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Buying Votes & Cheating Like Hell One thing is clear from last week's cringe-worthy GOP midterm convention --- Trump and his enablers know what's coming on November 3, and they are desperate to stop it. In his speeches, Trump offered a $5,000 dividend to every adult in the country if Republicans maintained control of Congress after the election. And he urged supporters to raise their hands and pledge to vote and "cheat like hell like they do" in the midterms, again raising ba

"The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.” Gloria Steinem, 1934 - 2026, “Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem” Election Threats: How We Protect the Vote With less than 60 days left before the 2026 Midterm Elections, the Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to suppress the vote --- the latest target: vote-by-mail. A USPS whistleblower last week revealed continued work on plans to require states to pr

“Her life was a testament to the power of love, the value of kindness, the reality of goodness among us. . . Somehow her being gone made her more present than ever in one way. In another, with her gone, it's up to us to be what she was to the best of our ability." Rebecca Solnit, In Praise of Dolly Parton, 1946-1926, Our Goddess of Kindness They Are Everywhere: Reining in Flock Big Brother-style warrantless surveillance of the law-abiding public is suddenly all over the headl

“They represent Florida. This is an exciting ticket because it represents our entire state. No matter who you are and no matter what you believed at one point on this and that, we’ve got big issues we gotta fight back on, and they have big ideas to bring to the table, and that's exciting.” U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost on the primary election victories of U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon and FL gubernatorial candidate David Jolly. A Big Night and An Even Better Morning After! Ther

Tomorrow is Election Day! Tomorrow (Tuesday, August 18th) is Election Day! It's your last chance to vote in the 2026 Primary Election. When you vote tomorrow, you must vote at your assigned precinct --- click the link and enter your address to find your polling site. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Find voter ID requirements and how to vote here below the list of early voting locations. To return a Vote-by-Mail ballot, you must drop it off at the Supervisor of Election's

The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word, "We." "We the People." We Shall Overcome." "Yes We Can."...Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. President Barack Obama Selma, Alabama, March 7, 2015 Early Voting Is Now! New Beach Site Early Voting for the August 18th Primary Election started last Friday and runs through Sunday, August 16th. Twenty-four polling locations --- including the Beaches Library and

Early Voting Starts Friday! New Beach Site Early Voting for the August 18th Primary Election starts on Friday, August 7th! Twenty-four polling locations --- including the Beaches Library and a new site at the Jax Beach Community Center --- will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday, August 16th. Registered voters can vote at any of these sites during Early Voting. Find information on voter ID requirements and how to vote here below the list of polling locations. You

Stop the War, Voter Suppression & AG Nominee Trump is ramping up pressure on the U.S. Senate to agree to the budget framework passed by the House last week, which provides $87 billion in additional support for his illegal war in Iran and incorporates key pieces of the SAVE Act, potentially disenfranchising millions of voters. The framework lays the groundwork for yet another budget reconciliation bill that can be passed by a simple majority vote, avoiding a filibuster. We nee

Mail-In Ballots: It's Time to Vote! If you are one of the nearly 23,000 voters in Duval County who received a Vote-by-Mail ballot for the August 18th primary last week, it's time to vote! You have until 7 p.m. on Election Day to return your completed ballot to the Supervisor of Elections Office. Despite Trump's unjustifiable effort to discredit it, voting by mail is safe, secure, and trackable! And this primary election will not only select Democratic candidates for critical

This Weekend: Make Good Trouble Six years after the death of civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis, the country is facing unprecedented attacks on voting rights. Join us for the Good Trouble Lives on National Weekend of Action as we come together to honor the legacy of Lewis and defend the right to vote. This year's theme is Teach! Reach! Preach! --- a multi-prong effort to raise awareness, engage and register voters, and recognize the sacrifices of state and local civil r

Protect the Vote Trying to nationalize elections. Mid-decade redistricting. Tightening voting restrictions. Eliminating mail-in voting. Questioning prior election results. Weakening election security. Trump and his GOP enablers are mounting a full-out attack on rules governing the 2026 midterms and future elections. Their goals are clear: to protect Republicans from losing control in November and sow doubt about the integrity of the election process when DEMS win. While the c

"Two and a half centuries in, Americans are neither naive nor defeated. They see the cracks, and they still bet on the future. The country's defining trait isn't agreement, it's a refusal to stop striving for a better tomorrow." America at 250 Years: The State of Our Union America at 250: Hope Amid Division On Saturday, July 4th, the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which formally severed the 13 American colonies' politica

"It is our greatest inheritance, the story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens, and the possibility that despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together." -- Barack Obama, June 18, 2026 At last week's opening of the Obama Presidential Center, both Barack and Michelle offered soaring reminders of the long struggle to perfect our far from perfect union

Protest ICE Job Fair in JAX This Week! The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be attempting to recruit from our community next week, on Tuesday, June 16, and Wednesday, June 17. We refuse to let them normalize family separations, community sweeps, and deportation quotas on our watch. Join BAM, area Indivisible groups, and other advocates at the Prime Osbourne Convention Center,1000 Water Street, at 8:45 a.m. to peacefully protest DHS's recruitment effort and make it c

This Weekend! Beaches Library Protest & Rise Up, Sing Out Concert Live-Stream Trump is hosting a UFC cage fight on June 14 to celebrate his birthday and the country's 250th anniversary. We are not having it! ENOUGH! Join us this weekend as we counter-protest and mount joyful resistance to this obscene spectacle and the continued assaults on our democracy! SATURDAY! Join the crowd at the Beaches Library Saturday from 10 - 11:30 a.m. Let's give Trump a special present for his

Ballot Measure Shenanigans Threaten Local Funding The FL Legislature last week approved a hastily introduced ballot measure that --- if approved by voters in November --- would dramatically cut property taxes in the state --- hamstringing local governments and special taxing districts, and centralizing responsibility for fiscal decisions at the state level. ​The plan, crafted by the Governor and enacted in a two-day special session, would increase the homestead tax exemption

Protest Proposed USPS Vote-by-Mail Rules Following a federal court decision, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will publish proposed rules this week, radically changing requirements for participating in vote-by-mail. The new rules --- prompted by a Trump executive order --- would require state election officials to send USPS a list of voters who have requested a ballot with unique barcodes at least 30 days before ballots are sent out under state law. USPS would use the informati

"I am an American. Fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense." - U.S. Military Code of Conduct, Article 1 Memorial Day: More Than the First Day of Summer Over America's 250-year history, tens of millions of men and women have answered the country's call to arms. Some died in battle, some in captivity or from their wounds; more than a million never came home. People of patriotism and goodwill can debate

"We should not have to march in 2026 to protect voting rights for all Americans. We are at a moral low as a nation when people are stripped of their right to vote because of the color of their skin. But if we have to fight that same fight again, we will. And no one will turn us around." -- Joyce Vance Our Long but Winnable Voting Rights Fight Following last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, we've had another week of hard news - as southern stat

"...Our giving up is the one thing that can enable Republicans to win. Not the gerrymandering. Not ICE at the polls. Not Trump threatening to federalize the elections. Yes, all of that can make our fight harder. But we are the X factor, the one thing they can’t overcome if we decide not to be overcome." Jess Craven, Chop Wood, Carry Water No Gloom: We Can Win This! There was lots of handwringing by pundits and pols last week after the VA court struck down a DEM-friendly redis