An affordable price is probably the major benefit persuading people to buy drugs at www.americanbestpills.com. The cost of medications in Canadian drugstores is considerably lower than anywhere else simply because the medications here are oriented on international customers. In many cases, you will be able to cut your costs to a great extent and probably even save up a big fortune on your prescription drugs. What's more, pharmacies of Canada offer free-of-charge shipping, which is a convenient addition to all other benefits on offer. Cheap price is especially appealing to those users who are tight on a budget
Service Quality and Reputation
Although some believe that buying online is buying a pig in the poke, it is not. Canadian online pharmacies are excellent sources of information and are open for discussions. There one can read tons of users' feedback, where they share their experience of using a particular pharmacy, say what they like or do not like about the drugs and/or service. Reputable online pharmacy canadianrxon.com take this feedback into consideration and rely on it as a kind of expert advice, which helps them constantly improve they service and ensure that their clients buy safe and effective drugs. Last, but not least is their striving to attract professional doctors. As a result, users can directly contact a qualified doctor and ask whatever questions they have about a particular drug. Most likely, a doctor will ask several questions about the condition, for which the drug is going to be used. Based on this information, he or she will advise to use or not to use this medication.
Levinson was originally with the Drug Enforcement Agency before moving to the FBI and later assigned to a special operation for the CIA. Levinson’s family received $2.5 million annuity from the CIA in order to stop a lawsuit revealing details of his work in Iran and to forestall any revelation of details regarding the arrangement between Levinson and the agency. Levinson had retired from the FBI in 1998 and had become self-employed as a private investigator; his specialty was Russian organized crime gangs, and he was even interviewed numerous times for television documentaries to discuss the topic. Both Levinson and the CIA analyst who hired him, Anne Jablonski, specialized in Russian organized crime and not Iranian issues.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A U.S. judge has ordered Iran to pay $1.45 billion to the family of a former FBI agent believed to have been kidnapped by the Islamic Republic while on an unauthorized CIA mission to an Iranian island in 2007.
The judgment this month comes after Robert Levinson’s family and the U.S. government now believe he died in the Iranian government’s custody, something long denied by Tehran, though officials over time have offered contradictory accounts about what happened to him on Kish Island.
Tensions remain high between the U.S. and Iran amid President Donald Trump’s maximalist pressure campaign over Tehran’s nuclear program. And though the U.S. and Iran haven’t had diplomatic relations since the aftermath of the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran, America stills holds billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets that could be used to pay Levinson’s family.
In a ruling dated Thursday, the U.S. District Court in Washington found Iran owed Levinson’s family $1.35 billion in punitive damages and $107 million in compensatory damages for his kidnapping. The court cited the case of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died in 2017 shortly after being freed from captivity in North Korea, in deciding to award the massive amount of punitive damages to Levinson’s family.
“Iran’s conduct here is also unique, given that — astonishingly — it plucked a former FBI and DEA special agent from the face of the earth without warning, tortured him, held him captive for as long as 13 years, and to this day refuses to admit its responsibility,” the ruling by Judge Timothy J. Kelly said.
“And his wife and children, and their spouses and children — while keeping Levinson’s memory alive — have had to proceed with their lives without knowing his exact fate. These are surely acts worthy of the gravest condemnation,” the judge added.
Iranian state media and officials in Tehran did not immediately acknowledge the ruling in a case in which Iran offered no defense. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday from The Associated Press.
In a statement, Levinson’s family called the court’s award “the first step in the pursuit of justice.”
“Until now, Iran has faced no consequences for its actions,” the family said. “Judge Kelly’s decision won’t bring Bob home, but we hope that it will serve as a warning against further hostage taking by Iran.”
Levinson disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island on March 9, 2007. For years, U.S. officials would only say that Levinson, a meticulous FBI investigator credited with busting Russian and Italian mobsters, was working for a private firm on his trip.
In December 2013, the AP revealed Levinson in fact had been on a mission for CIA analysts who had no authority to run spy operations. Levinson’s family had received a $2.5 million annuity from the CIA in order to stop a lawsuit revealing details of his work, while the agency forced out three veteran analysts and disciplined seven others.
Primer: There are going to be countless legal challenges to vote results nationwide, it cannot be avoided. Just prepared for a mess larger than that of the Bush-Gore results which took 36 days.
A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury.
Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of the individual’s membership in a particular group or class. Various jurisdictions have enacted statutes to prevent discrimination based on a person’s race, sex, religion, age, previous condition of servitude, physical limitation, national origin, and in some instances sexual orientation.
People often confuse civil rights and civil liberties. Civil rights refer to legal provisions that stem from notions of equality. Civil rights are not in the Bill of Rights; they deal with legal protections. For example, the right to vote is a civil right. A civil liberty, on the other hand, refers to personal freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights. For example, the First Amendment’sright to free speech is a civil liberty.
Read on however and give this a bit of critical thinking.
Free speech protected by the 1st Amendment has thousands of moving parts including voting or not voting. There are many times where free speech is not only challenged but removed as a civil right as noted in the case of a criminal conviction of a felony.
Wearing a t-shirt or a hat with a logo or slogan is free speech just as much as flying a flag at your home or not doing so.
So, when it comes to ballot harvesting, consider that forcing votes by turning in ballots for tabulation is against free speech. This all stems from voter rolls (databases) that are not audited, purged, corrected or amended. People move away, people die, people change names and people request ballots using phony names and addresses. Mass mailings of the entire database is not representative of quality and current data. Then there is the matter of ballot design that is challenged making it confusing for the voter or the matter of mistakes made in the comparisons of signatures on file to the actually submitted ballot. How about errors made in names and addresses in the mass mailings where it does not at all match yet the ballots are mailed? What about people tailing the Post Office and delivery personnel and grabbing ballots out of mail trays or slots or simply offering a stipend to fill out the ballot for the alleged voter on their behalf?
There is still the matter of voter ID which has yet to be resolved in many states.
But now we are hearing many other incidents of ballot malfunctions including 100,000 in New York.
Valerie Vazquez-Diaz, a spokesperson for the board, toldCNN that 99,477 voters in Brooklyn were affected by an issue with the “oath” envelope for their absentee ballot.
The envelopes—which include the voter’s name, address and voter ID—were sent with the wrong name and address, a problem that was first reported Monday by confused voters, though its scope was unknown.
Here too it is important to note that many candidate vote results come down to a mere few hundred votes where absentee ballots or provisional ballots come into question.
For the matter of not voting…this matter of ballot harvesting is forcing a name in many cases as a vote where otherwise there may not be a vote at all and that too is free speech. One has to ask is this a violation of the civil rights of an individual? Of course it is….perhaps a person is apathetic, disgusted or otherwise not engaged at all in any part of government affairs or policy? That is fine too under the 1st Amendment.
The media should really challenge the whole matter of civil rights violations and ballot harvesting.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio harshly criticized the NYC Board of Elections Tuesday morning: “This is appalling. It is so easy to avoid this mistake and it is very easy to fix this mistake.”
Key Background
This error comes amid continued attacks on mail-in voting from President Trump, who has insisted—without evidence—that the Democrats will use mail-in voting, “a whole big scam,” to steal the 2020 election. News from last week that a “small number” of ballots in Pennsylvania had been discarded further fueled the president’s accusations of widespread “voter fraud.”
Hat tip to Sean Davis for his assessment, which has been reviewed and declassified by DNI John Ratcliffe. At some point, one of the debates will include this and then we will have fireworks. Frankly, this may not have been exclusively Hillary, you know she had help from say, Sid Blumenthal, John Podesta or Strobe Talbot. More to come for sure, as there are more hearings in the Senate.
BREAKING: On July 26, 2016, U.S. intel authorities learned that Russian intel knew of Hillary Clinton’s plans to cook up a scandal alleging that Trump was working with Russia. Obama was personally briefed on Russia’s knowledge of Clinton’s plans.
On September 7, 2016, U.S. intel officials sent an investigative referral to James Comey and Peter Strzok about Clinton’s election interference plan–and Russia’s knowledge of it. We now know the Steele dossier was entirely a product of Russian agents and intel officials.
Christopher Steele, the Clinton campaign subcontractor who compiled the dossier, was working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch. So was Fusion GPS. And we learned this week that the dossier’s “primary sub-source” was a Russian intel asset who was deemed a national security threat.
Today’s declassification confirms that from the beginning, the FBI knew its anti-Trump investigation was based entirely on Russian disinformation. Brennan and Comey were personally warned. They responded by fabricating evidence and defrauding the courts.
Primer: President Trump called on the U.S. attorney in Minnesota to investigate a report of alleged illegal ballot harvesting by supporters of Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota.
Project Veritas, an investigative reporting project that uses undercover journalists, released a report on Sunday night that claimed Omar’s supporters in Minneapolis were illegally collecting blank ballots and bragging about it on social media. Trump condemned the actions depicted in the video in a tweet posted on Sunday night.
“This is totally illegal. Hope that the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota has this, and other of her many misdeeds, under serious review??? If not, why not??? We will win Minnesota because of her, and law enforcement. Saved Minneapolis & Iron O Range!” Trump wrote.
The report focuses on ballot harvesting, a practice Trump and other Republicans have condemned for years. Ballot harvesting is when a third party, often volunteers or campaign staff, collects ballots directly from the homes of voters to deliver them to polling stations. The third-party harvesters can be paid hourly for their work.
Most states that allow voters to have a third party deliver their ballots have a limit on the number of ballots that can be collected by an individual. California is the exception, which allows unlimited ballot collection so long as the harvesters are paid hourly and not per ballot. Full article here.
Ballot Harvester Liban Mohamed: “Money is Everything. Money is the King in this World. If You Got No Money, You Should Not Be Here, Period. You Know What I am Saying? Money is Everything and a Campaign is Managed By Money.”
Mohamed: “Numbers Do Not Lie. Numbers Do Not Lie. You Can See My Car is Full. All These Here Are Absentee Ballots. Can’t You See? Look at All These, My Car is Full.”
Paid Voter: “When We Sign The Voting Document and They Fill It Out Is When They Give Us The Money,”… “The Minute We Signed The Thing [Ballot] For The Election. That’s When We Get paid.”
Ballot Harvesting Triangle: River Plaza Apartments, Horn Towers seniors Community and 980 Hennepin Polling Site All Subject to Fraud
Minneapolis Somali Community Insider: “It’s an Open Secret” … “She [Ilhan Omar] Will Do Anything That She Can Do To Get Elected and She [Omar] Has Hundreds of People on The Streets Doing That.”
Seniors at Horn Towers Ballots Compromised; Harvester: We “Request” Ballots For The Seniors and Then Take Them Away.
[Minneapolis–Sept. 27, 2020] Project Veritas investigators revealed a ballot harvesting scheme here involving clan and political allies and associates of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D.-Minn.) in the first of a series of reports.
***
“Numbers don’t lie. Numbers don’t lie. You can see my car is full. All these here are absentees’ ballots. Can’t you see? Look at all these, my car is full. All these are for Jamal Osman… We got 300 today for Jamal Osman only,” said Liban Mohamed in a series of Snapchat videos posted July 1 and July 2 on his own Snapchat profile.
Mohamed said he was collecting the ballots to help his brother win the city’s Aug. 11 special election for a vacant Ward 6 city council race—which was held the same day as the primary for Omar’s MN-05 congressional seat. Ward 6 is the heart of the city’s Somali community and the Omar’s political base.
James O’Keefe, the founder and CEO of Project Veritas, said: “Ballot harvesting is real and it has become a big business. Our investigation into this ballot harvesting ring demonstrates clearly how these unscrupulous operators exploit the elderly and immigrant communities—and have turned the sacred ballot box into a commodities trading desk.”
O’Keefe said, “We are showing Americans what is really going on in one of our great cities—but, it’s not me saying—we have the operators on tape saying it all themselves.”
Our investigation found that among three locations inside Ward 6, a ballot harvesting triangle, where the scheme operates: the Riverside Plaza apartments, the senior citizen community at Horn Towers and the Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services office at 980 E. Hennepin Ave., which also functions as a voting location and ballot drop-off site.
Mohamed continued: “Money is everything. Money is the king in this world. If you got no money, you should not be here period. You know what I am saying.”
***
Mohamed said that his political methods are interwoven with money. “Money is everything and a campaign is managed by money. You cannot campaign with $200 or $100 you got from your grandmother or grandfather. You cannot campaign with that. You gotta have an investment to campaign. You gotta have fundraisers.”
Hennepin County Attorney Jeff Wojciechowski told a Project Veritas journalist on a recorded line the ballot harvesting conduct described to him was: “Illegal, and we will be investigating.”
Somali insider stepped forward to expose election corruption in Minneapolis
Central to the Project Veritas investigation was Omar Jamal, political insider active in the city’s Somali community. Jamal works with the Ramsey County Sheriff Department and is the chairman of the Somali Watchdog Group. “I have been involved in the community for the last 20 years.”
***
“Omar Jamal is the latest brave Project Veritas Insider to come forward and expose a voter fraud scheme in Minnesota that will shock you,” said O’Keefe. “When we spoke with Omar Jamal, he actually repeated part of our PV Insider motto: ‘Do Something.’”
Jamal said he was motivated to reach out to Project Veritas, because he wants to eliminate the corruption that weakens his community, such as the ballot harvesting practiced by Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in which Ilhan Omar has emerged as a rising power broker.
“It’s an open secret,” he said. “she [Omar] will do anything that she can do to get elected and she has hundreds of people on the streets doing that.”
The political insider said he hopes there is still time to clean up elections in the country.
“If American people don’t pay attention to what’s happening, the country will collapse,” he said.
“The regulations, if you ignore that and you let corruption and fraud become a daily business and then tough luck, the country will not exist as they [Americans] know it,” Jamal said.
“I’m afraid it’s already too big to stop, you know, maybe it’s too late. Maybe it’s already too big to stop,” he said. “There’s a lot of people invested in this, you know, and they don’t care how they did it: ‘We win,’ and that’s it.”
Ballot Harvester described how his own ballot was harvested by Omar operatives
Jamal, as part of his participation in the investigation, interviewed a Somali-American who functions as a ballot harvester his community. In the interview, the harvester described how he was paid to vote in the Aug. 11 special election and primary, along with a Project Veritas undercover journalist.
The harvester said Somali-American vote-buying operatives from the Omar machine came to his apartment building to oversee the voter filling out the paperwork.
Omar operatives request the ballots and fill them out for the voters, he said.
“They come to us. They came to our homes. They said: ‘This year, you will vote for Ilhan,’” he said. “They said: ‘We will make the absentee ballots. We will fill out the forms for you and when you get them back, we will again fill it out and send it.”
There was no need to go to the voting site, because the Omar operatives told him: “You stay home and you will not go to the place.”
After the ballots are signed and documented the harvester said he got paid.
“When we sign the voting document and they fill it out is when they give us the money,” he said. “The minute we signed the thing [ballot] for the election. That’s when we get paid.”
Ballot harvester describes how he targets elderly voters
Omar Jamal: So they [ballot harvesters] will request it [the ballot] for the elderly?
Ballot harvester: Yes. They [ballot harvesters] request [the ballot] for them [the elderly].
Omar Jamal: And it [the ballot] is taken away from them [elderly]?
Ballot Harvester: Yes. It [the ballot] is taken away from them [elderly].
DFL operative describes why he did not speak up about the election corruption
A political operative, known as Jamal, for Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which functions as the state’s official chapter of the national Democratic Party, told a Project Veritas undercover journalist he was afraid to speak up when he saw abuses of the voting system.
“They fight you if you speak up,” Jamal said. “Like what? Like what can I do? Like get jumped? Hell no. They ain’t got—no, no, I’m good.”
The DFL operative said he also saw Mohamed’s Snapchat videos. “I was looking at them and they were not filled. They were blank.”
***
“Liban didn’t get it in a unique way,” he said. “He just gets them the way that everybody before him, or even, maybe even after him will do, which is go to the elders, maybe bait them and collect and help to them and he’s helping them–so, I think that’s the process of collecting from the seniors, from their buildings.”
The Insider said another corrupting effect is the miseducation of the city’s new immigrants.
“We have to understand that the immigrants mostly, here now, are first generation immigrants,” he said.
“Through no fault of their own the new immigrants are learning about democracy from the ballot harvesters,” he said. “When they get here, because of that ignorance, not knowing how this, all things work. Sometimes they even think it’s legal.” – he said.
Documented ballot harvesting, vote buying violates federal and state law
Jered Ede, the chief legal officer for Project Veritas, said Mohamed and his confederates may have violated both state and federal election laws, some carrying a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
“The federal laws, 18 USC §597 and 52 U.S.C. §10307(c), are quite clear,” he said. “In the case of 18 USC §597, it is punishable by up to two years in prison and in the case of 52 USC §10307 it’s punishable by up to $10,000 in fines and up to five years in prison.”
The Minnesota statute, 211B.13(1) prohibits paying a person or receiving money to register to vote or to vote, he said. “This is a state felony punishable by more than one-year imprisonment.”
Beyond paying voters, there are also state and federal laws regarding intimidation of voters, he said.
“The federal laws 52 USC §20511, 18 USC §594 and 52 USC §10307(b) and the Minnesota statue 211B.07 law prohibit anyone from using undue influence threats intimidation or fraud to influence a person’s vote or to influence them to vote at all,” he said.
It’s also a violation of federal law for anyone who votes for others illegally:
“The punishment under 52 USC §10307(e) also goes up to five years’ incarceration and a $10,000 fine,” he said.
“In addition to those statutes, Minnesota has another statute, 211B.11(3), which makes it a misdemeanor to induce or persuade a voter to vote for or against a candidate, while transporting the voter to the polls,” he said.
Former campaign worker comes forward
One Minneapolis-based source, who is a former political worker, told Project Veritas journalists on the night of the Aug. 11 special election and primary that Omar’s campaign manager Ali Isse Gainey is a key player in the ballot harvesting scheme.
***
The source said, “[Gainey], who’s working in Ilhan’s campaign is the one who is managing the voting place. They bring them. They line them. They put the open ballots in there and then they take them in and say, ‘Here,’ and the people mark [the ballots].”
The practice is pervasive she said.
“They’re accepting temporary addresses; they’re accepting all kind of shenanigans,” she said.
“People that are showing their ID: ‘I moved 30 days ago, my ID’s not come back.’ ‘OK, just give us the last four of your social and tell us the address,’ and then somebody else will say ‘Yeah.’ They will send people who are helping them vote and saying: ‘Yeah, I can vouch for this madness,’” she said.
The former campaign worker said Isse and the Omar-connected political machine have turned voter fraud into an organized process for application, registering and tracking the harvested ballots from collection to delivering to polls.
“They have perfected this system,” she said. “This is what they do. They will tell you we are applying for your ballot. They take a picture of your social security and your driver’s license. They have a database. When the ballot comes, they track it, sometimes, they make fake emails. They track the ballot. Then, they come and pick up the ballot—unopened,” she said.
“So, there is vested interest, but we are victims of the system,” she said. “They [the Omar political machine] don’t give a shit about any Somali.”
***
Our source was disgusted by the exploitation of her vulnerable community.
“No, and the ones that didn’t vote on ballots, the young people, and the women and stuff, they were paying cash, cash, cash,” she said. “They were carrying bags of money. And when you vote and they mark you off, then you get in the van, they give you the cash.”
Primer: Amy Coney Barrett went through the confirmation process less than 3 years ago and received bi-partisan votes. You can also be confident that security teams have been deployed to protect Barrett and her family based on what happened during the Kavanaugh hearings.
Okay, read on.
This guide was written and compiled by a coalition of groups including: MoveOn, Frontline/ M4BL Electoral Justice Project, Demand Justice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, CPD Action, Indivisible, and Sunrise Movement.
This is a guide to support and empower people who are ready to fight back this weekend when President Trump names a SCOTUS nominee and attempts to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat before the inauguration. We will be having a distributed day of action this Sunday, Sept 27 at 2pm local time. This guide will provide a roadmap for taking action, and ensure your actions align with actions across the country so that together, we can be a powerful united force for justice.
COVID REMINDER: If you choose to participate in an in-person event, follow key precautions to reduce the safety risks you may face while protesting during the COVID-19 pandemic, including staying home if you are not well or have reason to think you have COVID-19; wearing a mask or face covering over your nose and mouth; and maintaining at least 6 feet of physical distance from other protestors to the extent possible.
STORY OF THE MOMENT
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, September 18, 2020. Many of us are grieving her death and remembering her legacy as a fearless champion for women’s rights and social justice.
With voting already underway, it should be left up to the American people to decide who gets to nominate the next Supreme Court justice. No nomination should advance or be voted on before the 2021 Inauguration.
Senate Leadership needs to prioritize economic relief for the millions of people who are suffering after having lost their jobs and are struggling to pay rent and feed their families, not play politics with a rushed Supreme Court nomination process.
In this moment of overlapping crises–a global pandemic, mass unemployment, systemic racism, and climate change–the stakes of nominating and confirming a new Supreme Court Justice could not be higher. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and as the highest court in the US, their rulings shape all of our lives—everything from abortion to segregation, transgender rights to climate change, big money in politics to healthcare. It is unjust and unacceptable to try to rush through a nomination less than 40 days from the election.
With our futures on the line, we must rise up to demand that US Senators stand on the right side of history and let the people decide on the next Supreme Court Justice of this country. We must demand no nomination before inauguration. It’s our future and we should get to choose our justice.
MESSAGING
SLOGANS FOR ACTION ART
Slogans are a simplified version of your message. Having unified slogans helps us make our demands clear. Slogans are the words that we use on our action art. These slogans should be used in ALL CAPS on action art. For more information on how to make art for your action see the action visuals section below, or check out the action art toolkit.
NO CONFIRMATION BEFORE INAUGURATION
LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE
OUR FUTURE, OUR JUSTICE
I DON’T WANT YOUR NOMINEE. I WANT _____________ [fill in the blank to personalize]
JUSTICE FOR BREONNA TAYLOR
RACIAL JUSTICE
ECONOMIC RELIEF
A GREEN NEW DEAL
MEDICARE FOR ALL
COVID TESTING
COVID RELIEF
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
SAMPLE SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
Social media is a powerful organizing tool. You should post on social media leading up to your action, to recruit people to attend, as well as post during the action and directly after. See the call to action section for more info about posting on social media after the action.
Here is sample language to use on social media:
Protect our democracy and our communities. No confirmation before inauguration.
We’re less than 30 days out from the election. Honor democracy and RBG. Let the people decide who will be the nominee.
It’s time for the Senate to pass economic relief, not ram through a Supreme Court nominee.
#RuthBaderGinsburg leaves a legacy on the Supreme Court that is etched into the fabric of our democracy. We must fight to protect it by ensuring that there’s no confirmation before the inauguration .
Health care for people with preexisting conditions is on the line. Right now there is a case at the Supreme Court that may end the entire Affordable Care Act, which would kick millions off their insurance in the middle of a pandemic. If he is able to pick another justice that could put health care at risk for all of us.
One more conservative justice on the Supreme Court would lock in a conservative supermajority for decades to come. Everything — including abortion rights, gun violence prevention, LGBTQ+ rights, economic justice, and voting rights — would be at risk. Progressives are ready to rally and fight back to protect our rights and our democracy.
Senate leadership should be focused on addressing the COVID-19 crisis, not fast-tracking a Supreme Court nominee. No confirmation until inauguration — period. #LetThePeopleDecide
If Trump confirms a replacement for #RBG, there’s no telling what damage they could do to reproductive freedom or healthcare access. To protect our rights, we need to make sure there’s no confirmation until after the inauguration.
Our most fundamental freedoms are at stake. Another conservative justice threatens access to reproductive freedom, healthcare, and equality. The people should pick the next president, and the next president should choose the nominee.
What’s at stake if senate leadership replaces #RBG with a radical new justice who could serve on the Supreme Court for decades? EVERYTHING. We have to fight this nomination with all that we’ve got, because we’re fighting for our freedom.
Primary Hashtag (use this on all your social media posts): #LetThePeopleDecide
These are for the speakers at your action to use to craft their speeches, and for writing a press release or sharing more info to your base to encourage people to come support your action.
With voting already underway, it should be left up to the American people to decide who gets to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.
No nomination should advance or be voted on before the 2021 Inauguration.
Senate leadership needs to prioritize economic relief for the millions of people who are suffering after having lost their jobs and are struggling to pay rent and feed their families, not play politics with a rushed Supreme Court nomination process.
The Supreme Court makes rulings that shape all of our lives—everything from abortion to segregation, transgender rights to climate change, big money in politics to healthcare. It is unacceptable and unjust to try to rush through a nomination less than 40 days from the election.
We must rise up to demand that US Senators stand on the right side of history and let the people decide on the next Supreme Court Justice of this country. We must demand no nomination before inauguration. It’s our future and we should get to choose our justice.
DO lead with values
DO name the violation of those values and/or culprits
DO focus on an irresistable vision of the future
DO name your audience/s and think about what moves them, this is another great way to localize your rally
DON’T use/repeat the opposition’s language or frames.
DON’T lead with data. You can include it, but numbers shouldn’t be the lead
PLAN YOUR ACTION
Holding an action at your local courthouse will help move your community into action and bring this narrative into the public. Below are the key steps in planning your action. Check out this action planning resource from Sunrise Movement for more details on how to plan an action.
If you’re planning to host an in-person action, please register it on social media and fill out this quick form to spread the word! http://bit.ly/RegisterSCOTUSAction.
If you aren’t able or don’t feel comfortable holding an in person action, you can still take action online – see the bottom of this section for more information on digital actions.
COVID Note: To address COVID concerns, it is best to strongly discourage anyone who feels unwell or is exhibiting symptoms from attending. There will be a digital event to participate in at the national level (see below for digital action). In the recruitment materials, make it clear and explicit that social distance and mask wearing rules will be in effect. Make sure there is someone at your action thinking about COVID safety. Those who are high-risk should understand the potential risks of attending, and organizers should take precautions to keep attendees safe.
ASSEMBLE YOUR TEAM
Below are all of the key roles for an action, if you have a small group, it’s ok if the same person holds multiple roles. There is more information about how to do each role in other sections of the guide.
Action coordinator
Coordinates the team and manages the overall event
Recruitment Lead
Recruits people to the action, supports action coordinator with outreach
Police Liaison & Safety Coordinator
Is prepared to speak with the police if any are at your action
Identify yourself at the action as the person for everyone to point the police to if they arrive and want to speak to someone
Ensures COVID safety during the event
Has first aid materials or coordinates with volunteer medic to bring first aid materials
Speaker(s)
Makes a short (2-4 minute) speech during the action, and uplifts the action’s purpose, mixing with their personal narrative of why this is so important to them and their community. Speakers should refer to the messaging guidance (above).
Media coordinator
Creates a press advisory and/or press release about your action
Contact reporters and media outlets before and after the event
Connects speakers and spokespeople with reporters during event
Social media coordinator
Assigns someone to take photos of the action
Assigns someone to livestream the action
Shares photos, posts or livestream of the event on facebook, twitter, and instagram
Use this Photo & Livestream toolkit to capture powerful content that communicates the message of our action
Uses the hashtags with all posts from the event
Action Art Coordinator
Coordinate the creation of the action art
Oversee the art (banners and signs) and action staging the day of the action
CONFIRM THE BASICS
LOCATION
We are asking people to take action at their local courthouse. Google where your local courthouse is if you don’t know, if there are multiple courthouses, think of which is best for the action – which one is in the neighborhood of the community you want to come to the action? Which one is most accessible to get to?
A good location is:
1) High profile/high traffic so the action is more likely to be seen and raise awareness of our demands 2) Is the most symbolic location that represents the messaging of your action
TIME & DATE
Sunday, September 27th at 2pm (local time) is set as a national day of action for SCOTUS rapid response courthouse actions. Doing your event at this time will help you get traction on the event because it will be at the same time as events across the country. If you need to adjust the timing of your event, aim to have it as close to 2pm on Sunday as possible.
If you’re planning to host an event, please register it on social media and fill out this quick form to spread the word! http://bit.ly/RegisterSCOTUSAction.
CREATE ACTION VISUALS
Visual Strategy is everything communicated through the visuals of your action. This includes your action art (banners, signs, t-shirts), your staging (the way people stand and hold their signs), and lots of details like people’s body language. The more thoughtful and aligned with your overall strategy your visuals are, the more powerful your action will be. The visuals for your event are crucial for telling a powerful story. Across the country, we’re coordinating our slogans to clearly communicate our demands with a unified voice.
Staging is making a plan for how your participants and action art will be positioned during your action to be as powerful as possible and to be able to capture photos and video that tell a clear story of the action. You can make a plan for staging by drawing what you want the action to look like.
On the day of your action, plan to have someone overseeing staging, and someone overseeing the action art, and at least one person taking photos. All of the people in these roles should coordinate about what the action will look like and what photos of the action you need.
Work with the rest of your action team to make a plan for the action day. Think about what the action will look like (consult the staging guide), what equipment you will need, like a bullhorn or amplification system, and recruit your speakers. You can use the action planning toolkit to make a tik-tok for the day, so you have a plan for how the day will run.
SPEAKERS & SPOKESPEOPLE:
An important part of your action planning is preparing the people who will be speaking publicly. Speakers should write and rehearse their speech ahead of time, and spokespeople, the people who are designated to talk to the press, should also review talking points ahead of time to make sure that your topline messaging, demands, and objectives are highlighted in short sound bites and so that you’re ready to answer questions during the action. Help people keep their speeches to 3-5 minutes, and focus on what inspires you – speak from your heart!
RISK:
There is a level of risk inherent in any action we take, and each of us experiences that risk in different ways. Participating in an action may be a much higher sacrifice for some of us, depending on our race, gender identity, our ability, our immigration status or other factors. When we take action together, we need to take into account how different people will experience interactions with the public, press, and police. Check out this Know Your Rights Guide from the ACLU to make sure you are prepared. Consult Sunrise Movement’s Taking Action Guide for more information about risk.
PREPARE & PRACTICE
For many actions, and always for actions that include the possibility of arrest, you should hold a training. We recommend holding the action training the evening before your action, for everyone holding a key role, so all the information is fresh in people’s minds.
Set a time and date to get your group together for a run-through of the action plan and invite everyone who you want to attend the action. You can make an event for this action prep meeting to collect RSVPs so you know how many people to expect and can remind people to show up! Spread the word for this meeting by texting everyone in your hub, sending an email, calling people who you want to make sure show up, and posting the event link on social media.
In this meeting, make sure everyone knows their legal rights. Your action lead and police liaison should talk at the training about rights, risk and de-escalation. You should make plans for who will step in if a situation arises that needs to be deescalated.
Practice your deployment (how you approach the area where you are taking action) and practice your staging (who’s holding what sign, where everyone is standing). If you can’t meet in person, meeting virtually is a good secondary option. Share your Action Plan with all participants who are confirmed as participants in the action, which includes the details of your training, the march plan, what to bring, tick-tock (day-of schedule), and other important details. For privacy purposes, at this meeting you should set up a secure group message for everyone holding roles to communicate centrally via an app like Signal.
PROMOTE & RECRUIT FOR YOUR EVENT
Recruitment is an extremely important part of your action: the more people that show up to the action, the better! Below are several ways that you can recruit people to show up to and participate in your event:
Make a Facebook event and invite all your friends – remind attendees to wear a mask and practice social distancing
Promote on social media platforms with graphics or videos hyping up the action, send an email to your networks
Call or text people from your network who would be interested in the action. This could be your friends or people who signed up from events you’ve held in the past
Outreach through other groups in your community and in student networks
Create an online form (like a google form) to sign people up to attend the action
Recruit people to help volunteer with certain roles, logistics, social media, etc. (it makes it more likely to come out if they have a role to help with)
Remind people the day before or the morning of the event so they don’t forget and so you can encourage them to join!
ACTION FOLLOW-UP & CALL TO ACTION
Your follow-up call to action is super important to helping keep the momentum going after your in person action. If you aren’t able to hold and in person action you can still do these digital actions and encourage others to do them with you!
Below are the key digital actions to take after your in person action, make sure to share these with people in person, and send out information about them to attendees after the action so everyone can participate and amplify the calls to action.
POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is a powerful tool to use for actions. It allows you to tell the story of your action in your own words and gives you the possibility to show your action off to thousands of people who may not have been there while you did it.
We’ve seen a lot of powerful actions that are well documented but the photos aren’t well utilized on social media. Social media is a key way to build power. Often we only post one image from our action after the action is over, but you can use your social media to share images and the livestream during the action, post images and interviews with attendees after the action is over, and share the call to action.
When sharing photos and short video clips after the action on your social media, use the caption of the post to write a short sentence about why this fight is important to you, and include a link to the call to action. Calls to action are often more effective when shared with photos from the event!
CALLS TO ACTION
Share these two calls to action in the captions of your social media posts:
Debriefing is often forgotten in the urgency of moving onto the next urgent thing, but it’s a really important part of your action. Your team members have just gone through a powerful experience and were asked to take on responsibilities they may not have done before. Here is a link to a template agenda for a team debriefing: Sample Action Debrief Agenda
Debriefing should be held shortly after the action is done, ideally immediately. You want folks to have the experience fresh in their minds to be able to have them share learning and reflections.
