Tag Archives: Kamala Harris

Read the details in GSA letter to Biden stating that transition can formally begin

By Roger Straw, November 2020

Although Emily Murphy sounds defensive and a bit whiny in her letter, it does reveal some interesting details about the upcoming transition.  Read the letter here. (Click on the image for the 2-page PDF version.)

Click the image to read the letter.

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy finally starts the transition process

Trump Administration Finally Clears Way For Biden Transition To Begin

“I have always strived to do what is right,” GSA administrator Emily Murphy said in a letter to the president-elect on Monday.

Huffington Post, By Nick Visser, November 23, 2020
GSA Administrator Emily Murphy arrives to tesitfy during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing on "GSA (General Services Administration) Oversight Hearing" on Wednesday, March 13, 2019.
Emily Murphy, Trump appointed administrator of the General Services Administration

Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, said the transition between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden can begin, releasing millions of dollars in funds and clearing the way for a new administration.

“I have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always strived to do what is right,” Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden on Monday. “Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and the available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official — including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision.”

Trump thanked Murphy for her work just moments later.

Biden’s campaign released a statement shortly after Murphy’s announcement, calling the decision a “needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track.”

“This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies,” the Biden-Harris transition executive director, Yohannes Abraham, said in a statement. “In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration’s efforts to hollow out government agencies.”

The president noted on Twitter that while he still planned to fight the outcome of the election, he agreed the transition should begin “in the best interest of our country.”

“I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same,” he wrote.

The move will make $6.3 million available to Biden and his team to begin the transition process, as well as additional funds to prepare his staff and appointees.

Murphy had drawn widespread ire over her delay in “ascertaining” that Biden won the election, which is required before millions of dollars in transition funds and access to government officials can begin. She said, however, that Trump’s bevy of court losses and the certification of votes in several battleground states had allowed her to determine that Biden was the likely winner of the election.

Murphy added that she received many threats amid the delay in what she called an “effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely,” although they, too, had not influenced her decision.

“I do not think that an agency charged with improving federal procurement and property management should place itself above the constitutionally-based election process,” she wrote Monday.

Several notable figures had lambasted the Trump administration over the delay, saying any further refusal to declare Biden the winner could hamper the country’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which has entered its most dangerous stage as the country beings to travel en masse before the holiday season.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said last week he was “concerned” that things hadn’t gone “smoothly” and Biden said “more people may die” if Trump kept obstructing the transfer of power.

“As my chief of staff, Ron Klain, would say … a vaccine is important. It’s of little use until you’re vaccinated,” Biden said last week upon questioning about the rollout of any coronavirus preventative. “So how do we get the vaccine, how do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? What’s the game plan?”

Anthem for the Biden / Harris era

I am in tears of joy (again) as I offer to you this moving piece.  Hearing it on our old CD earlier today, I was moved to tears, realizing it is the perfect anthem of hope for the years ahead.  Thank you in advance, Joe and Kamala!  And thank you Mamuse and Thrive.  Enjoy.  – Roger Straw

We Shall Be Known

Composed by Karisha Longaker of Mamuse, November 2016
Recorded by Mamuse  https://youtu.be/dX11MEtbkXI
Also recorded (and shared here) by the Thrive East Bay Choir  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKhjaN72dRQ

We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth

It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love

We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth

It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love

Here’s a fix for the one thing that could screw up your early mail-in ballot

Don’t let your outdated signature doom your vote!

It has become increasingly clear that everyone needs to VOTE EARLY as soon as mail-in ballots arrive in late September.

The one thing that has been worrying me is that the Solano County Registrar of Voters office plans to VERIFY MY SIGNATURE before counting my ballot.

What?  My signature has devolved into an indecipherable scrawl!  And it ain’t what it used to be!

Today I discovered that the Registrar has posted a form that allows us to UPDATE OUR SIGNATURE.  This could be important – and timely!

So check this out today.  Here’s the Registrar’s invitation and a link to the form you can fill out.  The form contains good instructions.

All vote by mail ballots are to be signed by the voter.  This signature must match your signature used when you registered to vote.  If you would like to update your signature, please fill out this form and return it to our office.  We will update your signature based on the information provided.
Drop the form off at Solano county Registrar of Voters Office, 675 Texas St., Suite 2600 (Map)OR… the form contains instructions for scanning and returning it by email attachment.  Or I suppose if you are really EARLY, you could mail it!
VOTE in EARLY OCTOBER!
Let’s elect Joe and Kamala BY A LANDSLIDE!