…. CONTROLS HOW HISTORY IS RECORDED
“Your Free Daily Meme Caption Contest”
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Jimmy Carter POTUS 39
Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly in his hometown, Plains, Georgia.
The 39th president of the United States lives modestly, a sharp contrast to his successors, who have left the White House to embrace power of another kind: wealth.
Even those who didn’t start out rich, including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have made tens of millions of dollars on the private-sector opportunities that flow so easily to ex-presidents.
When Carter left the White House after one tumultuous term, trounced by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, he returned to Plains, a speck of peanut and cotton farmland that to this day has a nearly 40 percent poverty rate.
The Democratic former president decided not to join corporate boards or give speeches for big money because, he says, he didn’t want to “capitalize financially on being in the White House.”
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said that Gerald Ford, Carter’s predecessor and close friend, was the first to fully take advantage of those high-paid post-presidential opportunities, but that “Carter did the opposite.”
Since Ford, other former presidents, and sometimes their spouses, routinely earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech.
“I don’t see anything wrong with it; I don’t blame other people for doing it,” Carter says over dinner. “It just never had been my ambition to be rich.”
VOTE August 7, 2018
Happy 59th Birthday President Obama!
VOTE … as if our lives depend on it
LISA BROWN 4 CONGRESS | WA 5th
HARLEY ROUDA 4 CONGRESS | CA 48th
Midterm Elections 2018
The DNC is doing unprecedented work to support candidates at the state level this year:
Providing cybersecurity guidance for states — you know the Russians are going to be back to attack our democracy again this year. We’re helping campaigns protect themselves.
Raising grassroots funds for candidates — helping candidates across the country fund their campaigns the right way: From grassroots supporters like you.
Targeting new universes of unregistered voters — our tech team is creating new datasets that identify over 25 million likely Democrats who are currently unregistered, so campaigns can target our voter registration outreach as smartly as possible.
Supporting state parties — now’s a time to make large, long-term investments in state parties, and that’s exactly what we’re doing through the State Party Innovation Fund.
Rebuilding and maintaining the voter files — without it, we can’t do the organizing work it will take on the ground to win in November 2018.
Source: Democrats.org
Voter RESOURCES | MAPS
Washington State: MyVote.wa.gov | enter your name & birthdate to find your elected officials, your precinct, your voting history, and much more.
Idaho: Go to Idahovotes.gov | Lots of information if you dig a little.
WA/Spokane/City/County/District Maps:
Interactive map for WA State CDs and LDs
City of Spokane, City Council District Map
Spokane County School District Map
WA State Data on Campaign funding: Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)
For your viewing pleasure:
”Get me Roger Stone” (2017) an hour and a half documentary streamable on Netflix. A biography of an infamous political operative with Stone’s willing participation. Many insights into the rise of Trump.
”The Brainwashing of My Dad” (2015) streamable on Netflix and Hulu and probably elsewhere. Much food for thought on the effect of Fox News and other propaganda.
Jane Mayer is an investigative journalist and a staff writer with The New Yorker since 1995. She spent five years working on ” Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” (2016) The Koch brothers threatened a lawsuit, but none materialized. Glancing at her bibliography was probably enough to discourage them. This is the definitive work. It is well worth reading. You will never again lightly pass over a reference to The Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute or the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Jane Mayer also wrote a lengthy piece on the reclusive multibillionaire, James Mercer, whose money and influence were essential for the Trump presidency.
The Importance of Words and Framing: ”Don’t Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate” (2014) by George Lakoff is a very readable and insightful piece on the sophistication of Republican propaganda and the importance of words and framing.
2018 Wildfires torch California
