Smoke and Mirrors!

Hello CRAGgys,

After a spring hiatus for travel and recovery, I am tuning back into the ongoing work to build democracy and support freedom in the Keweenaw and beyond.

Too much is happening too fast for me to try to coherently summarize the past few months: a war of idiocy, plundering of public lands and properties, more ICE murders, attacks on elections, immigrants, the rule of law, and anyone who hurts delicate presidential feelings, and of course, ballooning corruption, corruption, and more corruption.

I will aim to look ahead for now.

Smoke

Question: Why are the UP skies smokey?

Answers:

1. Jack Bergman: Canadians failed to thin their 1.4 million square miles of forest.
2. Everyone else: Climate change drives big fires. Big oil companies and their pet republicans are blocking our conversion to clean, modern, electric energy.
   (Also, everyone else: condolences for the families of Canadian Nicholas Dale who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado, as well as Michigander Emily Barker, and Sydney Watson, and Nick Hutcherson. And sending support to all the Canadians displaced by fires.)

As explained by Zeke Hausfather, forest mismanagement has nothing to do with the Canadian wildfires. The vast, unmanaged wilderness of Canada's boreal forests is nothing like California's Sierra Nevada.

next time someone tells you Canada’s fires can be solved by raking the forests, you can point out that the thing filling their sky with smoke is a lightning-struck, drought-primed boreal forest doing what a warming climate is making it do more and more often.

The Canadian boreal forest is on the order of three million square kilometers. You are not going to thin or prescribe-burn your way across it, and the crown fires that produce the smoke wouldn’t stop at a fuel break anyway.

Meanwhile, the completely unnecessary hostility to Canada has diminished chances for international collaboration in firefighting, which used to be routine in both directions.

The bleating of Bergman and his colleagues has gone far beyond parody. He is simply Mirroring talking points from his boss like a true sycophant.

Elections

Michigan primary elections are coming up on August 4th. The general election is November 3rd. You should have your quote-by-mail ballot now if you are on the "Permanent Mail Ballot List." If you are not yet on that list, you can get on it online or at your clerk's office. Despite lots of noise in Washington, mail voting is safe and protected.

Handling your mail ballot

You have multiple options to return your mail ballot. By any method, it must be received by 8 pm on election day.

• Mail it to arrive by the deadline (post it 2-weeks in advance, to be safe).
• Bring it to the dropbox at your clerk's office.
• Bring it to your election site during early voting or on election day and put it into the tabulator yourself, just like in-person voters.

You can check if your ballot arrived correctly.

In the primary parties (democrats and republicans) select candidates to run in the general election. Michigan has open primaries, meaning that anybody can vote, but you need to choose either the democratic or republican section of the ballot (you can't pick some on each side). Here's the top of the ballot for those in the 110th district. [You may have additional local items; see exactly what your ballot will look like for your location.]

Information on UP candidates is being compiled by LSR Indivisible.

State races

Governor

At the state level, Governor Whitmer is term-limited. The current Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, is running for governor on the democratic side, with a challenge from Christopher Swanson. Three republicans are vying for the GOP slot (Aric Nesbitt has dropped out).

Jocelyn Benson has served as Secretary of State since 2019, where she has defended Michigan's elections against numerous attacks. (And a reminder that State Senator Ed McBroom chaired a study of our 2020 elections: GOP investigation finds no Michigan vote fraud, deems many claims ‘ludicrous’.)

Chris Swanson is currently Sheriff of Genesee County.

Michigan House and Senate

Four people represent the UP in the state legislature in Lansing (districts 107, 108, 109, and 110, from east to west). One senator, term-limited Ed McBroom, currently represents almost the whole UP (except the far eastern corner). A person can serve a maximum of 12 years combined in the house and senate.

Of these, the only one being contested in the primary is the republican nominee for state senate seat 38; one candidate is the current representative for district 108, and the other is the previous rep for that seat. (In January, 2020, LaFave open carried his AR-style handgun at the Michigan State Capital in protest of proposed gun laws. On 11/18/20, he proposed legislation to impeach Governor Whitmer.)

Ballotpedia has maps of the districts—bottom of the page. Official, detailed maps of each district are posted here.

Michigan reps to Washington

US Congress MI-01

MI-01 has been represented by Jack Bergman since 2017, which, coincidentally, is the last year that he held a constituent town hall. He is running for a 5th term. Two republicans are challenging him in the primary.

Three democrats are running to take on Bergman in the general election in November. Callie Barr got 39% of the vote last time around in 2024. Wayne Stiles and Kyle Blomquist are waging first time campaigns. This contest is really about who can beat Bergman in our red first district.

Zebulon Featherly (Independent) and Liz Hakola (Working Class Party) are also candidates for MI-01, but will not be on the primary ballot (only dems and repubs have primaries).

US Senate

Two democrats are competing to challenge republican Mike Rogers for the senate seat being vacated by Gary Peters. Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens; Mallory McMorrow officially withdrew.

El-Sayed is the progressive candidate, endorsed by Bernie, AOC, and others, including Statewide Michigan Indivisible (SWIM), followed by National Indivisible.

Haley Stevens has been in the house since 2019 and is being supported by more traditional democratic groups.

This race is attracting national attention because if democrats win, it could flip the senate blue.

Election Resources

Campaign financing info

• Transparency USA collects information on state races.
• Open Secrets is the source for lobbying and funding of federal elections

Voting in Michigan:

• Michigan voter information from the MI Secretary of State office.
  • Register to vote, check your registration status, apply for an absentee ballot.
  • Track your ballot.
  • See exactly what your ballot will look like for your location.
• MichiganVoting.org, non-partisan voter information site "maintained by a group of Michigan lawyers who are experts in the state's election law."
  • Straightforward answers to voting questions for students, recent residents.
  • Clear overview of election security in Michigan from voter rolls to certification.
• Information on UP candidates is being compiled by LSR Indivisible.
• Ballotpedia. Info on current and past elections across the state.

Shouts-out to a few recent local community activities.

Lots of big and small actions happened while I was away or laying low.

• Bridgefest Parade: floats by Keweenaw Indivisible and the Copper Country League of Women Voters.
• Keweenaw PrideFest. Yay!
• Ongoing Ukraine support.
• Turned out to support the Hancock Library. Hancock people need to keep an eye out for ongoing support needs.
• Spoke up to keep Houghton County Board meetings at 6 pm. Keep attending!
• Successfully challenged a coop rule limiting posting on their bulletin board.
• Continued support for local food pantries and Feed America program.
• Lots of community events! This is really critical for turning this ship off the dangerous shoals we're heading for.

Emma's July Community Calendar

View in the on-line calendar.

You can subscribe to link these events to your own calendar with live updates! (The use your calendar app to toggle visibility.) Here's how:

Key upcoming events

Today (Sunday, July 19):

• Callie Barr for congress, with former MI-01 congressman Bart Stupak. Calumet Theater, 5:30-7.
• Candidate forum on Environmental Topics, all the other MI-01 candidates. Orpheum Theater, 7-9 pm.

Coordination meetings:

• Keweenaw Socialists General meeting. Monday July 20, PLDL, 5:30-7 pm.
• Keweenaw Indivisible general membership, Tuesday, July 21, KUUF, 6-8 pm.
• AWAVE: Advocates for Those Without a Voice Everywhere. Wed July 22, 6-7 pm.

Elected Official Meetings. Attend. Speak up! Have a say in local affairs.

And check the calendar for kids events, concerts, farmers markets, demonstrations, pickleball, knitting, art shows, maker space, and more! Send your events to buildcommunitycc@gmail.com.

Thanks for all your patience, support and all your efforts to promote and expand freedom, justice and democracy!

Stay safe,

Sarah

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