Environmental activists are still pressuring lawmakers to embrace the Green New Deal, despite that it has already been voted down in the Senate.

While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that he believes in climate change, he’s been dismissive of the Green New Deal. In place of the deal, he’s tried to push his Republican colleagues in the Senate to acknowledge the urgency of climate change and have open discussions about its effects, but activist Iliana Walsingham said this is not enough.

“Opening up conversation is good, but we should have done that 10 years ago,” said Walsingham, 21. “Now is the time to have actual action. We need to change.”

Walsingham is one of many asking for more action regarding climate change. On April 30, around 50 protestors from the Sunrise Movement, a group dedicated to making climate change a more visible and pressing issue, assembled on the sidewalk outside Schumer’s Midtown Manhattan office. For more than two hours, they gave emotional testimony, sang passionately, and repeatedly called for the senator to support the deal.

The group refused to leave the site, and eventually, law enforcement stepped in. Walsingham was one of seven activists arrested for blocking pedestrian traffic and refusing a lawful order to disperse. But for her and the others, the cause is what’s important.

“I think we need to hammer home that climate change and this climate catastrophe is going to affect everyone worldwide,” said Walsingham, before the start of the protest.

Sarah Lawrence College senior, Iliana Walsingham calls for Democratic leadership to address climate change in a serious way. Photo by Emma Bolton.

The Sunrise Movement, founded in April 2017, latched onto the Green New Deal resolution, brought forward by New York’s District 14 Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. In addition to protests and rallies outside of lawmakers’ offices, they’ve also hosted town halls across the country explaining the Green New Deal to the public.

The Green New Deal proposes modernizing the country’s energy infrastructure by transferring it away from fossil fuels, while creating jobs and dealing with economic inequality in the process. The resolution calls for government public work investments on the scale of Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 New Deal to decarbonize the country’s energy and transportation sectors.

Carolyn Kissane, New York University’s Director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Concentration, said that the Green New Deal has caught the public eye because it’s a bold policy resolution centered on mitigating the effects of climate change.

“It’s extraordinarily ambitious,” she said. “We haven’t had a climate-specific political agenda in quite a long time.”

Support for the Green New Deal exploded after it was officially proposed by Ocasio-Cortez and Markey in February 2019. For young people like Jessie Bluedorn, 24, there are two main reasons to support it.

“We need more than just nice words. We need a plan that holds us to a to actual timetables,” Bluedorn said. “The Green New Deal lays out a specific deadline by which we would need to be off fossil fuels. So any plan that has strict accountability is something I would very much be for versus just generic, ‘we’ll eventually get off of fossil fuels.’”

While it’s not the only way to help reduce the effects of climate change, lessening dependence on oil, coal and natural gas is important in curbing carbon emissions. The plan will also decarbonize transportation and make buildings in the United States more efficient. For Walsingham, the plan’s focus on significantly reducing dependency on fossil fuels is a huge draw.

“We need to get off of fossil fuels,” Walsingham said. “We need to stop producing single use plastics, we need to basically lessen consumption. But basically switching to an electric infrastructure grid is the most amazing part of it.”

Policy experts like Kissane note that the timeline is largely unrealistic — the plan calls for sweeping changes to be implemented within ten years —  but the resolution makes a statement about a way to approach creating a greener society.

“I think the idea of thinking about policy and ways to go about reducing carbon emissions– I’ll be honest with you, we’re not going to be carbon-free by 2050, we’re not going to be fossil-free by 2050, nowhere near it,” Kissane said. “But the idea of what are the things that we can do now? What can we do more on energy efficiency? What can we do about thinking about our energy systems in the United States?”

While the large scale transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy is the top priority for the activists, the other factor is the social justice and economic equality aspects of the plan. It’s the other reason Bluedorn attended the protest.

“As we have seen globally with the Yellow Vest Movement in France, to effectively transition off fossil fuels, we really have to build in a just transition framework and acknowledge that some people are more impacted than others,” said Bluedorn. “So, there has to be a jobs guarantee and a serious plan for how we are going to transition our economy that is not going to leave certain people more impacted than others unfairly.”

As of now, the plan will remain a statement of ideals. In March, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) brought the plan to the floor, forcing Democrats to vote on it. Senator Schumer called it a sham vote, while moderate Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said that the plan was too broad, non-specific, and unrealistic. The resolution failed in a 57-0 vote, with four Democrats crossing the aisle and the rest of Democrats voting “present.”

Chair of the Technology and Society Department at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, and historian, Jonathan Soffer, sees why aggressive climate change plans are harder for politicians to back.

“This is our generation having to make changes mostly for the benefit of future generations,” Soffer said. “And that’s a virtuous thing, but a lot of people aren’t willing to make those sacrifices if they don’t see immediate benefits. That’s always a harder sell politically.”

As the head of a large caucus in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been reluctant to get behind the resolution. She was the focus of Sunrise Movement protests in Washington D.C. last November, ahead of Ocasio-Cortez’s official swearing in. At one point, she referred to the plan as “the green dream, or whatever they call it.” Like Schumer, she has talked about climate change in the general sense, although last week she initiated a vote to block the Trump Administration from pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Natalie Osborne receives instructions and a song sheet from the protests organizers. Photo by Emma Bolton.

Natalie Osborne, 21, sees the Green New Deal as one of the only ideas that politicians have put forward that addresses climate change. She attended the protest outside of Schumer’s office, and hopes to see the deal become reality.

“I think the Green New Deal is the big one for right now,” Osborne said. “And it addresses a lot of different issues. It addresses racial inequality and income inequality and how they tie in with climate change and climate disasters.”

Stu Waldman and Gloria Weiss attended the rally to support the young people pushing for a greener future for their grandchildren. Photo by Emma Bolton.

The Sunrise Movement is largely comprised of Millennials and Gen-Zers, but there were some notable exceptions, including Stu Waldman, 77, who clutched a picture of his young granddaughter as he stood among the younger activists.

“Matilda is five months old,” Waldman said. “When she’s my age, it will be near the year 2100, and if we don’t do something very quickly in the next ten years, the world — her world — will be unrecognizable.”

A study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shocked the world in October 2018, showing that the timeline to slow the warming of the atmosphere is much shorter than previously thought. According to the study, the world has less than 12 years to drastically curb carbon emissions — otherwise, the worst consequences of climate change will start showing.

Communities across the world are already feeling the effects of rising temperatures, including here in the United States, with more frequent severe weather events. Just this week, the United Nations released a preview of a new report showing that humans and climate change have pushed close to one million species of plants and animals to the edge of extinction.

In the face of dire predictions and a lack in federal leadership, cities like New York  are making their own climate change policies. New York City has created their own Green New Deal, which would use congestion pricing to lower carbon emissions, and retrofit existing buildings to be more energy-efficient. Entire states, including California, Vermont, and Massachusetts have created their own plans to stay in the Paris Climate Accords, even though the Trump Administration has pulled out.

Experts like Kissane believe these city and state-based policies are an indication of what the Democratic party may do in the next election year.

“I think the Democrats are aware that [climate change] is going to be a pivotal issue going into 2020,” she said.

Sunrise activists are looking to Democratic leadership to take on the issue of climate change and that extends to the presidential race. Last week, as his first major policy proposal, presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke announced a plan to put $5 trillion dollars towards addressing climate change within his first 100 days as president.

I think some of the candidates are doing a great job addressing it,” Bluedorn said. “It’s still very early in the primaries, so I am not fully backing a candidate, but certainly I am using climate as a litmus test for any candidate.”

Senator Schumer and Representative Ocasio-Cortez were unavailable for comment.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden’s history of nuzzling, long hugs, forehead kisses, and lingering shoulder touches has some younger Democratic voters, especially women, turned off.

“I don’t think anyone in our generation is pumped up about a Joe Biden prospect,” said Sarah Zimmerman, 25. “And I kind of think that our generation is going to be pushing this entire election, so that’s kind of what matters.”

On March 29th, former Nevada politician Lucy Flores wrote a post for The Cut outlining an uncomfortable encounter she had with then Vice President Joe Biden in 2014. In the article she describes him putting his hands on her shoulders, leaning in and breathing deeply into her hair. Since then, more photos and experiences from other women have come to the forefront of the news.

For these millennials, Biden’s affectionate ways sparks a larger conversation about boundaries and sexual harassment.

“I’m actually really glad that people are starting to talk about it, because pretty much, last year, or awhile ago, I saw a compilation of how he always did weird stuff like that, but no one really talked about it,” said Monmouth University student Nick Coscarelli.

Flores was clear in her initial post that she did not feel assaulted, but the intrusion on her personal space had felt professionally disrespectful and inappropriate.

“She had not read it in a sexual way, but it still was very clearly ‘gendered creepiness,’ that violated her personal boundaries,” said Meredith Bradfield, a graduate student at Simmons University.

While Flores and other women have been clear, the public reaction and dialogue surrounding the initial post followed a familiar paradigm.

“I don’t like the way that it’s formulated,” said Zimmerman. “Because of #MeToo and because of the pattern we’ve created, we’ve kind of set it up so that women have to come out with ‘accusations’ and then other women have to follow. But it’s just kind of strange in this case because we all know that Joe Biden does that, we can literally see hundreds of videos of him doing exactly what she says.”

Flores’ experience triggered an onslaught of harsh criticism of the former Vice President, as people dug into videos and images of his over 40 years of public life. But, a more nuanced conversation about personal limits has grown from the knee-jerk reaction that initially concerned publicist Samantha Simon.

“A part of me, because I work in entertainment, a part of me was so nervous that this would go the route of Aziz Ansari,” Simon said. “Where he did something really inappropriate, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t know if it was as inappropriate as what other people have done, for example Harvey Weinstein, and he just got ridiculed in a way that I think was kind of unfair.”

Biden, the front runner in the Democratic Primary, despite not having he is running president, responded with a written statement last Sunday and followed up with a video released on Twitter.

Social norms are changing. I understand that, and I’ve heard what these women are saying. Politics to me has always been about making connections, but I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. That’s my responsibility and I will meet it. pic.twitter.com/Ya2mf5ODts

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 3, 2019

Coscarelli and others, including #MeToo founder Taran Burke, said Biden misunderstood the criticism and is squandering an opportunity to listen and learn.

“I think he is very out of touch with where we are moving and he’s also just very insensitive to what he thinks is the problem,” Coscarelli said. “I guess he’s taking it as, I guess, all of a sudden people have changed what is okay and what is not. But that’s not the case. We have always known where the boundaries should be drawn, but people have always overstepped them and there has been no consequence to it.”

At the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers conference last Friday, Biden joked about the controversy. Multiple times during the event he flippantly remarked that he had “permission” to touch those he was hugging. Despite also apologizing to the assembled crowd, even some older Democrats, were underwhelmed by his handling of the situation.

“I think that he should have owned up to it and apologized right away,” said D’Anne Avotins, who is a parent of a young millennial. “He was silent for too long and then he made that joke on stage the other day, which I don’t think was considerate to the people who came forward.”

Coscarelli doesn’t feel Biden understands that his actions were wrong.

Many feel that this is another example of Biden being dismissive of a woman’s experience.

“It’s also all hanging under a lot of other things like the Anita Hill hearings, that he just really needs to answer for,” said Zimmerman. “It’s just like one of many things.”

“I am personally very nervous about the fact that he’s been leading in the polls, in part because of something I think people haven’t really been talking about enough,” said Bradfield. “The fact that during the Anita Hill trial, with the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, I seem to remember Biden had not been supportive of Anita Hill at that time. Just kind of thinking about that, in conversation with the lack of respect around boundaries– it might not be at a Kavanaugh level, but it’s still icky.”

With so many questions to answer, without having even announced an exploratory committee, some are looking to other options in the democratic primary.

“There are so many other people on the democratic ticket that come from diverse backgrounds– that are women and that are people of color– and I am just having a hard time being excited about another old white guy on the ticket,” Bradfield said.

While Biden’s conduct has been deemed by many to be distasteful and enthusiasm is not on his side, it doesn’t necessarily mean he cannot run for president. Avotins thinks he could easily backtrack and apologize in a more sensitive way.

If Biden does decide to run for president, he would be squaring up against Trump, who has a long history of sexual harassment allegations.

“You know what’s weird is that we have a president now who obviously said some incredibly inappropriate things right before he got elected, so in my mind maybe it’s not as big of a deal,” Simon said. “That being said, he’s catering to an audience that values things differently. So it sort of seems like it is going to be a way bigger road block than it ever would have been for Trump.”

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Many young people spent last Tuesday night doing anything but watching President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. Promises of bipartisan “comity” and “compromise”  from presidential surrogates ahead of the speech fell flat for many opposed to the administration.

Despite watching every State of the Union address since 2010, including Trump’s address to the joint session last year, Hunter Gerard, a graduate student at DePaul University, opted to read instead.

“I didn’t feel like it was going to be in any way beneficial to my understanding of the state of the union,” he said. “Our government isn’t great, but it’s the one we’ve got, and I’ve always felt like I have an obligation to help shape it in a way that does the most demonstrable good for the people who need it the most. I couldn’t think of any reason that listening to Trump maligning Latinx folks, just so he could waste a few billion on steel slats, was going to help me do that.”

Twitter users pledged to skip the speech with the hashtags #BoycottTrumpsAddress, #BoycottSOTU and #TuneOutTrump. Many shared their intentions to tune out the president, but tune in for the Democratic response, given by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams. Political action group Democracy for America tweeted a formal pledge, promising to text or email followers when the State of the Union concluded and Abrams took the floor.

Simmons University graduate student Angela Song regularly ignores the president.

“I honestly didn’t know when or if it was happening,” she said. “But if I had known it was happening, I still wouldn’t have watched it because I make it a point to not watch any of Trump’s speeches.”

While she has disregarded most of Trump’s public events, she felt confident that the State of the Union would not have offered her any information she did not already have from following the news.

“Historically, his speeches have had controversial statements. He tends to go off script and rant. He tends to always want to talk about the same things, and I personally find them incoherent,” Song said.

On Tuesday night, New York University public policy major Miriam Alyan worked on homework during 90 minute speech.

“It wasn’t something that I wanted to watch,” she said. “I didn’t think he would say anything I couldn’t just read [in] the highlights to the next day.”

Ryan Enright, a recent college graduate, felt the political theatre associated with it, from both parties, was not worth his time.

“It has become too mentally exhausting to keep track of the political vomit spewed from both sides of the aisle, void of any intellectual ideas or rhetorical thought,” he said. “Too many agendas being pushed and none seemingly sensical.”

At a Fair Fight Action/Stacey Abrams Address watch party in Harlem Tuesday night, viewers appeared unconcerned when technical difficulties caused them to miss the majority of the President’s speech. They instead ordered drinks and danced to the DJ’s playlist, booing when the television sound came back on, and only quieting down when Abrams appeared.

While giving an update on the speech to the assembled crowd, an organizer invoked the Twitter movement and said, “I guess we really are going to tune out Trump!”

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Heightened economic uncertainty and expert predictions of another recession evoke images of bankers and stockbrokers in New York City carrying the contents of their desks despondently down Wall Street during the economic collapse of 2008.

For Sioux Falls, South Dakota resident Amy Wentworth, reports of a future recession remind her of the most painful lessons of that year.

Rumors of a recession have been swirling since the 10-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse at the end of September. On Dec. 4 the stock market fell close to 800 points, erasing gains it made following a 500-point drop in November. General Motors announced in late November that it was closing several plants across the country and reducing employees, prompting Washington Post journalists to ask President Donald Trump about fears of an economic downturn (full transcript here).

“So I’m doing deals and I’m not being accommodated by the Fed,” Trump said in response, minimizing worries and placing blame on the Federal Reserve. “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

Despite worries and rumors, the reality may not be as dramatic as 2008. Brad McMillan, an investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network and frequent contributor to Forbes and other outlets, described the cyclical nature of the economy that has led economists to predict a recession could occur as soon as 2020.

“What most people think of when they think of a recession is not just an economic slowdown, but also stock markets going wild,” McMillan said. “And in fact, they often do go in tandem but they are very different things. And you can see that, for example, in 2000 and 2008, we actually saw a pretty similar overall stock market declines, but the economic downturn was much milder in 2000.”

When looking at the technical details that may not concern the average American, experts like McMillan don’t believe any impending shift in the economy would cause similar damage.

“A recession means the economy slows down,” he said. “It’s normal. It’s like catching a cold. It’s going to happen occasionally. It’s going to slow you down; it’s not going to feel good, but sooner, rather than later, you’ll feel better again.”

But the average American isn’t ready to be so trusting. There’s a lot on the line for people who still remember their homes being foreclosed. Last time a recession hit, people across the country lost their livelihood and homes. Since 2008, industry has largely recovered, but regular Americans have not returned to their pre-crisis wealth. Wentworth, who works at Avera Health as a Integration Engineer, is paying close attention to economic news because certain reports make her wary of the future.

An unstable stock market can indicate overall economic decline, but according to McMillan it’s not one of the substantive indicators. He said those indicators could include employment growth falling below two million people a year, consumer confidence dropping by 20 points or more over the course of a year, business growth moving from expansion to contraction and long-term interest rates becoming higher than short-term interest rates.

Mark Gertler, a professor of economics specializing in business cycles and monetary policy at New York University, said that the tax cut and increasing deficit makes a ‘fiscal crisis’ more likely and pointed to three additional factors that could contribute to an overall slowdown of economic growth that could result in a recession.

“There will have to be some kind of adjustment — either taxes will have to increase or government expenditures will have to fall,” said Gertler. “This will put downward pressure on output growth. We also have tariffs in place and a possible extension of the trade war. That could reduce export demands. That would put downward pressure on GDP growth. The last factor is because the economy has been growing so strongly we could have increased inflation, which will force the Fed to increase interest rate and that would be another factor sort of pushing GDP growth down.”

While there are factors to keep an eye on, Gertler said that there does not appear to be immediate cause for concern.

“I mean we’re not sure that we are going to have a recession,” he said. “It’s likely we’ll have a slowdown in GDP growth, but it’s not clear that we’ll have an actual contraction.”

McMillan has written, both on his blog The Independent Market Observer and for Forbes, that a recession is likely in the near future. None of the indicators are in effect at the end of 2018, signaling a downturn won’t happen until 2020. Although, he is hesitant to put a timeline to the economy because things change quickly.

Wentworth and her family have been taking reports like McMillan’s seriously, so they will not be surprised by another recession – but there’s no sure way for them to prepare for it.

With so much attention on the state of the economy, the administration has avenues to contain potential damage.

“I’m not in control. If I were, I would take the tariffs off and reduce the trade uncertainty,” Gertler said. “I would have also announced new plans to reverse some of the tax cuts so that instead of having to have an extreme adjustment to the big budget deficit we kind of smooth that out over time. And I would let the Federal Reserve do what it has to to keep inflation under control.”

In October, the Federal Reserve defended its decision to continue cautiously increase interest rates to manage inflation.

“There are other things that could buy us some more time,” McMillan said. “For example, if the administration cut a deal to do an infrastructure plan that could certainly buy us another year or two of expansion, depending on the magnitude.”

Following the 2018 midterm elections, both President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that they could consider working with likely Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on an infrastructure bill.

“Any administration depends to some extent on economic success,” McMillan said, “and there have been policy actions in the past year, you know the tax cut and the additional government spending, that will have helped growth in the short term. That may indeed buy us another year. That might take us to the election, I think that’s probably getting a little bit iffy, but it’s certainly possible.”

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“It’s kind of jarring on the system,” New York resident, Helen Lahey said. “Because it just like randomly snowed one day and now it’s like 50 degrees and I’m wearing a sweater and it’s fine.”

The National Weather Service predicts a warmer winter than usual. The Farmer’s Almanac predicts intense cold in 2019. They both note that it is normal to have a mild winter punctuated by periods of colder weather. It seems the swings between between 15 and 50 degrees can be expected to continue on the East Coast.

“I don’t think it’s normal,” said Natalie Gorg. “But I have noticed in the last couple years that it’s done that.”

Recent New York City transplant, Christa Vaeth said that winters used to be more consistent during her Upstate New York childhood, but now the weather was getting more unpredictable.

“I think it’s more like times are changing and things are changing,” Vaeth said. “So it’s always been bad winters, but this is a little crazy. Climate change!”

On Black Friday, the Trump Administration released a report about the effects of climate change in the United States. The findings suggest that changes in local climates can already be felt. They predicted an impact on communities that rely on winter tourism in the Northeast due to less snow and warmer temperatures. It will also impact already vulnerable populations disproportionately.

Although New York’s status as a tourist destination is not contingent on the weather, New York City is marketed for winter tourism. From the holiday markets to the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular to countless performances of the Nutcracker and ice skating in Rockefeller Center, people come for the ambiance. Anna Bolstad came all the way from Norway for it, to celebrate her mom’s birthday.

“She wanted to see the city with all the Christmas lights,” Bolstad said.

New Yorkers also have a specific vision of New York in the winter. It’s a little different than the 51 degrees they are currently experiencing.

“I love New York in the winter,” Lahey said. “I think it really comes alive and there’s lights everywhere and the snow is on the street.”

Gorg said her favorite New York City winter activity is walking in Central Park.

“I like to look at the snow and the sunsets are really nice with the trees being bare,” she said.

Despite the back and forth between snow and rain and dipping temperatures,  Lahey still enjoys the winter in the city.

“It’s cold as heck,” she said. “But everyone kind of has that collective like, ‘we’re gonna make it through this’ energy.”

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Beneath a banner reading “Our Great Eight Candidates” Martha Johnson, 73, was working for every vote. Despite heavy rain in the area, she still showed up at the Democratic field office in Brunswick, Georgia to phone bank for Stacey Abrams, the first African American female candidate for governor and other local candidates. She did not break focus from the job at hand.

“I’m making phone calls,” Johnson said. “This is the ground plan, make contact with everybody and encourage early voting, absentee voting and give them deadline dates.”

Johnson’s prior involvement in the campaign efforts were through social media, but she recently made the commitment to phone bank at the field office because she was incensed by the Republican candidate for governor and current Georgia Secretary of State, Brian Kemp’s alleged attempts to suppress Democratic votes.

“I’m really into Stacey,” she said. “For more reasons than one. Mainly because Kemp’s attempt at voter suppression kind of ignited a fight in me. So I’m fighting.”

In recent weeks, national attention focused on the governor’s race in Georgia because a controversial, “exact match” law that passed a year ago has 53,000 voters’ registration status on hold. In what appears to be a major conflict of interest,  Kemp is responsible for state elections and voter registration records as Georgia’s Secretary of State, while he is actively campaigning to be governor.

Abrams has made encouraging voting a priority throughout her career, but has ramped up get out the vote efforts following Kemp’s acknowledgement he is concerned about voter turnout on the democratic side.

Abrams appeared alongside Common and  cicil rights icon Andrew Young to express the importance of voting, especially in this election. Photo by Emma Bolton.

At a recent ‘Souls to the Polls’ rally in Midtown Atlanta, Abrams brought civil rights icon, former UN ambassador, former Atlanta Mayor and former congressman,  Andrew Young, as well as actor and rapper, Common to rally and march to a local polling place, highlighting the importance of voting.

“We have to vote,” Abrams said. “And we know voting works, because if it didn’t work they wouldn’t be working so hard to make sure we couldn’t cast a ballot. In fact, my opponent said this week, he said ‘well look, I’m very concerned if everyone who is eligible to vote cast a ballot she might win.’ Let’s prove him right.”

In South Georgia, the Glynn County Democratic Party Co-Chair, Audrey Gibbons said that getting every potential voter in her area to the polls was crucial to Abrams’ strategy for winning state wide.

“We know we’ve got to turn out the vote for Stacey Abrams to win,” Gibbons said. “And I mean turn out the vote. In District 5 alone in Glynn County we have 14,000 registered voters. That’s enough to turn Glynn County blue.”

Similarly in North Georgia, the Lumpkin County Democratic Party Chair, Ken Akin encouraged volunteers to keep organizing by touting how successful they had already been in increasing voter turnout in the area.

“Every day since we started early voting we have had over a 300% increase over 2014,” he said. “I think we are going to be proud of the results that we are going to see on Election Day. It’s getting purple.”

In Northern Georgia, the Lumpkin County Democratic Party held a get out the vote rally in tandem with the Democratic National Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party. They marched from the town square in Dahlonega to a local polling station to campaign for Stacey Abrams and other local candidates. Photo by Maggie Garred.

Chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, Dubose Porter attended the rally on Saturday with the Lumpkin County Democratic Party and representatives from the Democratic National Committee in Dahlonega to inform voters about early voting opportunities. It was one of many get out the vote events happening simultaneously across the state.

“We are everywhere, especially today,” Porter said. “There are 80 launch sites for canvassers, so we’re in neighborhoods, just all over the state to remind people what’s at stake this election and now is the time to go vote. There is Saturday voting all over the state today, so we thought we would take today fan out all over the state.”

Porter stressed that the stakes in the election were extremely high. He pointed to Abrams commitment to expanding Medicaid, investing in public education and pushing for diversity as reasons she needed to be elected.

“Are we going to help and lift up everybody or continue to just help a few?” he asked. “That’s what’s at stake. How we change that is, go vote and take somebody with you. And do it today on Saturday and take another crew on Monday and go every day next week ‘til Friday, until we’ve run out of people by November the 6th.”

Although voter purges and exact match laws threaten Abrams’ strategy to win by encouraging historically non-voting populations to vote, Glynn County school board candidate, Regina Johnson, was optimistic that efforts to expand the Democratic voter pool could still turn the state of Georgia blue.

Johnson said Abrams had come to Brunswick’s First African Baptist Church to speak with the community about being civically engaged and educated about issues on the ballot three years prior to running for governor. She saw that long term investment from Abrams as an asset for local candidates and volunteers as they work to get out the vote in 2018 Midterms.

The Democratic Field Office in Glynn County is right in front of First African Baptist Church, where Stacey Abrams spoke to congregants three years ago about the importance of being civically engaged. Photo by Emma Bolton.

“Stacey Abrams came to our church and began a conversation about educating our voters in our community,” Johnson said. “What began three years ago as a conversation is now really in force today.”

Martha Johnson was optimistic that people had responded well to Abrams’ message and had taken the time to vote early after a few hours of making calls to Glynn County constituents.

“This morning, luckily, most have voted,” she said. “So that’s good.”

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Angry protesters gathered in Union Square Park today to denounce the confirmation of  Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and to show their voice matters, even when it feels like it doesn’t.

About 50 protesters chanted “Shame,” “We do not consent,” and “No peace” on the steps beneath the statue of George Washington. They carried signs that read, “We believe you,” “Supreme Liar” and “The Senate sold out the sisterhood (and America).” They stood together in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and all survivors of sexual violence.

“I know I’m just one voice at these protests and one voice at these meetings,” Allie Horton, 26, said. “The kind of one drop in the ocean — lot of drops in the ocean — but when we all come together, we can kind of make that wave and really make things happen.”

She was angry that nothing had changed in the years since Anita Hill had accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.

I think it’s ridiculous that this is happening,” Horton said. “To think that the Anita Hill trial happened in 1991, just months before I was born and I’ve lived my entire life and still the same thing is happening again. Sexual assault, sexual harassment, it’s not being taken seriously.”

A protester works on a signs to hold in protest of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation. Photo by Emma Bolton

New Yorker Barbara DiGangi, 31, thought the senators were acting selfishly.

“They’re choosing their power,” she said, “White male power, specifically, and privilege, over humanity and women.”

DiGangi showed up to demand their attention, even though the protest would no longer put pressure on lawmakers to vote against Judge Kavanaugh.

“I think women need to hear that they matter,” said DiGangi. “And not to lose hope and that we’re here to fight and we will overcome this and we’re resilient.”

Catherine Kraft traveled from New Jersey to rebuke the Senate’s vote to confirm Kavanaugh 50-48. Photo by Emma Bolton.

Catherine Kraft, 65, wore a superhero cape reading, “Voting is my Superpower.” Leading up to the vote in the Senate, she was sure Kavanaugh wouldn’t be confirmed. She channelled her disappointment into action.

“I am energized,” she said. “I live in New Jersey and I came into the city. I almost went to D.C. I just know deep in my heart that this is wrong.”

Anamaria Meneses works for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, one of the groups that organized the rally. She stressed the importance of highlighting the public’s anger at Kavanaugh’s nomination as an example of the dedication of the Me Too Movement. While she acknowledges voting is an action everyone can take, visibility of movements is crucial.

“Voting is important, but it’s also important that there are social movements that push it,” she said. “It wasn’t Democrats or Republicans that gave us Roe v. Wade or Brown vs. Board of Ed. It wasn’t them who gave us marriage equality or DACA — it was the people who came out, it was the people who united on the one front and said ‘This is enough, we really are tired of this.”

The post Protesters stand in solidarity against Kavanaugh confirmation appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

It doesn’t seem to matter much to some male voters whether or not Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is guilty of sexual assault. Many had made up their minds long before Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations were made public.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll done over the past week showed that party affiliation was still the main deciding factor in people’s disapproval or approval of the embattled nominee, despite rising opposition among women. Between the nomination in August and recent allegations in mid-September, Democratic men’s support fell slightly, while Republican men’s support for Kavanaugh rose slightly.

In Washington D.C. yesterday, those trends were confirmed. For left-leaning men, the allegations only added to their concern over Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court.

“I had concerns about him before this episode with Dr. Ford,” said John Rilley, of New Jersey, outside of the White House. “I am very concerned. I don’t support him. I don’t think he tells the truth.”

Shane Bogin, from Los Angeles, was also visiting the White House.

“It seems like regardless of the sexual assault allegations he doesn’t hold the humility or the integrity of that office,” Bogin said.

He rattled off a list of reasons why he had initially opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination. He did not approve of Kavanaugh’s general lack of candor during the initial Senate hearings or his refusal to commit to recusing himself from future rulings related to the Robert Mueller investigation.

Additionally, Bogin was not satisfied with Kavanaugh’s answers regarding his awareness of the well-documented inappropriate conduct of his former employer Judge Alex Kozinski. As reported by CNN, Kavanaugh’s written responses to the Judiciary Committee state that he became aware of Judge Kozinski’s inappropriate sexual conduct toward female staffers when the various stories were reported in the media.

“The list is decent,” he said. “Perjury for me is pretty much a deal breaker and $200,000 of mysterious debt, from buying season tickets apparently. That seems questionable.”

Bogin’s friend, Matt Marquardt of Seattle, agreed. He sees Blasey Ford’s allegation as another example of Kavanaugh’s unfitness for the office.

“I think that they’re all linked,” Marquardt said. “I think that if you’re a Supreme Court Justice you have a duty to be transparent and be an upstanding citizen and an allegation like this is directly linked to your suitability to be a Supreme Court Justice.”

However, some men who were excited by the Trump’s choice of Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy continue to support him, despite Ford’s allegations.

Austin Webb, 30, of Texas, believes Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a great choice for the Supreme Court. He does not believe Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault. Photo by Emma Bolton.

“I think he’s a great pick,” Austin Webb, of Texas, said. “Honestly, I feel like it’s a last ditch effort to delay the pick.”

Webb said he cannot speak to Ford’s credibility, but felt that the allegation, whether true or false, is not enough to disqualify Kavanaugh from ascending to the Supreme Court.

“Is there someone out there that has a completely spotless record?” he asked. “Because we’re talking about something from high school, right? We all did dumb things in high school. If you look hard enough into anybody’s past, especially someone who is up for a position like that, I think you’re doing to find something to be opposed to.”

Keith Acker, from Ohio, who visited D.C. with the Fire & Iron Motorcycle Club, feels that Judge Kavanaugh is being set up for political reasons.

“I think it was all a set up,” Acker said. “I think (the Democrats) found somebody to put off the nomination to see if they can get a hold of the House and Senate.”

He believes Kavanaugh is needed on the high court.

“I completely support him,” he said. “He’s a Constitutionalist. I want a Supreme Court who goes by the Constitution and not put their personal opinion or put their own spin on things.”

To Acker, it’s more than just a political play.

“Either she’s lying or she is mistaken on the incident,” he said. “Honestly, I think she’s lying.”

The post Some men not swayed by allegations of sexual assault appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

On the 17th anniversary of 9/11 today, the group of people gaining the most attention at Ground Zero were 9/11 “Truthers.” They believe the government has been lying about the terrorist attack that took 2,996 lives.

“Building 7 is what we call the smoking gun,” Michael Arnold said. “It was a 47 story building that came down in less than 7 seconds.”

Arnold, from Atlanta, Georgia, was part of a small group of men in t-shirts that read “9/11: Truth Matters.” They held signs emblazoned with the words “Did you know a third tower fell on 9/11?”

Arnold  handed out pamphlets entitled, “Why You Should Question 9/11.” A large portion of the pamphlet was dedicated to 7 World Trade Center, the third building to collapse as a result of the fires caused by the planes that hit the Twin Towers.

“It came down symmetrically,” he said. “That is controlled demolition.”

Arnold used high school physics teacher David Chandler’s calculations that the building went into 3.23 seconds of free fall. According to him, that would not be possible unless the building had been intentionally demolished. Arnold said CNN and the BBC reported the building had collapsed prior to its actual collapse and that officials and scientists had difficulty explaining why the building collapsed.

“If Building 7 is the smoking gun, if one building came down by controlled demolition, they all did,” he said.

The pamphlet covered many more points of contention the “Truthers” have. It also implored in bold letters, “Be the change you want to see in the world. Get educated! Get Active! Get involved! Do your own research starting with the sites below!” There were six websites listed on the pamphlet and links to a Facebook and Youtube sites. To Arnold, the bottom line is, “If we were lied to, before you talk about who and why, you have to wrap your mind around the fact that we were lied to.” He said that’s all he’s asking.

Fellow Truther, Les Jameson of East Harlem, handed out pamphlets called “End The 9/11 Wars.” He held a banner asking people to sign a petition in support of the Lawyers Committee for 9/11 Inquiry.

He said he heard some analysis about how well-known at least two of the hijackers were to the FBI soon after 9/11 that led him to look more closely.

“I knew that we had the most formidable military and intelligence apparatus the world has ever known,” Jameson said. There is no way way they couldn’t know this was coming.”

Jameson cited the failure of intelligence in the years leading up to 9/11 and the military action since as reasons to be skeptical. His pamphlet lists wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Patriot Act, the surveillance state and the militarization of the police as outcomes of 9/11. It insinuated they could be reasons for intelligence officials to overlook or cover up information.

The group attracted the attention of Bronx native and veteran, Eddie Rios. He had never interacted with the group in person.

“I’ve always been interested in (the truther movement), but I watch a lot of youtube videos,” he said. “A lot of stuff just doesn’t make sense to me.”

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