Upcoming Meetings
By Ann Nye – Save the Dates for our upcoming monthly meetings. September 17 — Like a lot of school boards across the country, ours has become a focus of the far right’s culture war agenda. For that reason we are continuing to highlight what is happening in our district. This month we will hear from school board member Sara Deen and assemblyman Al Muratsuchi on this very important and salient topic:
What’s Happening With Our Schools – A Panel Discussion, including Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi
Our September 17 and October 15 meetings will be back at the Peninsula Center Library Community Room and also on Zoom. Due to the CADEM convention on the same week as our normal November meeting, we’re moving it a week earlier to November 12 and holding it only on Zoom, since the library’s Community Room is not available.
Please read about all the Sept 17 meeting speakers here.
PV Dems IN THE NEWS
By Ann Nye – Thanks to PV Dems Publicity Chair Allison Phillips, the Palos Verdes Democrats are in the news. View the Peninsula magazine’s “Spotlight on Politics – Supervisor Janice Hahn in RHE Congregating at Summer Picnic” about our July 16 picnic. The full page spotlight on page 54 includes a nice description and 13 photos with all the participants identified – http://onlinedigitaleditions2.com/peninsula-people/archive/web-09-2023/html5/index.html?&locale=ENG&pn=55
August Meeting Report: 2022-23 Supreme Court Review
By Nancie Silver – The Palos Verdes Democrats held a Zoom-only meeting on Sunday, August 20 due to the Tropical Storm Hilary Emergency Alert. The August meeting was our opportunity to hear Judge Tom Long’s commentary on the University of Irvine (UCI) Law review of the 2022-2023 Supreme Court cases and share his own thoughts on the court as well. Club Parliamentarian Carol Moeller introduced Judge Long and shared his background. The UCI panel was moderated by Professor Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, UCI Law and as Carol noted, “it was interesting the panel included three journalists and two lawyers.”
The first case was Moore v. Harper with Roberts, Kavanaugh and Barrett joining with the liberal justices to allow the North Carolina Supreme Court to deny the NC legislature’s poor defense of discriminatory gerrymandering plans. Judge Long thought this was the most important case of the term, with the 6-3 decision. The case highlights the Independent State Legislative theory that legislatures can do whatever they want without interference from state or federal courts. This is part of the argument that was made regarding the 2020 election, with some republicans saying state legislatures could appoint their own electors if they didn’t like the outcome of an election in their state. Judge Long said that had the case been decided differently, it would have put our democracy at risk, because all fifty states would be emboldened to do whatever they want and not adhere to democratic norms. Judge Long’s view is we have three wings in the current Supreme Court (with varying conservative justices depending on the case): the authoritarian wing with Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch; the conservative wing with Roberts, Barrett, Kavanaugh; and the liberal wing with Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson. Read the full article and watch the video here.
State of the Club
By Connie Sullivan – Every year the president of the club is charged with reporting on the state of the club. I can report that the state of the club is thriving, as evidenced by the fact that we have one of the largest clubs in the 66th Assembly District.
I believe the reason for this success is that our programs are consistently the best in the region. Most clubs have regular business meetings with dry reports from their officers and from local elected officials. Our club leaves the business up to the board and puts on quality programming that appeals to Democrats in our area. It’s not easy getting quality subject matter experts without a budget for honoraria. But our program chair does a great job in that area.
But we’re not always serious; we have an annual picnic that is about having a good time socially with other local like-minded Democrats where we also honor our local elected Democrats that many people don’t even know are Democrats (e.g., city council members, school board trustees, etc.)
We recognized that we were not doing much in the campaigning arena. So, in the last couple of years we beefed up our activism participation by appointing an activism chair who decides which races we should be assisting and which organization to partner with to achieve that end.
While the state of the club is healthy, we can always do more. We’re going to be launching an initiative to reach out to local Democrats and bring them into the fold. More information will be forthcoming about this initiative in a future report.
From the Activism Chair
By Caryl Schwartz – Democracy prevailed over autocracy in Ohio’s special election. 57% voted NO on Issue 1. Thank you to all that volunteered, donated, phone banked, texted, wrote letters and post cards — victory would not have been possible without your work. However, the work in Ohio is not done. In Ohio’s November general election voters will choose whether to enshrine abortion rights and women’s right to contraceptives into the State Constitution.
PV Dems is partnering with CADEM and other South Bay Democratic Clubs in CA 27 to ensure that voters in the district understand that Republican Mike Garcia votes against their best interests. He is the ONLY Republican Congressman in LA County and it’s time to send him packing. Join us and help make calls to voters in the district and educate them about who Garcia really is – a Trump Republican!
https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/574912/
Read here about what we’re doing in Virginia, Kentucky and Utah and other volunteer opportunities.
CADEM Report
By Connie Sullivan – CADEM held its summer EBoard meeting the weekend of August 18-20 in Visalia. (Why Visalia, you ask? It was to highlight how much the party cares about and wants to work with people of the San Joaquin Valley.)
The floor report of all the committee reports and bylaws changes is very extensive. To save you from reading all of that, here are some highlights of the report.
The Democratic National Convention delegate selection plan was approved on Sunday. Now it will go to the DNC for final approval. Please see the floor report for details, but here are some important points to keep in mind:
- The district-level delegate selection caucuses will be held on Sunday, April 12, 2024.
- Electronic voting will be an option in the delegate selection process, as well.
- Affirmative Action goals for African Americans were increased from 9% to 12%. Likewise, Affirmative Action Goals for LGBTQ were raised from 6% to 12%.
Two local delegates, Caryl Schwartz and Isabel Douvan, both of Assembly District 66, had resolutions approved by the body on Sunday. Congratulations to both freshmen delegates!
The Legislation committee recommended support of one bill authored by Assembly member Al Muratsuchi (AB238, California student teacher support grant program).
The body voted to support the Muratsuchi bill.
Join the Palos Verdes Democrats Today! Let’s Work Together to Create a Kinder and More Just Society
By Nancie Silver – Hi! I’m your Palos Verdes Democrats Newsletter Editor and I want to thank all our members who renewed their membership at our July 16 summer picnic, online, or by mail. We appreciate your loyalty to our club and look forward to seeing you at our monthly in-person and zoom meetings, and at some of our activism activities. We count on your support to fund donations to Democratic candidates and other causes that reflect our shared democratic values. Your dues also pay for the use of the community room and equipment rentals at the Peninsula Center Library, and other administrative costs.
If you haven’t renewed your membership for the 7/1/23 to 6/30/24 membership period, please do so now. It’s quick and easy! You can either pay online or mail us a check. Visit our website for all the details by clicking on this link: http://pvpdemocrats.org/membership/
If you have any questions about your membership status or need assistance, you can reach us by email at pvpdems@pvpdemocrats.org. We can change the world, one person at a time, so please share this information with family, friends, and colleagues!
PV Dems Support Efforts to Stop New Utility Tax
By Connie Sullivan – The club was approached by Cailley Underhill of the Solar Power Alliance to add our support to their effort to stop a new utility tax that was sneakily added to a budget bill (AB205) this summer. The bill has already been signed by the Governor and does contain a lot of good provisions, but the utility tax portion is, in a word, outrageous. The tax hasn’t been implemented yet, as it requires some action by the CPUC first.
The tax is progressive which, of course, we applaud, but for the higher income tiers the tax is huge – up to $128 per month or $1536 per year. Further, the Alliance’s analysis shows that very high usage households will actually fair better than others!
The letter we signed onto can be seen here.
Climate Corner August 2023 – A Love Letter to Republicans
By Fraser Perkins – Can you believe it?! A love letter to Republicans appearing in a Democratic club newsletter! Wow, the Democrats must be asleep, but hey, never let an opportunity elude your grasp.
So, here’s our love letter to Republicans.
Thank you, Republicans, for burning coal.
Thank you for fracking oil to the max.
Thank you for tapping all available gas on federal lands.
Together, yes, let’s make America the fossil fuel powerhouse it’s meant to be, so we are truly número uno in energy production!
Your “damn the torpedoes” approach to fossil fuel development makes our lives (short though they may be) better; way, way better. We appreciate it. And thank you. XOX.
In honor of you, our Republican allies, our society will do the following: In the mountainous west, our pine bark beetle members will relentlessly munch and crunch their way through pine trees and convert them from sickly green to a kaleidoscope of orange, gray and brown. Milder winters and fewer sudden cold snaps mean our numbers skyrocket. Thank you, Republicans, for making this possible. A big smooch to you. Added benefit: dead trees make better fire fuel leading to more forest fire smoke. Yes, a double smooch to Don, Donny junior, Mitch, the house crazies, and the whole gang. Orange is the new green.
Read the rest of this love letter to Republicans here.
Color Me a Democrat – August 2023
By Fraser Perkins – Last month I asked you to call out Republican mischief when they trample on choice, gun control, and the environment. This month I will follow my own advice and look at what I consider are winning issues for Democrats. Until the general election in November 2024, under the rubric of “Color Me a Democrat”, I’ll look at one issue per month and supplement my words with ChatGPT from several viewpoints – these will be clearly labelled, removing any question of origin. As a final touch I’ll include an image of a ceramic tile. Just to spice things up a bit, I’ll devote several months to the shenanigans of the putative Republican nominee, the one and only Donald Trump. I kick things off this month with guns. Here’s my article.
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