"Talkin' Bout a Revolution Sounds Like a Whisper" **
"We cannot ever gift this regime with the complicity and comfort of our silence."-Anat Shenker-Osario
Happy weekend, warriors for democracy. It’s been a rough week. North Carolina has seen very very bad times before, as in Wilmington in 1898. We had Jesse Helms as our Senator.
We’ve done this before and we can do it again. We will work towards democracy and rights for all, including but not limited to: healthcare, education, housing, fair wages, safety from violence and respect.
We hope that you have plans for both joy and rest over the weekend, while holding gratitude for all of us who are in this fight together. We ARE in this together.
Keep Calling Tillis and Budd about the budget
The House and the Senate are now in the process of reconciliation, or trying to combine one bill from each chamber into one big mess for the American people and one big giveaway for the ultrawealthy.
WE NEED TO STOP THEM FROM GUTTING MEDICAID, SNAP AND THE ACA.
CALL Tillis and Budd every day to oppose any budget that includes Medicaid cuts. The bill is advancing and Trump wants to sign it by Memorial Day. Here’s background info if you want it.
Thom Tillis: D.C. (202) 224-6342 Raleigh (919) 856-4630 Charlotte (704) 509-9087
Ted Budd: D.C. 202-224-3154 Raleigh 984-349-5061 Wilmington 910-218-7600
Script:
This is (name) and I am a constituent from (zip). I want to ask the Senator to vote AGAINST any budget which threatens Medicaid, SNAP and the ACA to give tax cuts to billionaires. Does the Senator really want to take health insurance from kids with disabilities, who depend on Medicaid for their services, and from elders who live in assisted care facilities? Does the Senator want kids who depend on SNAP and free school lunches to go hungry, in the United States of America? Just so a billionaire can buy another yacht or rocket ship? That is shameful.
The Senator should work for the people in this state, not a bunch of wealthy selfish people who don’t care about anyone else.
Thank you.
Or, use 5calls.org or the script in the graphic below.
Facts and Figures of Interest
Feel free to add in numbers for your Congressional district, if you like.
For example, in our Congressional District NC04: 114,417 are covered by Medicaid/CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). We would lose $1.43 Billion in funding over 9 years and 42,000 will lose healthcare.
The numbers are slightly different in this different way to search here, as it’s hard to keep up with the continuously changing gerrymandered congressional districts. But there is more information on this site, such as “Extreme Republican budget plans threaten the 68,000 people in NC-04 who count on SNAP to put food on the table,” “Across North Carolina, the Republican budget threatens 408,887 children who rely on free school lunches” and “The Republican budget would jeopardize the futures of 14,026 students in NC-04 who use Pell grants to help afford their education.”
Knocking doors is important, too. Sign up here
Did anyone else get an email from Tillis with this subject line? “Bipartisan solutions needed."
The email hypes his bipartisan bills on affordable housing, childcare tax credits and says, “Americans have been hit hard by the rising cost of living over the last few years. I was raised in a working-class family, and I understand that rising costs – whether they come from inflation or the consequences of increasing tariffs – usually hurt low and middle-class Americans the hardest. And that's why I’ll keep fighting for sound economic policies and bipartisan solutions.”
Did we miss where the alien spaceship landed and replaced our Thom with an identical replica who sounds like a reasonable person? Oh, but wait, he hasn’t actually DONE anything about them and his email is misleading because he hasn’t DONE anything. Except voted to keep the tariffs in place.
If we hadn’t seen him fold like an accordion playing Wagner for Hitler over the past years, this letter might seem like he cares. He’s cosplaying compassion because he reads the tea leaves and an election is coming up.
Our job is to remind voters (who might not be paying attention) what he has actually done, like voting for Pete Hegseth, RFK. Jr., the tariffs, not standing up to this regime as it destroys the rule of law, and oh yes, voted to overturn the ACA dozens of times. So, yes, let’s knock doors, find out what people care about and explore together what Thom has done for them…(hint: nothing, unless they are a billionaire).
Remember to check out Neighbors On Call/C2C: Help elect Democrats to the NCGA, a community of progressive North Carolinians fighting for our values, and having a good time doing it!
And also, consider signing up for this training.
County budgets are happening; we need to advocate for elections funding. Without this, we don’t have elections. Oopsie! Not good.
Sign up here to find out how to ensure elections—go hyper- local!
We invite you to join Democracy NC, Common Cause, NC Black Alliance, NC Budget & Tax Center, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice for our 2025 Elections Funding Advocacy Training. This event will be held online via Zoom on Tuesday, May 6th, from 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM.
During this informative session, we'll examine what it takes for our elections to run smoothly and provide the best experience to voters: they must be adequately funded. In the coming weeks, county commissioners across North Carolina will hold public hearings to discuss their county budgets for the new fiscal year.
The county commissioners' funding for county board elections will significantly impact voters' experiences in the upcoming 2025 Municipal Elections and the 2026 Primary Elections. Everything has to be funded, from early voting sites to voting equipment to salaries for election staff.
We hope you join us as we explain how North Carolina elections are funded, explore recent legislative changes that impact election administration, and what you can do to advocate for well-funded elections in your county.
Why do we need to fund elections, register voters and knock on doors? Because, this:
Opinion: This is what the destruction of democracy looks like, North Carolina.
By Billy Ball
May 1, 2025
“On Thursday, Republican judges on the state Court of Appeals threw out a century of precedent to help their party seize control of our elections. It’s time to speak up or forever hold your peace.
This is what a very sick democracy looks like, North Carolina.
On Thursday, we learned that a Republican-controlled state appeals court, without even going through the motions of hearing oral arguments or writing an explanation, threw out a trial court decision and gave their party permission to rewrite the way we conduct elections in North Carolina….
Too often there is a helpless feeling in this state, a feeling that you can rage and seethe but nothing is achievable. It is the natural outcome of our elected leaders dismantling political solutions, as North Carolina Republicans have spent the last 15 years doing.
But there is a point to your anger.
In the coming days, you can show them that you won’t let these “barely visible steps” pass with us doomscrolling on our phones or whatever else we do to distract ourselves from the fire in front of us. To show them that no matter our age, where we come from, what we like or do, we have the courage to care.
We can show these corrupt politicians that we will speak in the streets, that we will bring every camera, every eye to North Carolina and point it directly at them. Daylight, no matter what, no matter where, is a good thing. It’s not a liberal or a conservative thing. It’s an American thing.
So speak now, North Carolina, or as they say, forever hold your peace.”
Read the whole article here And we will figure out what to do, together.
LEARN ABOUT EMPOWERING AND REGISTERING VOTERS WITH ONE OF THE BEST GROUPS AROUND: REGISTER HERE
Can't make it? We also have Virtual Voter Registration & Empowerment Trainings coming up in May. All YCV volunteers must attend a 2025 training before volunteering at one of our upcoming events. Click here to find a training.
SAVE THE DATE. JUNE 14, FLAG DAY is our next protest.
Reclaim our flag. MORE INFO TO COME FOR DURHAM.
And a reminder…find your lane and do your work in it.
Also
Social Media Toolkit: images to share widely here
For example:
p.s. A word about Swastikas on Signs from theTesla Takedown folks:
We’ve seen creative, clever and powerful signs at protests. But there's one symbol we want to talk about: the swastika.
This isn't meant to scold anyone or to dictate what your signs say, but we'd like to share a few moral and practical reasons to leave swastikas in history's dustbin.
The moral reason is simple: swastikas are the primary symbol of the Nazis. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists still use it terrorize individuals and communities. MAGA agitators have even carried swastikas at some counter-protests.
Because of its historic and current use, the swastika makes millions of potential allies feel unsafe or unwelcome at our protests. This can be true even if the swastika is crossed out or bracketed with a “no” or “stop.” (Due to the swastika’s shape, a line crossing it out may not be as visible from a distance as the symbol itself.)
There's also a legal risk. If you commit a minor infraction at a protest like jay-walking or accidentally "trespassing" on Tesla property, an overzealous prosecutor could add hate crime charges if you're carrying a swastika. Even if they are unable to convict, that kind of charge carries heavy personal and financial costs.
It might be unlikely, but why take the risk? Prosecutors are already pursuing hate crime charges against people who vandalized Teslas or Tesla property with a swastika. While there's no connection between #TeslaTakedown protests and vandalism, Trump and his lackeys are desperate to shut us down and turning to increasingly extreme means to intimidate us all.
In solidarity,
The #TeslaTakedown Team
Apparently there is now June 6th too for 50501 (have not seen it yet on BS, didn't look on Discord):
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ba1k9eJjx/