I voted. You can, too!

(Here’s how, and, more importantly, who.)

This is for Montgomery County, Maryland, because Tip O’Neil was right. And, we’re gonna start with the bottom of the ballot.

Question A: Term limits for the County Executive. VOTE AGAINST. First of all, this Question is sponsored by a grant for the Developer Industrial Complex (DIC). Some might think that these DICs just want to get rid of two-term Executive Marc Elrich (not to be confused with Marcel Rich, who owns marcelrich.com). Partially true. The DICs want more than just getting rid of one person. They want to create a structure where it’s easier to manipulate county executives when there is no stability in who holds the office. Secondly, the County Executive, like the County Councilmembers, is already term limited. Finally, the Question, if approved, takes away our right to vote for whom we want. Don’t let them take our rights away. Vote AGAINST Question A.

Question One: Codifying Roe v. Wade in Maryland’s Constitution. Vote FOR. First, see US Senate race recommendation below. Second, abortion is a medical decision best left to a women and her medical care provider. Period, The end. I have daughters. I have granddaughters. They should not have fewer rights than our generation. Don’t let them take their rights away. VOTE FOR Quesiton One.

School Board At Large, and Districts 2 & 4: Two of the six incumbents are running for re-election. We need new Board members. When a principle who was tight with the MCPS superintendent who the Board approved of created a hostile work environment that included sexual harassment and sexual abuse of children, they were slow to act, and only did so after MoCo360’s investigative report¹. They should not be returned to the Board.

As for the non-incumbent running in a now open seat, don’t vote for Brenda Diaz. To use a technical, scientific term, she’s a guano loco. She’s the local face of Moms for Liberty² (M4L). M4L is proof that, contrary to what Hunter S. Thompson asserted, when the going gets weird, the weird become rank amateurs.

I voted for Rita Montoya³ at-large, Natalie Zimmerman⁴ for District 2, and Laura Stewart⁵ for District 4. Montoya is a parent of two school-age children, PTA President, a lawyer with experience in the non-profit sector and justice system. Zimmerman is a public school teacher and brings that perspective to the Board. And, Stewart, parent of two alumni of MCPS, is the former head of the MontCo Women’s Democratic Club, and has over a decade of local, county and state leadership at the PTA and other child advocacy groups. All three are well qualified and will add value to our Board of Education.

I’m in Congressional District 8, so I voted for Jamie Raskin. As Napoleon Dynamite might say: “Duh!”

I voted for Angela Alsobrooks⁶ for US Senate. Former Governor Hogan has tried to flip-flop on his clear record of opposing abortion rights, and he can’t be trusted to be independent of his fellow banana Republicans in the Senate. Montgomery County Democrats have put together a good FAQ⁷ on this. Alsobrooks’ record on the issues is also clear (see the link in the footnotes). She promises on Day One as our Senator she will co-sponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act⁸

I feel sure that you’ve already made up your mind about who you want for US President. If you are still undecided, then I wish you a gradual recovery from the 10-year coma you just came out of. Go slow, lest the history of the last 10 years shocks you back into a coma.

Yours for democracy, Joseph

1https://moco360.media/2024/01/12/mcps-made-him-reverse-beidleman-sex-harassment-finding-and-then-retaliated-he-alleges/

2https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/06/16/secret-moms-for-liberty-audio-captures-threatening-rhetoric-targeting-a-school-librarian

3https://www.montoya4mcps.com/

4https://www.zimmermanforboe.com/home f

5https://laurastewart.org/

6https://www.angelaalsobrooks.com/priorities

7https://mddems.org/news/fact-check-republican-larry-hogans-real-record-of-opposing-abortion-access/

8https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Health_Protection_Act

We are environmentalists, and current and former Sierra Club Members. The Montgomery County Sierra Club Executive Committee does NOT represent us.

May 2022

In 2002, The Montgomery County Sierra Club (SC) Executive Committee (Ex-Comm) endorsed Green Party candidate Linda Schade¹ for State Delegate because of her opposition to the Intercounty Connector (ICC) highway and to subsidizing fossil fuel infrastructure.

Twenty years later, the Ex-Comm endorsed two pro-fossil fuel infrastructure candidates: wealthy multi-millionaire David Blair for County Executive, and a Chamber of Commerce CEO, Marilyn Balcombe  for County Council².

From 2002 through 2011, the SC battled alongside citizen activists to stop the fossil-fuel infrastructure -the ICC- using their resources --including legal help-- in coordination with their anti-fossil-fuel  infrastructure coalition partners, to fight it.^3,4

In the midst of the pandemic (2020-2021), the SC Ex-Comm worked with the Industrial Solar complex who wanted to open up Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve for non-agricultural use, and opposed pro-solar citizens who insist on keeping the Reserve reserved for food, fiber and forest production (all which sequester carbon), and who want solar cells on existing roofs and parking lots.

When David Brower left the Sierra Club Board in 2000, one of the reasons he gave, according the New York Times, was that “the board's practice of meeting in closed session indicated how far it had strayed from its populist roots."⁵ The Montgomery County SC Ex-Comm should always directly involve the membership in deciding whom to endorse. (There are apps for that.) The Ex-Comm did not consult with its members in deciding to endorse candidates who support building climate-wrecking highway projects. This is not what democracy looks like. 

Albert Einstein noted that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Industrial complexes’ extractive business plans got us into the plethora of problems –inequality, pollution, climate disruption, and so on– that plague us now. Believing that working with Industrial complexes’ extractive business plans is going to get us out of our problems is what Einstein called the definition of insanity.

We call on the Montgomery County Sierra Club Ex-Comm to rescind its endorsements of pro-highway candidates.

Signatories

* Current Sierra Club members

** Lifetime Sierra Club members

† Former Sierra Club members

 

Ginny Barnes†

Ken Bawer*

Diane Cameron*

Steve Corbett †

Susan Eisendrath*

Jean S. Findlay*

Bob Guldin*

Jim Hall

Molly Hauck*

Brian Higgins

Joseph Horgan*

Susan Janney

Elizabeth Joyce

David Kathan†

Dan Kulpinski*

Joe Libertelli*

Caren Madsen

Jim Mole

Sarah Morse

Joyce E. Nalewajk

Mary Reardon†

Suzan Richman

Kathleen Samiy

Margaret Shoap

Blair Turner

Margaret Turner

Coletta Youngers

¹web.archive.org/web/20021208103724/http://www.lindaschade.org/endorsements/index.html

²bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/politics/montgomery-county-sierra-club-endorses-blair-in-county-executive-race/

³www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1430580/audubon-naturalist-soc-v-us-dept-of-transp/

⁴web.archive.org/web/20021214121221/http://maryland.sierraclub.org/montgomery/

^swww.nytimes.com/2000/05/20/us/environmental-leader-quits-sierra-board.html

Random thoughts on a rainy day Tuesday

Montgomery County received between five and eight inches of rain on Saturday.  Overall, we are projected to get 30 inches for the month of July.  On average, MontCo gets 30 inches a year.  Should we really be turning over a portion of our stormwater program to profiteering private corporations?

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The "swing voter" is NOT looking for a return to the way things were; they're looking for authentic, new ideas (or ideas that are so old they seem new) that are going to make their lives and --more importantly-- the lives of their children better.  They're not the left, or the right or the center.  They are our fellow Americans for whom the system does not work.  They don't care about Socialism or Capitalism or Thisism or Thatism.  They simply want a future.  

If you want to win swing voter, your first duty is to acknowledge that they've been screwed by the system.   Then, you must offer a vision --preferably one that has been shown to work-- of a future that works for them and their children.

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When what you doing is NOT getting the job done, doing it harder isn't the solution.  Do it differently.  Change it up.  My comments should be directed to my favorite millionaires (the Nationals) -players, manager, coaches, front office.

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Don't vent; VOTE!

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The Republican Admistration is set to offer $12 Billion in aid to Midwesterners affected by its erratic trade policies.  If they can find $12 Billion for their screwed-up policies, they can find $12 Billion to send to Puerto Rico.

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 Corruption in government --either blatantly through bribes, or subtlety through campaign "donations"-- is a prime reason why eligible voters don't vote.   The problem is that we cannot change corrupt governments unless we vote.