” with DPS’s Criminal Investigative Division, charged with investigating organized crime, transnational gangs, active shooters, and other acts of terrorism. They told her she wasn’t being arrested, only detained, and took her into a room where she was interrogated by a detective named Bibler — pronounced, he told her, “like the Bible.”

According to Mestas, Bibler asked her nothing about the 4Runner but grilled her on the subject of Black Lives Matter, her opinion of police officers, and the rioting and looting allegedly taking place in Austin. “He was trying to propagate his thoughts on me,” Mestas said. “He was like, ‘All lives matter.’ And I was like, ‘So you agree: Black and Brown lives matter.’ He’s like, ‘And Green and Blue.’ At the time, I had some pretty visible self-harm scars, so he was also kind of commenting on that. And I was like, ‘Uh, this ain’t therapy, dude. Like, nah.’” DPS and APD told The Intercept that the incident was caused by Mestas’s failure to report that she had recovered her car. 311 records, however, show that she did place a second call — as she says she did to retract the stolen vehicle report. She was released without charges within the hour. DPS returned her 4Runner with the window broken and both ends crushed. She was not offered compensation for the damage but was thankful to be reunited with Optimus Prime, who was rattled but otherwise unharmed.

Undaunted by being arrested in so spectacular a fashion, she rejoined the ongoing BLM protests the very next day. She estimates that she has been to a dozen or more demonstrations since then, around APD’s headquarters, the Capitol, and the corner of Fourth and Congress — the spot where Foster was shot and now the site of a makeshift shrine. “We don’t need more police,” she said. “We need more social workers, and EMTs on nonviolent calls.” She acknowledged that she was partly at fault for the incident on the bridge — she should have pulled to the side of the road and exited the vehicle as instructed — but called the over-the-top reaction “a complete waste of resources.” Despite its reputation as a progressive bastion in a conservative state, Austin spends nearly 40 percent of its municipal budget — some $434 million — on its police force, a more lopsided allocation of resources toward law enforcement than any other big city in Texas. But there are indications that this could change. On August 13, the City Council voted unanimously to cut APD’s funding by up to a third. Although it was a preliminary move that could be walked back, $21.5 million in cuts will take place immediately, and it counts as one of the most concrete measures that any U.S. city has taken to rein in police spending to date. Echoing knee-jerk support-the-troops rhetoric used to suppress criticism of Pentagon waste, Abbott said that the City Council’s decision “puts the brave men and women of APD at greater risk.” On August 18, he and other Republican leaders unveiled a proposed bill to freeze the property tax revenues of any Texas city that reduces the budget of its police department. Abbott also vowed to deploy even more DPS troopers to “stand in the gap,” and on September 3, tweeted that he was considering a separate legislative proposal that would allow the state government to assume control of APD, which would effectively become a subsidiary of DPS.

That agency’s nearly $6 billion budget does not appear to be in any immediate danger of reduction, even with the looming $4.6 billion deficit the state comptroller is predicting through 2021. DPS employs 4,129 full-time commissioned officers and spends about $1.4 billion on salaries alone. If the overwhelming number of state troopers summoned to arrest Lauren Mestas for stealing her own car was any indication, they have an awful lot of time on their hands, not to mention an apparently unlimited cornucopia of top-of-the-line vehicles, equipment, and gear to draw on. The plentitude of resources contrasted strongly with the street refugee camp directly underneath the First Street Bridge, which grows a little larger every day that the pandemic grinds on, and more people lose their jobs, face eviction, or are ruined by medical costs. Not just here but beneath bridges and overpasses all over Austin, homeless encampments are proliferating, made of dome tents, shelters built of old signage, lawn furniture, laundry lines, and dumpsters installed by the city to contain the trash. All the wooded and overgrown areas of the hike-and-bike trail around Ladybird Lake are now tunneled and burrowed by human residents; at night you can hear their radios playing softly and catch whiffs of hot dogs grilling on small charcoal fires. A stone’s throw from where Mestas was arrested, not 100 yards away, is the House the Homeless Memorial, dedicated to those who have lost their lives on the streets of Austin. The plaque at the base of it says, “Homelessness is the essence of depression. It is immoral. It is socially corrupt. And it is an act of violence.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#29_September_2020_((satire)_Biden's_lack_of_plan_for_widespread_violence) -- (satire) *Reporter Presses Biden On Lack Of Own Plan To Trigger Widespread Violence.* -- https://politics.theonion.com/reporter-presses-biden-on-lack-of-own-plan-to-trigger-w-1845183264 -- Friday 1:45PM (datetime="2020-09-25T13:45:00-05:00")

Questioning the former vice president’s preparedness for the nation’s highest office, CNN reporter Jim Acosta pressed presidential candidate Joe Biden Friday on his lack of a plan to trigger widespread violence across the U.S. “Sir, we are weeks away from the election and yet you still haven’t offered your own comprehensive policies to ensure that Americans continue to be killed and brutalized in the streets,” said Acosta, urging the Democratic nominee to highlight the concrete steps he would take as president to provoke bloodshed on a massive scale. “What message does it send to voters when you criticize President Trump’s actions without offering a contrasting vision for terrorizing vulnerable citizens to the point that fear of bodily harm becomes a fact of daily life?” Acosta went on to critique Biden for never publicly disavowing the hordes of immigrants illegally casting ballots for him.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#28_September_2020_(Military_and_constitution) -- What would the US military do if the wrecker orders it to suppress "rebellion" based on "fake news"? For generals to resign if ordered to overthrow constitutional government would save their own individual honor, but it would not save constitutional government. Rather, the first one in line who hasn't got enough honor to resign would commit the crime. Their duty would be to preserve constitutional government, not step aside. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/25/trump-and-gop-openly-hatch-election-theft-plot-question-grows-which-side-will-our -- As Trump and GOP Openly Hatch Election Theft Plot, Question Grows: 'Which Side Will Our Military Be On?' -- Friday, September 25, 2020 -- Amid growing concern that chaos will be unleashed in wake of uncertain results, Pentagon officials reportedly discussing their response.

Amid President Donald Trump's transparent efforts to sow doubt and discord around this year's election, his desire to confirm a right-wing Supreme Court justice ahead of November's contest, and his repeated refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power regardless of the outcome, the specter of Trump ordering active-duty troops to quash protests during a possibly chaotic interregnum has reportedly provoked anxiety at the Pentagon. According to Friday reporting by the New York Times, high-ranking military leaders have vowed to keep the armed forces out of the electoral process and its potentially chaotic aftermath, with Defense Department officials saying top generals could resign if the commander in chief tries to deploy them to U.S. streets. As the Times reports:

Senior leaders at the Pentagon, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that they were talking among themselves about what to do if Mr. Trump, who will still be president from Election Day to Inauguration Day, invokes the Insurrection Act and tries to send troops into the streets, as he repeatedly threatened to do during the protests against police brutality and systemic racism.

The Insurrection Act gives the president the power to deploy active-duty military personnel to neutralize civil unrest even if governors are opposed to it. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper both objected to taking that route this summer, and Trump yielded, though not before nearly firing Esper. But the Times noted that Trump, "who refers to the armed forces as 'my military' and 'my generals,' has lumped them with other supporters like Bikers for Trump, who could offer backup in the face of opposition" this fall and winter. "Which side will our military be on when this happens?" tweeted Charles Idelson of National Nurses United earlier this week after Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he is defeated at the polls. In other countries, a head of state's threat to "get rid of the ballots" to ensure a "continuation" rather than a "transfer" of power would be called a coup d'état, Idelson remarked.

In all the other banana republics they call this a coup d etat? Which side will our military be on when this happens? https://t.co/EH9bIvW8lU — Charles Idelson (@cidelson) September 24, 2020

Many have been wondering for weeks what will happen if Trump, who has declined more than once to abide by the results of the election and has repeatedly and baselessly attacked mail-in ballots in an attempt to undermine the validity of the vote—which is already underway in some states—loses and refuses to voluntarily leave office. On August 11, retired Army officers John Nagl and Paul Yingling argued in an open letter to Milley that "you may have to choose between defying a lawless president or betraying your constitutional oath... If Donald Trump refuses to leave office at the expiration of his constitutional term, the U.S. military must remove him by force, and you must give that order." As CNN reported last month, Nagl and Yingling's "advocacy for having the armed forces get involved in settling a disputed election prompted backlash from both the Pentagon and other experts in the field of civilian-military relations."

When answering questions posed by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Mikie Sherril (D-N.J.), both members of the House Armed Services Committee, Milley in late August was emphatic that the military would play no role in resolving a disputed election. "I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military," Milley told lawmakers. "In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S armed forces in this process." As the Associated Press reported last month, Milley "anchored many of his responses" in the U.S. Constitution. "Asked if the military would refuse an order from the president if he was attempting to use military action for political gain rather than national security, Milley said, 'I will not follow an unlawful order.'"

Milley was sharply criticized in June by current and former lawmakers and members of the armed forces for participating in Trump's militarized stunt in which protesters in Lafayette Square near the White House were violently dispersed by the National Guard so that Trump could be photographed holding a bible in front of St. John's Church. Milley publicly apologized for escorting Trump through the park, much to the chagrin of the president. According to the Times, in private discussions at the Defense Department about "the possibility of Mr. Trump trying to use any civil unrest around the elections to put his thumb on the scales... several Pentagon officials said that such a move could prompt resignations among many of Mr. Trump's senior generals, starting at the top with General Milley" and likely including General Charles Brown, the Air Force chief of staff.

Earlier this year, Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor and past Defense Department official under former President Barack Obama, was the head of a bipartisan team of more than 100 former national security officials and election experts who simulated the most significant risks to a peaceful transfer of power. The Transition Integrity Project stressed that there is "a high degree of likelihood that November's elections will be marked by a chaotic legal and political landscape," and it is likely that Trump will "contest the result by both legal and extra-legal means, in an attempt to hold onto power." But the analysis highlighted that "these risks can be mitigated," and the report (pdf) states:

The worst outcomes of the exercises are far from a certainty. The purpose of this report is not to frighten, but to spur all stakeholders to action. Our legal rules and political norms don't work unless people are prepared to defend them and to speak out when others violate them. It is incumbent upon elected officials, civil society leaders, and the press to challenge authoritarian actions in the courts, in the media, and in the streets through peaceful protest.

In a letter released Thursday, nearly 500 retired military leaders and national security officials from both major political parties said Trump is unfit for office and endorsed Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden. The Times reported that Milley on Thursday during a virtual question-and-answer session with U.S. service members around the world urged them to "keep the Constitution close to your heart."

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#10_September_2020_(Justice_Department_taking_up_liability_for_damages) -- The wrecker has told the "Justice Department" to make the US take up the liability for damages, as well as defense costs in E Jean Carroll's lawsuit accusing him of raping her. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/08/trump-defamation-justice-department-e-jean-carroll-rape-accusation -- US justice department seeks to defend Trump in lawsuit tied to rape allegation -- Wed 9 Sep 2020 -- Attorneys seek to substitute US for Trump as defendant in E Jean Carroll case, meaning tax dollars could cover any payout -- Carroll is trying to get a DNA sample from Trump to see whether it matches as-yet-unidentified male genetic material found on a dress that she says she was wearing during the alleged attack >>259

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#29_September_2020_(Thugs_in_Boston_and_some_neighboring_cities) -- The reforming district attorney for Boston and some neighboring cities has published a list of cops in the zone who have been specifically accused of being thugs. It will be harder for them to succeed by testilying ( https://www.stallman.org/glossary.html#testilying ). -- https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/25/metro/suffolk-da-rollins-releases-watch-list-136-area-officers-accused-misconduct/ -- Suffolk DA Rollins releases watch list of 136 area officers accused of misconduct -- September 25, 2020

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins released a list of 136 police officers on Friday night that her office said have been accused of lying, corruption, or misconduct, and whose credibility may be undermined in court. The database, called the Law Enforcement Automatic Discovery, or LEAD, database, includes current and former officers from the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police, and Transit Police, as well as Chelsea and Revere. There is one IRS officer and one Special Police Officer. The list is a revision and expansion of an existing database of officers with credibility issues maintained by previous District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, which had fewer than 20 names. “The LEAD database will help us ensure that the legal process works and people charged with crimes by our office receive all of the information they are entitled to in order to properly defend themselves,” Rollins said in a statement released Friday night.

“If testimony provided by prosecution witnesses is suspect, then the criminal legal system itself is suspect. All of us in law enforcement must be beyond reproach, because what we do impacts matters of life, death, and freedom for the general public.” Under the 1963 Supreme Court decision in Brady v. Maryland, prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to a defendant, including material that may undermine the credibility of a prosecution witness, such as a police officer. Many prosecutors' offices keep lists of officers found to have engaged in misconduct in case they are needed at trial. Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for Rollins, said her office would make decisions on whether to call officers or consider their evidence on a case-by-case basis.

Rollins’s office is working with defense attorneys to determine whether officers in the new LEAD database have been testifying without anyone being aware of their issues. The database will be updated regularly, Brelis said. Officers can be added for several reasons: an investigation or prosecution for criminal conduct in any jurisdiction; an investigation in any jurisdiction into discriminatory or defamatory actions targeting a protected category or class; an investigation in any jurisdiction, including by a law enforcement agency’s internal affairs or anti-corruption unit, that casts doubt upon their truthfulness or integrity; or a finding by a judge, review board, or oversight entity that an officer is not credible. Brelis was not able to provide information Friday night about how the database was compiled. In many cases, the district attorney cited Boston Globe articles and information requests as the basis for officers' inclusion. Of the 136 names in the database, 126 were added on Friday. Brelis said it was not clear how complete the database is, but said Rollins believes “the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers and employees in Suffolk County are dedicated and compassionate professionals who provide exemplary service to the communities they serve.”

The database contains 70 State Police troopers, 54 Boston police officers, 5 Transit police officers, 3 Revere police officers, and 2 Chelsea police officers. A Boston Police spokesman was not able to immediately comment because the database was released at 9 p.m. Friday during a large protest downtown. A spokesperson for the city of Boston was also not able to immediately comment. Spokespeople for the other police departments were not immediately able to be reached. Rollins, who took office in January 2019 after running on a platform of criminal justice reform, has clashed repeatedly with police and other state law enforcement officials.

She has instructed prosecutors in her office not to prosecute certain low-level crimes, decried racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and called for greater scrutiny and oversight of police. Her release of the LEAD database comes amid a national reckoning on policing and racial justice, sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and as the Boston Police Reform Task Force prepares a final report on on ways to build better accountability and transparency in the department. Rollins previously resisted releasing the database. The Globe filed two public records requests, one last fall and another in June, requesting the list, but her office refused until the state’s Supervisor of Records ordered her office to respond. Legal advocates said the release of the database was an important step towards ensuring defendants' rights are protected.

“Police officers are paid to be observers, and then to testify truthfully as witnesses in prosecutions," said Randy Gioia, Deputy Chief Counsel for the Public Defender Division of CPCS. “That’s what they’re required to do, and when they’re dishonest they undermine the core of our criminal justice system and it taints the integrity of the good police officers, the honest ones.” Gioia said that prosecutors should not call officers with credibility problems to testify in the first place. “There has to be a bright line rule,” he said.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#24_September_2020_(Plotting_violence_ahead_of_rallies) -- *Revealed: pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies.* *Patriots Coalition members suggested political assassinations and said ‘laws will be broken, people will get hurt’, leaked chats show.* We all suspected this, but we could not be sure. Now we know that the bully's supporters are a criminal gang. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/oregon-portland-pro-trump-protests-violence-texts -- Wed 23 Sep 2020 -- “I’m waiting for the presidential go to start open firing” >>285

he was a friend of Epstein

I'm sure

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#10_September_2020_(Justice_Department_taking_up_liability_for_damages) -- The wrecker has told the "Justice Department" to make the US take up the liability for damages, as well as defense costs in E Jean Carroll's lawsuit accusing him of raping her. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/08/trump-defamation-justice-department-e-jean-carroll-rape-accusation -- US justice department seeks to defend Trump in lawsuit tied to rape allegation -- Wed 9 Sep 2020 -- Attorneys seek to substitute US for Trump as defendant in E Jean Carroll case, meaning tax dollars could cover any payout -- Carroll is trying to get a DNA sample from Trump to see whether it matches as-yet-unidentified male genetic material found on a dress that she says she was wearing during the alleged attack >>259

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#7_September_2020_(Bully_wants_to_punish_journalist_who_reported_his_contempt_for_US_soldiers_that_died_in_wars.) -- The bully has repeatedly expressed his contempt for US soldiers that died in wars. Now he wants to punish a journalist who reported this. About the US soldiers that died or were injured in Iraq, the bully is half right. They were duped — by Dubya. He started the war >based on lies. All the US military personnel that Dubya hijacked to make the Bush forces were duped, and Dubya is guilty of an enormous crime, against them and against Iraqis. They deserve condolences for that, not contempt. They wanted to serve their country — it is not their fault that Dubya lied to them about what they would be doing. The bully has contempt for them because he is heartless. He lives by duping people; to excuse this, he believes that anyone who is duped deserves to be duped. Now he has mad veterans, many of who supported him, very angry. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/04/veterans-groups-condemn-trump-national-disgrace-over-reports-he-called-fallen -- Veterans Groups Condemn Trump as 'A National Disgrace' Over Reports He Called Fallen Soldiers 'Losers' and 'Suckers' -- Friday, September 04, 2020 -- "Donald Trump does not respect our men and women in uniform. He does not respect their families. He does not respect veterans." >>260

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#1_October_2020_(Right_wing_extremists_infiltrating_thugs) -- An FBI report from 2006 warned that right wing extremists would try to infiltrate US thug departments. We know that a large fraction of thugs are right-wing extremists. Whether this is the result of active infiltration, I don't know, but I don't think it matters much. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/09/29/police-white-supremacist-infiltration-fbi/ -- Unredacted FBI Document Sheds New Light on White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement -- September 29 2020 -- A 2006 intelligence assessment reveals that officials had concerns about the infiltration of police departments for years but failed to warn the public.

The FBI has long been concerned about the infiltration of law enforcement by white supremacist groups and its impact on police abuse and tolerance of racism, the unredacted version of a previously circulated document reveals. The FBI threat assessment report was released by Rep. Jamie Raskin, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, ahead of a hearing about the white supremacist infiltration of local police departments scheduled for Tuesday. A heavily redacted version of the 2006 document had previously been published, one of a handful of documents revealing federal officials’ growing concern with white supremacists’ “historical” interest in “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” A different internal document obtained by The Intercept in 2017 had also noted that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.” The unredacted version of the first document sheds further light on the FBI’s concerns, as early as 2006, about “self-initiated efforts by individuals, particularly among those already within law enforcement ranks, to volunteer their professional resources to white supremacist causes with which they sympathize.” “Having personnel within law enforcement agencies has historically been and will continue to be a desired asset for white supremacist groups seeking to anticipate law enforcement interest in and actions against them,” the report notes in a section that was previously redacted.

Another previously redacted section warned of “factors that might generate sympathies among existing law enforcement personnel and cause them to volunteer their support to white supremacist causes,” which could include hostility toward developments in U.S. domestic and foreign policies “that conflict with white supremacist ideologies,” the report warns. Some redactions do not seem to be justified, for instance, the FBI’s conclusion that “white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement can result in other abuses of authority and passive tolerance of racism within communities served” — an apparent recognition of the potential harm to the public posed by white supremacist individuals embedded in police departments. Other redactions relate to incidents of compromised intelligence. The unredacted document notes that “a white supremacist leader is known to have acquired a sensitive FBI Intelligence Bulletin on the white supremacist movement that had been posted on Law Enforcement Online and had inadvertently become publicly accessible through a law enforcement Web site. In addition to identifying the FBI personnel who prepared the bulletin, the document identified the FBI’s targeting interests within the white supremacist movement.” The redactions also include examples of “strategic infiltration and recruitment campaigns” by white supremacist groups. “Most information about systematic attempts by white supremacist groups to infiltrate law enforcement involves efforts by the National Alliance (NA) during the era of its founder, William Pierce, and in the years immediately following his death in 2002,” the document notes. “White supremacist infiltration of the federal government, including the FBI, plays a prominent role in Pierce’s novels, The Turner Diaries (1978) and Hunter (1989), both widely read works that are sometimes interpreted as practical guidance within white supremacist circles.”

The memo goes on to note that active and retired law enforcement personnel were known to have joined the National Alliance, in some cases holding regional leadership roles in the organization, and raises concerns that the group’s successful efforts to infiltrate law enforcement would likely benefit other white supremacist groups with which it shared intelligence. The redacted sections also include two examples of what the FBI refers to as “white supremacist sympathizers.” In one, the memo mentions that “in July 2006, a former police officer with possible ties to the KKK was charged with civil rights violations involving alleged death threats made against black schoolchildren and a black city council member.” In another, the report mentions the case of Shayne Allyn Ziska, a state correctional officer at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California, who was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in federal prison. “Ziska was convicted on federal racketeering charges for helping the Nazi Low Riders white supremacist prison gang distribute drugs and assault other inmates, and reportedly providing white supremacist indoctrination to an inmate,” the report notes. “Ziska advised he considered himself a government infiltrator consistent with National Socialism’s strategy for revolution.” It’s not clear why the FBI chose to redact those sections. Markings indicate that officials believed redacted portions of the document would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or expose “substantial internal matters.” But some of the redacted text appears to refer to incidents already known to the public. The bureau has for years resisted calls for greater transparency with regard to its knowledge of white supremacist groups. “The public deserves to see the truth reflected in this finally unredacted report,” Raskin said in a statement to The Intercept. “The FBI saw long ago the multiple potential dangers associated with violent white supremacy and its efforts to infiltrate local law enforcement with ideas, attitudes, and personnel.” “The FBI’s continuing refusal to acknowledge and combat this threat, just like its refusal to appear today, constitutes a serious dereliction of duty,” Raskin added. The FBI was invited but declined to participate in today’s hearing, a spokesperson for the committee said. “These newly revealed passages underscore the seriousness of the threat posed by white supremacists to law enforcement personnel and the public at large. That the FBI has continued to withhold this full document, despite enormous public pressure, at a time when the white supremacist threat is rampant again, is indefensible.”

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a report published last month by the Brennan Center for Justice, former FBI agent Mike German detailed law enforcement agencies’ longstanding failure to respond to affiliation with white supremacist and militant groups in their ranks, as well as the long history of law enforcement involvement in white supremacist violence. Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups have been exposed in more than a dozen states, while hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials have been caught expressing racist, nativist, and sexist views on social media, “which demonstrates that overt bias is far too common,” German noted in the report. “Efforts to address systemic and implicit biases in law enforcement are unlikely to be effective in reducing the racial disparities in the criminal justice system as long as explicit racism in law enforcement continues to endure,” German wrote in that report. “There is ample evidence to demonstrate that it does.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jan-apr.html#12_February_2020_(Fighting_voter_suppression) -- How Advocates Are Fighting Voter Suppression. -- Friday, February 07, 2020 -- As the 2020 election season gets under way, activists are beginning to push back against voter disenfranchisement across the country.

Voting rights advocates are battling on multiple fronts this presidential election year to fend off a proliferation of voter suppression maneuvers that largely restrict people of color and younger Americans from casting their ballots. “Heading into the 2020 election, voters in half the states face more obstacles to the ballot box and will find it harder to vote than they did a decade ago,” says Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. These new obstacles have energized a counter-campaign to restore and expand voting rights. Often the newer restrictions focus on bureaucratic details, but their intent and impact target the same populations that historically faced violence and harassment when seeking to exercise the right to vote. The proliferating challenges to the right to vote include requiring people to show specific government identification; mandating an exact match between the name on voting registration records and on approved forms of ID; reducing early voting and absentee voting; preventing voter registration drives by third-party organizations; and aggressive purges of voters who may have moved or who failed to vote in previous elections.

* Voter ID requirements: According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states now have voter ID laws. Millions of Americans don’t have the requisite ID.
* Exact match standards: Georgia enacted a strict match requirement in 2017, and 80 percent of voters whose registrations were blocked by the new law were people of color. A lawsuit forced Georgia to largely end the policy.
* Early/absentee voting restrictions: cutting hours or days of voting in states such as Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Ohio has the effect of longer lines at the polls and fewer overall voters.
* Restrictions on voting registration drives by third-party organizations, such as those enacted in Tennessee that impose civil penalties on canvassers that submit incomplete or inaccurate registration forms. The measure was enacted after the Tennessee Black Voter Project registered 90,000 new voters for the 2018 midterm election.
* Roll Purges: States like Georgia and Wisconsin are removing hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls, often on flimsy pretexts. A federal judge recently backed Georgia’s purge of more than 100,000 voters.

According to the Brennan Center For Justice, these practices disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. “What we are seeing is systematic voter suppression around the country,” says Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight Action, the Georgia organization building on former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ work mobilizing and protecting the rights of voters. Abrams ran against then-Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who refused to step down from his job of overseeing elections while campaigning for governor. The final vote count gave him the race by a margin of just 55,000, after as many as 1 million voters were removed from the rolls. She has called Kemp an “architect of voter suppression,” and Abrams used her now-famous non-concession speech of Nov. 16, 2018 to launch Fair Fight Action with Groh-Wargo. “We’re going to have a fair fight in 2020 because my mission is to make certain that no one has to go through in 2020 what we went through in 2018,” Abrams said in a speech to a union in Las Vegas last summer when she announced an additional initiative aimed at mobilizing voters and countering voter suppression in 20 battleground states. In Georgia, Fair Fight sued in federal court over voter suppression issues raised by the gubernatorial election and the state’s move to purge 300,000 voters under a “use it or lose it” rule. The court so far has refused to take emergency action to stop the mass Georgia purge, but Groh-Wargo says the suit led to nearly 30,000 voters getting restored after the state admitted to a technical glitch and after advocates’ outreach prompted some voters to update their own registrations. “The court didn’t give us the ruling we had hoped for which was to completely restore these use-it-or-lose-it people, but we ended up viewing it as a win,” says Groh-Wargo.

“What we are seeing is systematic voter suppression around the country.”

That rule also is at the heart of an Ohio law that allowed purging of voters who failed to vote for six years and did not confirm their residency. An unknown number of voters, thought to number in the thousands, were removed from the rolls in 2015, but in 2018 the Supreme Court upheld the law in a 5-4 decision. Other states besides Ohio and Georgia with some version of use-it-or-lose-it include Pennsylvania, Oregon, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Montana. In Wisconsin, which like Georgia is expected to be a battleground state in 2020, a purge of 200,000 registered voters based on a computer algorithm showing they had changed their residence has led to suits in federal court and has divided the state Elections Commission along party lines on how to proceed. On Jan. 14, an appellate court put a hold on the purge, but pending litigation challenges the hold. At a private event in Wisconsin last fall, Justin Clark, an adviser to President Trump’s reelection campaign, was recorded confirming that “traditionally, it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes.” Clark was quoted at a later event telling a crowd of Republican lawyers that voter suppression is “going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program.” Wisconsin also is in the voting rights crosshairs over identification restrictions that opponents say make it more difficult for students to vote. A 2011 law establishing a photo ID requirement was signed by then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, and survived initial court challenges. A federal lawsuit filed by Common Cause is still pending.

That suit says that among 28 states with voter ID laws that allow use of student IDs, Wisconsin is the only one that requires students also to show proof of enrollment and that the student ID can only be valid for up to two years. Carolyn DeWitt, president and executive director of Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan organization that works to get more young voters to the polls, says ID laws generally can be problematic for young people who move frequently and may not have a driver’s license or other requisite identification. “In Texas, student IDs from public universities are not accepted for voting, but gun licenses are,” says DeWitt. Rock the Vote also opposes residency laws like the one New Hampshire lawmakers adopted last year, which changes the definition of residency to require that voters be permanent residents of New Hampshire. That makes it more difficult for out-of-state college students to be eligible to vote where they go to school.

“We are definitely seeing a backlash against the wave of youth voting that we’ve seen over the last couple of years,” DeWitt says. In addition to monitoring voter suppression initiatives from Republican-controlled state legislatures, voting rights advocates worry about identifying and curbing stealth tactics by local election officials. Administrative moves that can depress voting include shutting down or moving polling places, changes in polling place hours, using new ways of voting that may confuse voters, and not adequately training polling place workers, all of which also may contribute to long waits to cast ballots. “These types of things are hard for us to alert people of and address everywhere,” says Sophia Lakin, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights project. “So many of these restrictions fall disproportionately on these communities that have been growing in strength over the last decade or so—voters of color, young voters, voters with disabilities,” adds Lakin. “What’s at stake for many of the state actors who are perpetrating these restrictive measures, and certainly what’s motivating it, is an attempt to keep control.

“As the country’s electorate has changed over time becoming more diverse, that has motivated I would say a lot of efforts to make voting more difficult. Look at what we are seeing with racial gerrymandering,” she continued. “You’re putting in place a situation where politicians are choosing their voters, and voters are not choosing their politicians.” Advocates cite two key triggers that helped propel voting restrictions: the 2008 election of Barack Obama and a 2013 Supreme Court ruling gutting part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Lakin says the huge increase in voters of color and young voters in 2008 “resulted in the election of the first African American president, and almost immediately in that aftermath we start to hear the beginnings of a suppression period that follows about 45 years of expansion of voting rights.” Then in Shelby v. Holder, the Supreme Court in 2013 removed a requirement for states and local governments with a history of discrimination to get approval from the federal government before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices. Lakin says the ruling gave the jurisdictions formerly subject to preclearance “free rein in terms of putting into place restrictions,” and since the 2013 ruling those states have had a higher rate of purges.

“People need to understand our whole country’s history is a fight for voting rights and in many ways.”

The Voting Rights Advancement Act, which passed the House in 2019 but is unlikely to get through the Republican-held Senate, would restore the preclearance process voided by Shelby and update the Voting Rights Act to provide protections against newer forms of voter discrimination. The counter-campaign to increase voting access advocates measures that make it easier to vote, such as same-day registration, automatic voter registration, automatic registration updates and voting by mail. At this point, 16 states and the District of Columbia have approved automatic voter registration, but Weiser says only 12 states will have it in place in time for the 2020 elections. She says that 24 states will have same-day registration in place for the November general election. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 21 states now allow some elections to be conducted by mail, and four use mailed ballots for all elections: Oregon (2000), Washington (2011), Colorado (2013) and Hawaii (2019).

Groh-Wargo urges candidates and campaigns to start early building voter protection infrastructure and to follow the “Abrams Playbook” of reaching out to all voters, including those in underrepresented communities and those considered unlikely to vote. “We can’t win every court battle, we can’t overcome Russian interference in our elections, we can’t do Congress’ job for them,” says Groh-Wargo. “We’re not going to sit around and wait. We’re going to be fighting day in and day out. So much of the right to vote is an exercise in organizing as much as it is an exercise in the battle in the courtroom.” “People need to understand our whole country’s history is a fight for voting rights and in many ways, this is about a new fight, and it is a fight worth having and we can be victorious,” she says. What Can You Do? Advocates urge individual voters to help counter voter suppression by:

* Checking your voter registration early and often to make sure it’s up to date. Make sure family and friends also check. Many states have easy online access to your view registration records, and vote.org also has voting data from all 50 states.
* Helping counter misinformation and disinformation by knowing the credible sources for voting information and sharing it with others. Double-check the information you hear and report disinformation immediately.
* Volunteering to be poll workers.