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Trump Administration to Increase Rent For Poorest Americans

Another example of how Donald Trump and his administration is taking from the poor and giving to the rich!

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday will propose tripling the amount the poorest households are expected to pay for rent as well as encourage those receiving housing subsidies to work, according to the administration’s legislative proposal obtained by The Washington Post.

The move to overhaul how low-income rental subsidies are calculated would affect more than 4.5 million families relying on federal housing assistance. The proposed legislation would require congressional approval.

Currently, tenants generally pay 30 percent of their adjusted income toward rent or a public housing agency minimum rent not to exceed $50. The administration’s legislative proposal sets the family monthly rent contribution at 35 percent of gross income or 35 percent of their earnings by working 15 hours a week at the federal minimum wage — or approximately $150 a month, three times higher than the current minimum.

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The Bullet Stops Here

I believe we have a winner.

The award for the most misguided person in the United States has to go to Micheal D. Cohen, Donald Trump’s attorney and scheissmeister, who is quoted as saying that he would take a bullet for the president.

Now don’t get me wrong. I would certainly take a bullet for anyone in my immediate family or a close friend, but I most certainly would not take anything for a person, much less a president, who denigrates, insults and forsakes me as a human being.

Misplaced loyalty is a failure of character. Cleaning up other people’s infidelities, financial irregularities and lapses of judgement that a child could explain as wrong is no way to make a living. It’s no wonder that the president and those who know him are more worried about what the FBI will find out by sifting through Cohen’s records than they are about Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election. What Trump has done domestically is far more noxious and damaging to his presidency.

But just when this story should be blooming in springtime glory, the Democrats stepped into some scheiss of their own by filing a lawsuit alleging criminal activity against it by the Russians, the Trump campaign, and Wikileaks. Further, the DNC filed the suit without letting important people like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi know they were doing this. Honestly, it makes the party look like a bunch of crybabies. Let Mueller do his job, keep the pressure on Cohen and focus on the ill effects of the president’s policies on the economy, the environment, families, and the safety of their children.

Is that too much to ask? Or do the Democrats simply need to create fissures and schisms to feel alive?

The Republicans are already running the fall campaign by warning their donors and voters that if the Democrats win either or both legislative houses in November, then they will open impeachment proceedings as soon as their members are sworn in. Why give this issue back to the GOP? It’s not like they have a stellar record to run on. The tax cuts are exciting no one except the companies that are using their windfall to buy up stock, and the rise in gas prices will soon negate most of the money that the middle and working classes are finding in their checks. Healthcare also seems to be a real worry to many middle-class families because premiums and drug prices are rising at the same time that coverage and deductibles are making it difficult to get adequate care.

With all the other distractions in Washington, running a campaign on middle-class concerns would be a fun idea, yes? Perhaps the DNC could be persuaded to fund such a campaign for the fall instead of playing the president’s game and making everything a matter of resentment and blame.

Instead of taking a bullet, why don’t we bite the bullet and do what’s right for the American people who deserve better than what they’re presently getting from their representatives? I’d sacrifice a lot for that.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Second Time As Farce

Can someone please tell me what’s the plan for this country? Yes, I understand that giving it over to corporate interests by cutting taxes, repealing legislation that keeps the air and water clean, and allowing certain industries to both police and investigate themselves, is just what Republicans do when they gain power, but where are we going? Is this it?

These thoughts came to me after last week’s big-time fail by Republicans when they tried to muster a two-thirds majority for a balanced budget amendment. Not that this would have gone anywhere because there aren’t 67 votes in the Senate to send such an amendment to the states, but it seems as though the GOP has given up on getting anything useful done.

And now that Paul Ryan has decided not to run for reelection, the truth about Republican governance has been exposed for the lie that it’s always been. I’m tired of hearing that politicians want to spend more time with his family. The time to do that is when children are young and impressionable, not when they’re older and don’t want to listen anyway. I’m not just pointing this out because Ryan’s a Republican. Anybody who says they want to spend more time with their family after being away from them for ten years is simply ignorant of the effect their behavior has had on the children. You can never get that time back.

Politically, though, this is significant. It’s quite clear that the GOP sees the writing on the wall and it’s in bright Day-Glo colors: You are going to lose many seats, and perhaps even your majority, so if you want to live under Democratic rule, then run again. Otherwise, move on. It also shows that many Republicans believe that the president is doing severe damage to the party and that the investigations into his and is associates’ behavior will uncover real crimes with real potential punishments.

We’ve been here before in previous administrations. Sex scandals. Investigations. Ethically questionable behavior. An executive seething with resentment and frustration over the press and day-to-day workings of the government. Money. Everywhere there is money. Follow the money. And Mission Accomplished? Really?

Bombing Syria will change the news for a day or so, but eventually, we’ll go back to the domestic issues, and that’s where we need some forward-looking and thinking leadership. We need a plan, not just empty slogans. We need a direction.

I’m just a bit skeptical about where that’s all going to come from.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Jeffrey Toobin – Donald Trump is Firing People for Doing Their Job – Video

I have not written much about this presidency because the thought of Donald Trump in the Oval Office still makes me shake my head in disbelief. But I do keep up with the sickening news coming from the Trump White House and I remain baffled that there are Americans who still support this gradual push to Authoritarian.

Why Authoritarian you asked? Because to hell with the United States Constitution and the First Amendment. Donald Trump has stumped all over that document like a four-year old throwing a tantrum. Authoritarian because time and again, Donald Trump has proven that he has absolutely no problem with fighting those that opposes him, even if he is wrong and they are right.

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin made this very observation tonight while talking to Anderson Cooper.  Asked to talk about a New York Times report that revealed Trump wanted to fire Mueller in December, Toobin explained that Trump is firing people “for doing their job!”

“Rod Rosenstein has done nothing wrong. He has done his job. Yet it seems like – and I certainly believe the reporting of our colleagues – that he is on the verge of losing his job because he did the right thing. So I think it is totally believable that the President is considering firing Rosenstein, that he almost fired Mueller in December and earlier last year. But we can’t lose perspective on the fact that this is wrong. This whole approach to being president is wrong!

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The Fierce Resistance: Public Workers Have Had Enough

I’m sure you remember this old saw: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I’m sure that there are some reaction deniers out there, but for the most part this is settled science. And that’s exactly why those who see the end of public unions, or indeed unions in general, in their rear view mirrors had better watch the road in front of them.

For the uninitiated, or for those unlucky enough to be represented by a labor union, the conversation wherein truth speaks to power will get very loud, most likely during the final week in June when the Supreme Court will render its decision in the Janus case, which centers on fees that are charged to people who don’t join the union, but get the benefit of having it represent them during collective bargaining. For example, if you are a teacher in a public school in New Jersey and you don’t want to join NJEA, you will still pay anywhere up to 85% of the association dues because the local NJEA affiliate will bargain on your behalf and, well, that costs money.

The Janus case, which is being pushed by right wing groups, is challenging those agency fees as unconstitutional because they say that workers are being forced to support speech they don’t like, what with most associations being fairly liberal and contributing to Democratic candidates. The odds-makers are betting that the present Supreme Court will throw out 40 years of settled law and rule that unions cannot force anyone to contribute for their bargaining. The thinking among those right wing groups is that the public unions will then fall apart, go bankrupt, lead to the demise of public…everything and put the Democratic Party at a dangerous disadvantage because it would be robbed of union support.

A decision against agency fees would be terrible for working people, but let’s go back to the equal and, more important, opposite reaction that’s likely to take place.

If the right thinks that this will be the end of public unions, then they haven’t been paying attention to West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, where teachers in these decidedly union-bashing states are walking out over pay, benefits and the lack of respect they’re getting from know-nothings who think that just about anybody can be a public school teacher or worker. Years of Republican rule have sacrificed budgets on the altar of tax cuts and anti-government free-market gobbledygook about school choice and the money it robs from public education. Teachers have always noticed the effects and now parents are too. The results are not encouraging.

And if the GOP doesn’t watch out, this movement will spread to other states that, until now, have been all quiet on the union front. In fact, a look at that list will illustrate just how much the GOP has to lose in a labor war, since the states with the least effective unions traditionally vote Republican. You can only push people so far, and the truth is that many teachers in these states need to also get second jobs in order to pay the bills. That’s not an effective social contract.

But it doesn’t end with teachers. Public workers throughout the country are being stigmatized because budget cuts have rendered local and state governments less effective and less able to respond to the needs of their citizens. This has been a major aim of the Republicans going back to Reagan, that is, to cut government spending so that people would attack its credibility, and the process has been disgracefully effective. State and federal workers have been furloughed and caught in battles between legislators resulting in government shutdowns to the point that many good people have left the field.

This cannot continue, and the reaction has already begun. Public unions will not go away. They will adapt and continue because they represent worker who do vital jobs. And all of the talk about how the president is on the side of workers has been exposed for the empty nonsense it’s always been.

As a public school teacher in New Jersey, and an association president, I am represented by, and represent, an organization that has my interests at heart. But I was thinking the other day about how far I would go if those rights and benefits were in danger.

Would I walk out? Yes I would.
Would I strike, which is illegal for teachers in New Jersey? Yes I would.
Would I go to jail? Yes I would.

And I work in a state where public worker salaries and benefits are comparatively high.

Anger and frustration have a funny way of altering people’s behaviors. We are seeing the beginning of that.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Strangers In Your Midst and the Fools Who Fear Them

An interesting year, no? The calendar has created a confluence of Passover, Easter and April Fool’s Day, which pretty much covers everyone who lives…everywhere. Which is humbling because this weekend should remind us that we are only as big and smart and compassionate and humane as the weakest among us. The ones with the smallest voices, the vulnerable, the unloved. And that’s why the words of the Seder concerning the stranger are incredibly prescient.

In short, they say, “You shall not oppress a stranger since you yourselves know the feeling of the stranger, for you were also strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Pretty straightforward, I think. Treat all the people living in your land with respect, acceptance, and love. The liturgy is full of these sentiments. And then some. But of course, we live in a land that has developed complicated feelings about the strangers who live here. We fear them and blame them for ills that are not supported by objective data. And then there’s the president, who seems to contradict himself over who should be able to stay in this country, and who gets himself in hot water over his language.

The real problem, though, is that people who call themselves religious, and a great number of those who don’t, not only support the restrictionist policies of the president, they do so in direct violation of the religious values they so proudly promote. This creates a climate of fear that is dividing the country and is leading the government to sue states and cities that say they will harbor immigrants, both documented and undocumented, rather than submit to policies that break up families and sow fears in largely immigrant communities.

And adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census will only make things worse. If the purpose of the census is to get an accurate count of who lives in this country, then why ask a question that will lead to a dramatic undercount of the population? After all, it’s crystal clear that the reason behind the question is not benign. What the president ultimately wants is to prove his contention that he lost the popular vote count in 2016 because illegal immigrants rushed to the polls and voted against him. Secondarily, he wants to know who is a citizen so his administration can harass, deport and threaten both immigrants and the states in which they reside, most of which voted against him.

Talk about oppression. And fear.

We do need sensible immigration reform, but that does not include a wall or mass deportations or disruptions in the lives of people who have lived here productively. It does include compassion and respect, which seem to be in short supply these days in Washington.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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After the Nor’easters:Trump Caves on the Budget While the Real Storm(y) is on the Horizon

For all the talk about President Trump almost vetoing the Congressional spending bill, what’s lost is that his presidency will likely turn out to be a textbook case of an outsider with no natural political constituency unable to reorder the bureaucracy or scare enough legislators to bend to his will. After all, here is a politician who did not garner a majority of popular votes and is proving unable and unwilling to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats, who in many cases would be able to give him votes on legislation he’d like to pass.

Yes, he got his military spending increase, but on most other measures, including the ridiculous wall on the Mexican border, he earned the political equivalent of the Golden Sombrero, whiffing on cuts he proposed in funding for the arts, the EPA, housing and transportation, each of which received an increase in government support or the same level of funding as the year before. In effect, Congress ignored the president’s request, then essentially told him to sign the bill or he’d get a worse one in return.

So much for Trump the dealmaker or politician who would come in and clean house. In fact, the only house he’s cleaned is the White House by firing and replacing his staff at a rate unseen in…forever.

Congress has learned that the president cannot rally Americans behind his agenda mainly because his agenda is supported by a minority of people and his behavior has so eroded his support that Republican members of Congress are running for the doors in anticipation of a Democratic wave election in November. Trump has also shown a notable lack of policy knowledge and engagement, so trying to make an actual argument other than a particular policy is “great” or “the best” seems to be beyond his grasp. Add in the tweets that come in flurries after he’s watched some outrage on FOX and you have a political environment that is unstable, ignorant and rudderless.

Just what the Founders envisioned, right?

What should make Republicans quake that much more is that they and the president should be at the height of their power and influence. One-party governance has a short shelf life as Democrats can confirm from 2009-2011. You get two years to prove your worth and Republicans understand that they have not unified the country and that the president is not going to have a coat, much less coattails in the upcoming election. For the president to be snubbed on his major priorities at this point is a major rebuke. Neither they nor he are going to regain influence. The tax cuts are in the system. If all Trump has left is to bar transgender Americans from serving in the military, then it’s going to be a difficult environment for them for the rest of the year.

And that’s just the domestic side. A rejection of the diplomatic order that’s kept the peace since 1945 in the form of higher tariffs, a foreign policy team full of hawks, and a confrontational attitude towards China and North Korea are all causing some concern in the United States and abroad. It’s one thing to shake up a moribund system. It’s quite another to cause other countries to question the commitment of the United States to protocols that keep the world safe.

The president finally has a foreign policy and security team he’s comfortable with, but he still sees the world as a series of personal relationships that determine who gets punished and who doesn’t. Congratulating Vladimir Putin while applying tariffs to Japan makes for a contradictory signal. Gutting the State Department, leaving embassies short staffed and trusting your gut on Kim Jong-un is downright dangerous. The lone bright spot is holding China accountable for the theft of intellectual property, which has gone on since the 1990s. But that’s hardly something to run on.

It’s a bit too early to call President Trump a lame duck, but he’s getting close. Congress passed the tax cuts, but the ACA remains, as does an un-walled border. The issue that could unite the country, an infrastructure bill that provides both jobs and desperate repairs, is nowhere to be found. And, of course, the Stormy clouds are gathering.

Donald Trump will not be a transformative leader because his worldview and policy knowledge are far too limited, and he had done nothing to unify the country. Congress just reminded him of that. The people will remind him again in November.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Unarmed Black Man Shot And Killed By Sacramento Police in His Backyard

Here’s something I’m sure you’ve heard before. It’s a statement from Sacramento police after the shot and killed a 22-year-old unarmed black man while he was standing in his backyard.

“The officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them. Fearing for their safety, the officers fired their duty weapons striking the suspect multiple times.”

The man’s name was Stephon Clark. He was standing in the backyard of his home when police showed up looking for someone reported as breaking windows. Clark, standing in his backyard, was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time. With phone in hand, police thought Clark was holding a weapon and opened fire killing him instantly.

… and the beat goes on…

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Wasn’t Trump Supposed to be Good at Something?

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump reacts during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

I would think that the president might be more inclined to support some gun control measures, seeing as how he loves to shoot himself in the foot.

How does President Trump think that firing Andrew McCabe or Rod Rosenstein or James Comey or Rex Tillerson is going to make anybody forget the main issues in a White House saga starring incompetence, venality and revenge (a great name for a law firm, no?)? I understand the president’s fascination with the media and keeping his name at the top of the websites, but doesn’t he understand that he would be there anyway simply because of his position?

For all of the talk about his being a master media manipulator and a genius at getting people to talk about him, Trump is a terrible public relations guy. He wants to remake the country in his image, but he has no plan and constantly gets in his own way. He also says mean things, attacks the very institutions that can get him the programs and policies he wants, and seems to lack even the basic knowledge of trade or business that was supposed to be his strength.

And what of his signature accomplishment? Conor Lamb’s election was extraordinary not just because he won in a Trump-dominated district, but despite the fact that almost every worker in that district received a tax cut and should have been thankful to the president and his party. That, more than any other reason says to me that the Republicans are in deep trouble come the fall. The old argument was that the president was a savvy businessman who would bring some fiscal sense to the country and reorder the government so it responded when it was needed, but otherwise stayed out of the way. We now know that this argument is showing some serious cracks and the new tariffs could end up costing Americans more money and some jobs in the name of economic nationalism.

President Trump would do himself, and the country, a favor by simply ignoring Robert Mueller’s investigation and Stormy Daniels and just getting on with the business of governing. True, it wouldn’t make those problems go away, but to gloat that you’ve fired an FBI employee so close to retirement because he’s tied to James Comey is simply terrible, terrible policy. And trying to silence a woman the president said he never slept with is just plain silly. If she’s lying, let her and expose her. What complicates this is the $130,000 payment to buy her silence. And the $20 million threat if she breaks the agreement.

That’s terrible public relations, business practice and support of American values. What else has the president got?

Not much.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Power of Power

Funny you should ask, but yes, I am sitting in my local public library charging all of my devices because yet again, north central New Jersey is without power. I really thought we had escaped this because the snowstorm hit on Wednesday and we kept our power throughout the driving snow and falling branches. But on Saturday morning we heard a bang, and then the lights went out. And the heat. And the (well) water. At least we can still cook on the gas stove. A large pork shoulder butt for pulling. What else would you expect a nice Jewish boy to be cooking on a Sunday afternoon?

But that’s not what I came to talk about. Came to talk about power. So while we wait for more snow on Monday night and Tuesday, let’s muse about the power shift that is on its way.

Young people are ticked off and they want the power over their lives that previous hordes of young people have fought for. The power to be safe. The power to shake the status quo, as in the power of the NRA to dictate their view of the Second Amendment, which is that it’s inviolable and any slight change in gun laws is an egregious violation of American rights. Enter Florida. Raising the minimum age to purchase a gun is a good step. Worked with alcohol; why not guns? The NRA’s argument is that denying a 19 year old a gun is akin to taking away guns, which, as we know, is the argument that all far-right gunsters use to beat back any regulation. If Florida can pass gun control laws, then most any state can. The question is whether they will.

Related to that is the proposed student walkout on Wednesday in response to the Parkland shooting. Under normal circumstances, schools in the leafy NJ suburbs would balk at letting students lead a disruption in the school day. This time, though, administrators are bending to the will of the vocal majority and are making accommodations so that both students and teachers can express their concerns and rights and fears and hopes that the country will finally make some common-sense changes. Students are leading this, and that’s the beauty of it because they need to be heard. So much for this being an uninvolved, frightened, self-centered group of young men and women. That the right-wing media wants to paint them as dupes and fakes tells you all you already knew about the credibility of the right wing media.

And what about the teachers? In West Virginia they didn’t make the mistake that Senator Susan Collins made when she voted to keep the government funded in return for a scheduled vote on Dreamers, only to be sold out by Mitch McConnell. No, the teachers didn’t go back to school after the promise of a wage gain; they waited until the legislature actually gave them one before ending their protest, defying their state and local union leadership.

In short, enough is enough. Destroying public worker unions has resulted in the most heinous abrogations of the commitment that a progressive, democratic republic make to the workers that ensure education, and that government services are delivered effectively and equally. We are truly at the point where Ronald Reagan’s warning that the government is the problem is having its most noxious effect.

I have to laugh, and cry, at the gazillion gigabytes of words and pictures devoted to the idea that our present government is somehow run by populists. It is not. It’s run by know-nothings who are shifting even more money to themselves and hoping that the poor rubes who voted for them won’t notice, or will be bought off by $40 or $50 dollars more per week in their paychecks. Meanwhile, government workers are vilified for not getting things done with reduced resources, resources that those in power would like to reduce and defund even more.

The backlash is already here and it is being lead by people who are supposed to do as they are told. Clearly, that’s not happening anymore.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Donald Trump Voted Worst President in 73 Years

Donald Trump, with help from Russia, became the 45th president of the United States over a year ago, but the American people have spoken. When it comes to the question of who is the worst the worst president since World War II, Americans overwhelmingly voted Trump as the worst!

According to a new Quinnipiac University survey, 41 percent of Americans say Trump is the worst president since the end of World War II.

“In 73 years, 13 men have governed from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and none of them have done so with less admiration from the American people,” notes Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll.

By contrast, President Barack Obama nearly earned the title as the best president since World War II, with 24 percent. That was just behind Ronald Reagan who topped the poll at 28 percent. Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton took the third and fourth spots, respectively.

Just 7 percent of Americans think Trump qualifies as the best president.

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If the Children Are to Lead, They Have to Vote

You’ll excuse me if I’m somewhat skeptical, but all this talk about how the young people of this country are going to lead us into a new era where the adults have failed seems vaguely familiar. Many older Americans had the same feelings when the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1971 and they braced themselves for a new generation of activists who would change the way this country was run.

Instead, they gave us the Reagan Revolution which, by the by, coincides with a precipitous decline in the fortunes of the middle class, an explosion of money at the top of the income scale, and racial, economic and educational inequality that has resulted in a lost generation of African-American men and a coarsening of public discourse as a direct result of the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987.

In other words, the mythical bar in on the floor, ready for anyone with a half-considered idea to walk confidently over it.

Ok, Ok, maybe that wasn’t fair or was a bit dark. After all, the baby boom cohort has given us technology that was only a dream 40 short years ago, which has revolutionized work, entertainment, grammar and the speed at which society hurtles forward. We have better food, more of it, and at lower prices than we;ve ever had it. Is it any wonder that we’re gaining weight? We also have more breweries in this country than at any time since the 1880s. So we got that going for us.

And here comes the new youth. Hello and welcome. While the rest of us boomers get older, and I am shockingly aging at the rate of one year per year, the country seems to be getting younger and younger. This is natural. This is good. This works for me.

But I am not yet convinced that it will mean that meaningful change is close at hand.

First, the new young people will need to register to vote on or before their 18th birthday depending on their state’s law. Then they will need, and this is the big one, to vote. In every election. Every one. Without fail. I haven’t missed an election…ever. Not ever. I voted in person, by absentee ballot and by mail-in ballot. They can too. It’s easy. And fun.

And not just voting in presidential elections. Young people need to vote in local state and Congressional elections as well. This is how to transfer the energy and emotion into policy and representation. It’s a lesson in civics. Which we don’t require much in schools these days? Connection? Anyone? Anyone?

It will be difficult to maintain the present energy until November, but that’s natural. The initial awakening will settle down into organizing and spreading the message. Then the real slog comes in the fall when people will need to go door-to-door and get out the vote. But we have a good start. The energy is building and so is the outrage over the senseless violence that has now invaded schools.

To make a change, though, young people must register and vote. No Excuses.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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