Hi to everyone. My name is Allison. I'm with the Center for Election Science. I am one of their national advocacy coordinators. I've done a lot of work with some of you all in the chapter program and I've been in contact with Nate and as a lot of you all may have seen, he's run a pretty successful letter to the editor campaign and it's like one of the tools that hopefully everyone can utilize if you're stuck, if you'd like to get unstuck in your campaigns or just like a really good thing to have in your toolbox if you want to do like legislative days of action or get the attention of a lawmaker or even a journalist in particular. I think these are just like really good things to have. So, Nate, would you mind taking it away? Yeah, so, hey everyone and thanks for coming today. As Allison said, I'm Nate and I run Utah Proves. That's our effort in Utah just to get approval voting passed across the state. So today we're just going to talk a little bit about letter to the editors or LTEs. So this past year in Utah we were able to get several letter to the editors published across various papers within the state and after today we're hoping we can pass what helped us be successful to other campaigns and also help share some of the feedback we received to help you guys be even more successful than we've been. So just to start off at a couple questions for everyone. So first can someone tell me what a letter to the editor is and what your knowledge of them is? It's a submission to the editorial page on the newspaper. Yeah, so an LTE is where readers of the paper and I'll note usually you'll have to indicate that you live within the target audience or at very least the state to submit and then you can submit a short piece around 200 to 500 words on a specific topic to be published in the next paper. So then my next question is why are these important for the efforts like the ones that we're trying to run? It draws attention to issues but I also have found because I've written a lot of letters to the editor that my elected officials read them and it's one of the ways to give them a sense of what their constituency, what's important to their constituencies. Yeah, that is exactly right. So LTEs can be important for many reasons and those reasons can depend on what type of effort you're running. So for instance if you're running a ballot initiative, LTEs are very essential to get out the information about your effort, about the measure itself and also just to expose the idea to active voters especially since active voters are usually the ones reading the paper. And then if you're running... Oh sorry, is there legitimacy things or I don't know how hard it is to get a letter to the editor to submit or you know published? Is there part of it, part of it's that is that it seems more official than a blog post? Yeah, so I'll go over some of the things that will help the chances of getting that published but letter to the editors are usually just able to be submitted by anybody. Op-eds usually require you to indicate some type of like expertise on the topic you're discussing. So that's where you know someone who's a little bit more of an expert would write in but an LTE is just for anybody to submit. So then the next instance I wanted to talk about was like if you're running an initiative like we are here in Utah where the path of getting the legislation passed is only going to go through the legislative body rather than through the voters. And in that case LTEs become an essential way to get the attention of key legislators or council members whether that's to show them that support exists out in the public or just to create a public call to action for them so that they know you know their constituents have read that as well and then they're more inclined to listen to it. So first I want to talk a little bit about the role of LTEs in this circumstance and then I'll get a little bit more on to if it's a ballot initiative later. So you might be thinking will the legislators even see the letter to the editors? Do they care? And the answer is, as Nancy said, they do read them and they really do care but there are some important things to include to increase your chances of them seeing it and then responding in any kind of way. So the first important thing is to mention your target by name. We'll go into how to choose your target a little bit later. So for instance your state representatives or state senators they're going to have somebody or a team of people on their staff whose job it is to find any mention of them in the media. So they do this to stay out in front of news stories that they could be questioned about to be able to address something they know constituents just read about and also as a way to just to know where the public stands on key issues that they deal with. So you'll want to include this somewhere near the end of your LTE which includes the next part that I'm going to focus on which is the call to action and I'm going to give an example of combining these here in a second. So the call to action is basically what you're asking your audience or your target to do. So after you've discussed the legislation in the LTE your effort maybe some benefits of it in the same sentence that you mentioned your target you also want to ask them to consider this legislation to vote yes on it or whatever you decide the most effective call to action will be. So I'm going to paste in here a paragraph from one of our letter to the editors and you can just kind of see how we went about this. So this is one of the ones that I wrote and you can just see here at the end I strongly urge my representative Paul Ray and the rest of the legislature to give Utahns a chance to see how other methods work and then only choose the best one. So what we were asking we narrowed in on what our target was so that was representative Paul Ray and then the rest of the legislature if they are reading and then we give them the call to action which is asking them to consider the options. So for our circumstance we're trying to get them to consider approval voting to add on to an existing pilot program for ranked choice voting in the state. Okay so I'm just going to stop there for a second. Does anyone have any questions so far or anything like that? I was going to suggest what was covered naming the representative by name. John did you have something? Well yeah I assume you put the letter in the chat and you're not screen sharing and are we seeing the whole letter just to tell you the ending. That's right so this is just the ending. I will paste a few links of various ones that we got published for you guys to see the whole letters later but this is just the ending for one of them. Okay all right so let's move on to the next part and okay so then this is a focus so far on if your target was like a legislator or a council member or something like that mentioning them specifically by name but what if your target is a constituency what if it's the voters rather than elected officials then you want to change that mention to a little bit more broad so you want to say something like I strongly urge my fellow voters to to consider voting yes on this ballot initiative or something like that. So let's talk a little bit about the principles of a letter to the editor and what the process of actually writing one is like and then if we have time I just want to go through and have everyone kind of go through the beginning process of getting this started and we'll just try to get a few examples. So the first thing that we want to do is we want to figure out where we're going to submit the letter to the editor. So this is pretty much as simple as a google search. You probably already have a good idea of which big papers and publications are in your state and which ones are important. So usually it's as simple as looking up something like the name of the publication and then submit LTE so I'm just gonna for instance we have Deseret news here in Utah so you would just look up something like this Deseret news submit LTE and for me the first result is actually the submission link which is really helpful. You can do this for most publications. Now another thing to consider too is to look for papers and publications that you may not have heard of that are still within your state. So ones that may not pull up initially when you look up publications or papers in your state or like university papers or ones for specific cities things like that. So you just want to spend maybe five ten minutes just looking up all of the possible papers that you could submit to just getting an idea of where you can submit and then so what I want you guys to do right now we're just going to take about three minutes and I just want everyone to go online and just try to find a few places where you can submit LTEs and then just make a list with the names and the links so that you can have this when you're ready to submit an LTE. It's just a useful resource to have so we'll just take a few minutes and then come back. So go ahead. And I'll keep the time Nate. Just a reminder that's just to identify some newspapers for you all from this like three or so minutes. How big of a factor should the size of a newspaper be and whether or not we choose to submit an LTE there? For instance the biggest paper in Colorado is the Denver Post. Would it maybe make sense to aim somewhat lower or anything like that? So I think one of the best strategies is to aim for all levels if you can.  Try to let them know what the benefits are for them and give them a specific call to action. So there can be benefits for any size of paper that you're submitting to but I would definitely encourage people to submit to all the papers that you can. Also what do you think of copying and pasting an LTE that I've written and submitting it to say half a dozen different papers? So while I don't think it's necessarily a problem to submit the same LTE to other papers, papers do want to make sure that they're the only one publishing the LTE. So I would just be just be diligent to make sure that if one paper ends up publishing the LTE to let the other ones know hey they published it. Now that can be a little bit different if you're submitting to a bunch of local papers so in Utah one of my LTEs actually got published and like they got published in like a southern Utah local newspaper and then it also got published in a Salt Lake Tribune and I don't think that they were too concerned because it didn't overlap with the people who were reading it but that is something to consider just try to get one LTE published in one place. I am in a community of about 80,000 here in northwest Arkansas. It is a blue island in a red sea and in our local newspaper we write regularly and the editors recognize us. You know when they when they don't know us yet they check our ID and they are very scrupulous about checking what we submit and if we write like a letter per month or something after a while they know who we are and some of us they rather like to get letters from so I would say you want your letter not to be broadcast to a bunch of other papers because that's not interesting content for the editor. They don't want something that looks like they stole it from some other paper and so I would say don't broadcast it at least tailor a version for your local paper. They'll like it and they'll receive you better in the future. That's absolutely right thank you and that was a really good way to put that. So I just wanted to say we have like 20 seconds 30 seconds to come back with your your targeted submissions and I'm pretty sure Nate might ask a few of you to share so just get ready for that. Yeah so yeah let's just go ahead and bring it back. So hold off for a second on which ones you have but keep that list up and then I will have you share in just a second. So now that you've picked the places that you want to submit the go ahead and choose one of those places for this next part. Just keep that in your mind as I go over this. So the next part is identifying your audience or your targets. So again this is going to depend on what kind of effort you're running. So if you're running an effort that relies on the voters this is most important when your target is a constituency. So if the paper is for a certain city county university whatever consider who you're writing to what they care about what's relevant to them right now how you can appeal to them. And then if you were running a campaign that's focused on legislators then you're identifying the targets going to depend on key committee members party leadership depending on the dynamic of your state and locality. So for example here in Utah we are mainly focusing on key committee membership but then we also had to consider focusing on party leadership for a moment because the Republican party is so strong here that they have their caucus is usually who ultimately decides what legislation goes into the session. So we want to appeal to the leadership who's making that decision as well. And then also that would be you know your state representatives and your senators and stuff like that. So if you don't know what your efforts can be focusing on yet that's fine maybe just pick one for this exercise. So now that you have your audience and who we're submitting to let's start a little bit of writing. So one short thing to touch on here is that while we while talking about approval voting and the reform overall is a good thing sometimes you want to narrow in on one specific benefit for the whole length of your LTE especially considering that LTEs are a very short thing you don't have much to include so you don't want to be naming off six benefits and then don't have time to get to any of them right. So the first sentence is often the most important so this is what grabs their attention gets the readers to want to keep reading and finish the LTE and oftentimes publishers will make the title of the LTE themselves just based on the content of your LTE. So you don't usually have to worry about creating a title but in the case if your publisher does allow title submission then the same considerations will go into the title as the first sentence how do you grab their attention how do you get them to want to read the LTE. Okay so what we're going to do now is just take another three minutes so take some time to consider your audience and your target and then just try to write one sentence that's just kind of attention grabby or maybe a few sentences if you have time and then I'd like to hear from two of you so um who you want to submit to who your audience is and then just what you've written so we'll just take another few minutes and again I'll keep the time so about three minutes from now all right we have about one minute left all right so that's time if you can just finish writing your sentences if you're in the middle of one all right so um let's go ahead and hear from two people on um what you've so who you're submitting to what your audience and or target is and then what you're up all right how about your freedom to exhale without a mask ends where my freedom to inhale begins yeah that that is an excellent attention grabbing line so he's mentioning something that's very relevant on everyone's minds right now um it makes you think what is he about to talk about next and now you're right so that was a great example thanks Nancy I think you're on mute um so uh community small and large rural and urban are wrestling with the question of how to reform criminal justice and policing systems in New York state the critical question in this conversation is what would make you feel safe in this community and um this letter is to candidates that are running for office so it goes on to ask what their solutions are perfect yeah that's great so um again very attention grabby a very relevant subject right now um and then that allows you to bring that subject that everyone's thinking about to the issue that you want them to focus on so that's a great great start okay so um so next uh we've talked a little bit about the topic um of the LTE we've talked about what the beginning should look like and what the end should look like with the call to action and the mention um so what about the rest what about the content in the body so this is going to depend a little bit on the general dynamic of your state so um for instance some of the questions you might be asking yourself is would it be necessary to address rcv for instance so for us and some of our LTEs we mentioned rank choice voting simply because there was a competing bill that was trying to make a great choice voting standard across the state and we were trying to get legislators to consider other options before committing to that um so that was something that was relevant for us to address it might not be for your state though um do you need to introduce people to the idea of alternatives first so um are people aware of alternative voting methods to begin with um and then again something to remember with this is to remember your audience who you're writing to so try to appeal to what they would be um interested in reading about um and what their values are okay so one thing when going into content that we found um is that people are ready for more detail than you might think so uh we were worried we might lose people by including too much detail um on certain topics or um specific benefits of approval voting but we actually had comments on a couple of our LTEs that asked for more detail and and um said we didn't give them enough info on approval voting so even though we discussed the benefits they wanted to know what's behind those benefits why do those benefits work and that was something that we thought maybe um would be too much jargon um but I think there's a line there there's um I think what the goal is is to go into the weeds just enough to spark their curiosity and to show them that you know what you're talking about and that encourages them to do the research on their own um and that's super beneficial for a lot of reasons one people like to make decisions on their own so if you you know it's sparked that curiosity and get them researching and then they learn more about approval voting that gets them uh more interested in wanting to help institute approval voting okay so then um another thing to consider when you're writing the body is the overall tone um you want to be respectful and professional to whoever you're writing about or to uh the last thing you want is your legislator opposing you because you owned them in the paper that's not helpful for us at all um even though it might feel good in the moment um and then furthermore doing anything that's not professional or respectful decreases your chances of getting published these papers and publishers they want to see a reasonable part of the conversation articulated well um so that it can further the conversation so that people can reply to it um so all of those kind of things are uh really important to keep in mind now another thing that I wanted to talk about is um writing an lte in response to another lte or in response to an existing article um this is another really good way to get people to pay attention to what you're writing about and um also if readers have read that article earlier in the week they might realize what you're responding to um so I'm gonna paste a letter by one of our members and here I'm just gonna paste the link and you guys can pull that up so it was on desert news um myles one of our members um wrote this in response to a another article that they were calling the draft party right and so um it was really awesome of him to respond to that in the way he did because it brought up the draft party again which is a very catchy headline you don't what are you talking about with a draft party right and then you read it and you understand so he responds to that um and then that gets more people who have already read that article looking um plus all the new readers so that's another thing to keep in mind is if if you have something to respond to um do it and include that in the article because that again it's that it's about that conversation and that conversation is what the papers and publishers are after all right so um now that we've gone over just kind of like the content of an lte the process of writing it um let's zoom out a little bit and take a look at how this all fits into your effort and um how to make that plan so um for us it was super essential for us to plan an lte effort over a period of months now if you're doing like a day of action or something that might be a little bit different you might want to try to get lte's published across several papers on one day just to make the day about what you're talking about but if you're going for something more long term um you're trying to get legislation passed you're trying to get a ballot initiative passed doing this over months is really helpful because uh it helps voters see this so so if you're focusing on voters it helps voters see this multiple times before they actually vote on the ballot initiative it gives them a chance to be exposed to the issue it gives them a chance to think about it and do their own research um if you're doing a legislature-based effort this helps because it lets them know that you're not going away and that your effort is strong and consistent so you're going to be here for a while um you're reminding them monthly or twice a month in the media that hey people care about this issue and we're going to be here trying to push that when the session comes around um so yeah those are some of the um things to consider when you're planning an lte effort so doing it over a few months is really important now the next thing is um having different members submit different topics so um it's really helpful for uh legislators and voters to see that multiple different people are posting about the same topic because if they see four lte is about approval voting within the period of two months but it's all by the same author these people their legislatures especially is going to think uh it's just one person it's not a big effort we don't really need to worry about it too much um but if you have different people posting they're going to realize more and more that um there's a lot of people that care enough about this to write into a paper and get it published um and then the other thing as i mentioned is different topics so um if you are going to be narrowing your in your lte around um various benefits of approval voting over a period of time maybe one time you'll submit uh one that focuses on the spoiler effect and then maybe you'll do one that focuses on center squeeze and um you know et cetera like all of these different benefits you want to have a topic about each one of them over time um again that helps get the voters your um your representatives just more educated about the effort and um that's it's good for all of us to have everyone educated so okay um so the next thing i want to do i just want to go ahead and give you a few more examples of some of the lte's we got published so i'm just going to post a few links in here for you guys so this first one um was written by amin here in utah um this was one that was written to a very specific publication um that he was familiar with and that very specific people read um so you can look over this and see how he appeals to the readers um i also really like his first line here so he says have you ever tried playing chess without taking any of your any of your opponent's pieces this question is ridiculous to anyone who has the slightest notion of how chess is played right so he he appeals to a topic that most people know about and understand that this is a ridiculous idea and then he later goes on and compares that to our current election process um and how approval voting could make that better um so uh in in these lte's you've seen a few examples of kind of how to grab attention um here's another one so this was published by um the solid tribune from one of our members uh ben and um so basically the idea of this is just a i'm sorry i'm not seeing the links oh are you in the chat let's see in the chat oh you might be incidentally DMing a person yet i'm just gonna say my hold on okay so here's the draft party one perfect thanks here's the chess one and then here is the one from ben so you can just get an idea um you can see that some of these are different lengths um and that's another thing to consider is different publications will have different length requirements you can see that on their publication page will usually list that pretty clearly but um you can just see the different approaches that we've taken um what we've talked about uh you know how we grab attention is different from every writer um but you just want to think about how you can do that how you can fit that into your writing style okay so um that's pretty much all i had prepared for uh to date is anyone have any questions i could go over or um any specific asks i have a question on the approval voting how do we identify targets how do we know who to write to yeah so um that's a great question maybe we can just go through an example so um for us with approval voting our ask was pretty straightforward um we found the committees that are going to be dealing with these type of methods and then we focused on the committee leadership and then we also focused on all the committee members after we had contacted committee leadership so it's kind of just setting out like a hierarchy of who's most important to contact right now um but for instance if you are doing um a ballot initiative and that ballot initiative is specifically for say like if we wanted to do one for Salt Lake City then maybe what we do is uh post an LTE to the Salt Lake Tribune and our target would be the voters of Salt Lake but then you want to consider what are the voters of Salt Lake care about what are they worried about right now and stuff like that which helps you narrow in um you know which movements are big right now and getting a lot of attention and maybe you can kind of tailor what you're saying to those the stuff like that is that kind of answer your question great i'd like to share um an experience um in our city of Fayetteville Arkansas um we have a secret group of letter writers made up of um friends who are members of the Omni Center for Peace Justice and Ecology here and we want to get a progressive voice displayed in the editorial page and we want to respond to the issues that are at play whether it's national or local whatever and um so we meet monthly and encourage each other and share tips and so on but nobody knows that such the group exists nobody knows that the rapid responders letter writing group exists and we don't refer to each other in our letters because we don't want um to have the perception that these people are in cahoots and are trying to harp us with this message or indoctrinate us with the message we wanted to look like a lot of separate voices are independently writing an opinion that is worth considering um otherwise our group would be like one person writing all the time and over years our group has faded and grown in energy and enthusiasm sometimes it almost fades out and then it resurges and stuff but a secret underground group can feel pretty hip and can accomplish those kind of things so it's just an idea yeah i love that um i think that actually is something really important to consider because as i mentioned earlier you don't want to make it seem like your whole campaign is coming from one person and that's the exact same thing if you um over years if you gave voters the impression that the only group fighting is your group um then it's going to seem like it's a smaller effort than exists right so um in our letters we never mentioned that we're part of utah approves um that we're you know talking with ces or anything like this we just focus on what's important and why we want the legislators to do this um and yeah it makes it look like it's just a bunch of different citizens writing in and that is the reality right we all came together because we were a bunch of citizens that cared about this issue but we all know the perception of bias can come into play when people think it's just a an interest group right so avoiding that is definitely a good thing to keep in mind any other questions or um asks or anything like that um i have a question also yeah when you're looking for um legislators or other people to identify what are like the best markers of someone who has like the the best chance of moving on an issue or you know because there's usually a lot of legislators so how how did you work through finding who did pinpoint in that process yeah so um what we did mainly was uh focus on again committee leadership so for us the um government uh government operations and then the political subdivisions were the two committees that would deal with voting issues um so we were trying to focus on those two and then um another thing that can be helpful though is uh say you've published a couple LTEs maybe you're in contact with these legislators so they know kind of what you want to do um maybe mention your legislator specifically um because later down on the line eventually the legislative body's going to vote on it so if you kind of have that all considered um and you write in saying hey I live in your district and you are my representative and I as a constituent I'm asking you to do this that motivates um those legislators to listen as well with submitting letters to the editor how much is too much um if I could somehow get um 10 people to all submit an LTE on the same topic would that be going overboard would it be bad if I was somehow able to submit an LTE every week for the same newspaper um yeah yeah that's an excellent question um so I think one thing you want to consider is how many publications you have um a lot of readers will read multiple publications um you know if you have like google feed or something you swipe over and it just pops up relevant articles to your interest right so you don't want to overwhelm people would say like I think 10 on one day would be a little bit much um maybe like two on one day about the same topic would be that already seems like a lot to be published in papers across the state on Monday um but if you have 10 people who are willing to write letter to the editors then spreading that out over a few months is a great idea because like I said it keeps up that pressure it lets the legislators and the voters know that this is an issue that's um relevant pressing that um there's people that are concerned with it and it's going to stay here and then we have Emily's hands up yeah um I was just wondering in anyone this is a question open to anyone on this call because I know Alice mentioned he had a group a progressive group he had organized um how do we target more um students or younger populations like high school and college kids and the immigrant communities I also live in a deeply red district I'm trying to flip blue and I feel like targeting these people is the way to go but I don't know where to find them because I'm 30 and a mom so I don't know yeah and I think that something that is really cool about uh letter to the editors because it helps you just get it out to the population and then you can kind of choose who you're tailoring it for um so one thing for like university students is looking for university papers to submit to and it's always a great idea um some of them may only take submissions from students themselves um but it's always worth looking into um otherwise if you're posting in papers that more than just your target population is going to read it can be important to again find what um what they care about what those voters are going to um you know what they're going to click on if they see something in a title so just kind of getting to know your audience a little bit know what they care about um right know what's important to them right now and and mention those things and what if we're trying to recruit these people to our groups or our coalitions to join us in writing these letters I mean because we also want to stay under the radar of our congresswoman's you know press machine um you know I guess signing my name I I guess a lot of people are really smart they go about maybe searching for me on Facebook but I don't know that everyone is that savvy um yeah do you have any suggestions for reaching looping those people into our group right yeah so um LTEs can be a good way to get new members interested in what you're doing and like you said there are going to be people who will look up your name they're going to look up the effort that you're doing and um for us it's really easy because if you search approval voting Utah we're the first like three results um so that kind of stuff works out but if you have someone if you're trying to recruit people that um maybe won't do that research I don't I'm tempted to say LTEs aren't the best place to do that just because they're very focused on convincing people of something you want to do um so you know you might mention like hey approval voting is great um this is what we want but if your call to action is join us then most people are going to forget what they just read if that makes sense um so I think maybe um you know coming up with some other ways to recruit and finding um other ways to get new members might be more beneficial and and we're actually going to be hosting more trainings about that kind of thing exactly because um this is one part of a much larger piece and it is much more effective to do actual either like relational organizing or community-based organizing to recruit and attract um people like the kinds of people that you would like to recruit and attract um and you don't really do that you have to do that in a much more direct way right like it's it's not usually the best idea to rely on like a third party kind of method yeah so it's it's much better to start to reach out to certain groups and um you build out a network and once that network starts to build out then it starts to reward you by giving you more and more opportunities to speak to more and more groups and you know have and this is where it's good and where we're also going to start trainings on like to have a presentation ready and um make sure that presentation is flexible enough to address multiple groups or make sure that you can target it to certain groups and you know you can you can um shove out things like that aren't necessarily um LTE's but you can use newspapers and other forms of media to say like hey we're going to have like open houses or whatever it is um or even like request um conversations with folks you can do that through like finding them on social media DMing them asking them if they would be interested in talking with you further there's a bunch of different ways to do it but LTE's are probably not the best ways to do it because a lot of these populations particularly younger populations are not reading letters to the editor diligently thank you and um that actually reminded me of something I wanted to touch on earlier a little bit um so when we were talking about getting more voices to submit and making it appear like it's coming from many people rather than one group another thing to consider is those um other groups that organize in your state around certain issues if you can create partnerships with them so for instance we've reached out to the local sunrise movement and partnered with them um it's really helpful to just ask hey can some of your members maybe submit an LTE that ties in what you care about so climate change um with approval voting and that that will help people um who are interested in climate change maybe read more about approval voting and um you know you can do that with anything any issue any group that you have in the state I'm curious about um how important timing considerations are is it important to submit this close to an election either before or after um is it super helpful to submit it in response to a recent news story or another LTE say one supporting garbage voting choice voting um or is it do I lose next to nothing by just submitting it out of the blue yeah um no timing definitely is something to consider um um and so like when I say that we're planning this effort over months when you're talking about maybe a specific benefit of approval voting those kind of things maybe aren't super essential on timing and those can be planned out over a few months during you know the off season or whatever um of your legislative body but um if if you have uh you know one like the legislative session is coming up it's about to start and you know that these committee members are about to look at your legislation focusing like a week-long campaign on trying to get four published all pressuring that same legislative like committee to focus on your issue that is something that's super helpful um so just considering uh what your goals are and what's coming up um can help you know what timing to apply with what you're submitting what's your six approximate success rate for getting LTE's published yeah um that would be a good question I don't know entirely how many we've published across the entire group but I would say that we're over 50 percent on our publish rate for from what we've submitted um already so that's been super promising um and I think I think it's just it's really helpful I think that first sentence of like bringing something relevant in is really helpful for getting published because um when the legislative session started one of the first LTE's that I got published was talking about how the whole legislative body is going to be focusing on like four different pieces of legislation on voting methods so super relevant people were like oh yeah I've heard something about this and then you know we focused on approval voting after that so that was really helpful for us I think and Alice has his hand up I wanted to mention to Frank that um one of the factors in the timing is that the editor is your friend in choosing the timing and we'll do it in a helpful way usually if an issue is hot and has a short shelf life he might um get it on the page right away or if it has expired already he might throw it in the trash or if it can wait because it has a long shelf life he might publish something somebody else's urgent today and save yours to good effect so you have an ally in that timing issue so it's okay to send things in and let them choose and um another point that occurred to me was um we were talking about I think you asked Frank how often to write um some papers have explicit rules right in in the guidelines it not only tells you how many words you must not exceed in your letter which you need to know and varies among newspapers but also you might be allowed to submit one newspaper a month and no more but if they look forward to your letters they're really welcoming of it on the 31st day they want to hear from you but they have their rules so you learn what the rules are at each target paper yeah and um I just want to add on to the sentiment that they're your friends um I had a really good interaction with uh one of the publishers here so um kind of along the thinking that we were talking about earlier I submitted two very similar they might have an identical LTEs to two different publishers one of them published it so I reached out to the other one and said hey just so you know got published in this paper um but then I was able to write a new one and have them publish that one and they were willing to work with me on that after they had already accepted the first one so um they're usually pretty responsive and uh willing to work with you on whatever you want to do all right we have like just a few more minutes so if anyone has any questions can ask them now comments all right if not um and you think of some oh were you going to say something Jim thank you oh thanks um so here actually I see Emily asked the question how do I get on the newsletter what I'm going to do is you can email me um and I can add you with your info if you have any more questions or you think of something um at a later time you can email me at any time I don't want to give that up for Nate without agreeing to it that's actually fine I was actually gonna say if um if anyone's like writing an LTE and has a question or would like some like feedback on it feel free to send it my way and I'm also in the discord uh if you are all not in the discord already I'm not sure if you are um let me just drop the link to the discord here just in case um it's a pretty easy way to get indirect contact with folks so here's the discord if you haven't joined already you can DM me there um and you know feel free to contact us any time thank you all for joining and um look forward to doing some more trainings and workshops and if you if some of you are in chapters and would like to lead workshops because you feel like you have a specific area of expertise I would love for you to reach out and we can work something out also um but if that's it have a great night and look forward to seeing you all soon


A fiery horse with a speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty hyosilver, the Lone Ranger! Before this exciting adventure, a word from our sponsor. General Mills, makers of Cheerios, the old cereal that's ready to eat, Betty Crocker mixes, and Wheaties, the breakfast of champions, present by special recording, the Lone Ranger! Did you ever talk to your grandmother or your mother about what it used to be like to bake an Angel Food Cake? Before there was a Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix, that is. Well, they used to have to take 13 eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Can you imagine all that bother over a dozen eggs? Angel Food Cakes took hours then, and I guess that's why they only bake them for very, very special occasions. But now, you can have big, delicious Angel Food Cakes all the time! Mmm, it's so easy when mom uses Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix. That's the mix with the whites of 13 farm fresh eggs right in the package! Mom just adds water and your favorite flavoring for a perfect cake. Angel Perfect every time. Cake after cake after cake. A high light every day is party day kind of cake. And it's guaranteed perfect by Betty Crocker of General Mills Minneapolis. I hope mom bakes lots of Betty Crocker Angel Food Cakes at your house.  With his faithful Indian companion Toto, the daring and resourceful mask writer of the planes led the fight for law and order in the early western United States. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver. The lone ranger rides again! The terms of John Colby's will made Roger Garrett the executor of his estate and guardian of 17-year-old Kay Colby. Garrett was the Indian agent for the district. But after John's death he also took over the management of the Colby ranch and spent as much time there as he did at the agency in town. One afternoon he was working in the ranch office when the door opened and Kay entered. Roger, where's Larry Gilly? Well now where would your foreman be at this time of day? Out on the range I suppose. But he isn't. I've just been talking with Shorty. I'm afraid he's gone to town. Afraid? Why afraid? Why shouldn't he go to town if he wants to? I'm afraid he's gone to pick a fight with Derek Ford. I'll see you soon. Larry Gage, the husky young foreman of the Colby ranch, searched the town until he found Derek Ford's in the palace cafe.  I'm because I'm an Easterner. Be honest, Larry. You don't like me because Kay and I are going to be married. That's a lie. No it isn't.  Now I'm supposed to go for my gun. No Larry, I know you can outlaw me. Well you leave our guns with Joe and settle that outside. That suits me. Cut your face. Julie, what have you gone out to say? That's Larry. Hello Sharon. Howdy. You hear me Larry? You've got no calling to fear. I'm preserving the peace. What's more, there's a lady waiting outside for you. What? Kay?  She is? Tell her that I haven't forgotten her invitation to supper Larry. Tell her I'll be there. Aye, come on Larry. I did, and now I'm delivering the prisoner into your custody, kid. Thank you. Always glad to oblige you. Larry, you did come here to pick a fight with Derry.   I won't stand by and let him get away with it. I haven't given him my answer yet. But when in the name of common sense will you stop trying to run my life? But you're only 17. I have a guardian appointed by law and his name isn't Larry Gage.  Oh yeah, you wouldn't do that. I wouldn't want to, I'll admit, but I shall if you make it necessary. Why, I guess I haven't any right in a fear. No, none at all. Derry said he hadn't forgotten your invitation. You'll be out for supper. He'd expect. Maybe you'd like to wait and write out with him. No, the prisoner was released into my custody. Now climb aboard your bunk and let yourself in. Yes, ma'am, easy boy.   Silent halls who suffer that night. And when it was over he started for the bunkhouse. But Roger stopped him and asked him to step into the office to go over some business details. Just as they were sitting down, a shock rang out from the distance. What's that? Probably one of the boys taking a pot shot at a coyote. Now, what I wanted to ask you about is the 2000 head we bought from the pot hook. Where are they? The valley south of Rock Canyon. And don't you go buying any more steers, Roger? Why not?  At a very low price. And it was so convenient to have them driven up with a cattle I bought for the Indian. I grant you that. We're pretty close to being overstocked right now. Hey, listen. Drums. Yeah, probably some ceremony at the reservation. No, no, no. He's a little closer than the reservation. The wind must be blowing this direction. I've never heard him so close. Roger, Mary, come here. What is it, Jane? Come here, please. Something wrong, Shorty? Yeah, I think I just saw a bandit. A bandit?  There was an Indian with him, too. Where's Shorty? Where'd you see him? Near the woods up on the rise. The moon was shining full on their faces, and I had a good look at them. You shot at them? Yeah. Then they ducked into the woods.  That's my man. Take a look at that. At the sound of the new voice, everyone turned. The lone ranger was standing in the doorway leading to the dark kitchen. His guns were drawn. That's the masked man I saw. I wouldn't advise any of you to go for your gun. What do you want? Which one of you is Roger Garrett? I am. The Indian agent for this territory? Yes. How'd you get in here? Through the kitchen window. I have a message for you, Garrett. A message? Bad news. The chief and all his braves have left the reservation. What? They're camping the hills just above the valley.  Why'd he go on the war path? He'd can't be. You've never had any trouble with the tribe before? No, never. Can you think of any reason why they should leave the reservation, Garrett? Not one. There must be some mistake. Not about what I've told you. I'm not accustomed to taking the word of a man with a match. Maybe not, Roger. Would an outlaw take a chance on coming here if there weren't some real danger or massacre? I intend to investigate. That's all I ask. He's gone. Shall I go after him, boss? No, no. He's done us a great service. Let him go. How do you mean to investigate, Roger? I'm going to see white eagles. Alone? Yes. The Indians know I represent the great white father. They wouldn't dare touch me. Alone, I'll be perfectly safe. I'll leave it to you, Larry. See the town and the other ranchers are warned. Did you hear that? The mask man riding away. Silver. He called his horse Silver. A mask man and a white horse with an engine partner. He must be the lone ranger. He's gone. When Roger Garrett rode into the hills, the lone ranger and Toto followed him, but cautiously making sure they wouldn't be seen. The fresh hoof prints were enough to mark the trail for Toto, and it soon became obvious that the agent was heading for the sound of the drums. The lone ranger and Toto reached the ridge above the Indian encampment, in time to see Garrett guiding his mount down a slope, straight toward the dancing warriors. Oils over rows. Yeah, oh brother. He now prayed white eagle, not sure. They see him, they stop the dance. He don't understand. They mean they're not Apache, not like Apache and peaceful. Garrett may be able to straighten out the trouble, whatever it is. I wish I could hear what they're saying. White eagle make plenty sign when they talk. We understand what chief say. What Toto? What chief say. Tribe hungry, want more beef from great white father. Hungry? Ah, and say Indian star, then not get more beef. Kill white man, take beef. Garrett's answering them. Not use sign to make talk, do not know what him say. Well, if it's only a question of food, that should be easily settled. And do not like what Garrett say, and plenty man. Doesn't he realize he must give them some sort of a promise? Over a few extra head of cattle if they'll prevent bloodshed. Garrett's right way now. Indian go for guns. They're all pile up in front of the chief's TP. Open fire, Toto. We'll try to cover Garrett. Take cover. Hello there, Molly. Garrett out of range now. I wanna talk with him, Kimosabi. That's good idea. But then his power to stop this uprising. Why didn't they? It's plenty strange. Come on, fiddle there. You must come. We'll continue our lone ranger adventure in just a moment. All over the country in every direction. How you, how you do it is a question. And here's one that that these people have to pay. We don't know what we need. Then we do, do, do and okay. Okay. And that's the truth. Take California champions, for instance. Now way out west, you'll hear us talking about a quarterback we call Van Broklin.  And Duke Snyder too is a west coast man, a fancy slugger and the Wheaties fan who takes his bat and scares them all when he knocks the hide right off the ball. Now these two champions know that there's big energy in their favorite cereal because there's a whole kernel of wheat in every Wheaties plate. Wheaties, breakfast of champions. Do, do, do and okay. Okay. All to continue. The lone ranger and tuffle followed Roger Garrett down from the hills. Garrett, wait a minute. Mass man, you've been following me. We were on the ridge above the Indian and Catholic when you talked with White Eagle. We covered your retreat. You did. I heard shots, but I thought it was the Indian shooting at me. We managed to stop them from reaching their guns until you were out of range. I see. You didn't have much success with your conference. No, there was no reasoning with them. They refused to stay on the reservation any longer. They mean to take over the valley. Why do you know? I never mind, hello. The whole tribe's gone berserk. That's the only explanation. There's only one way to deal with them. Will you answer a question, Mr? If I can. Are you the lone ranger? That's right. I thought so. Will you help us out? In what way? Will you ride to Fort Tamarack and bring the troops? They couldn't get here in less than two days. Will you try to hold out until then? You're sure there's no other way to handle the situation? Absolutely none. The tribe must be destroyed. I see. Well, Totto and I'll do our best. You may depend on it. Thanks, that's fine. Now I'll have to get going. Get up there. Get along. Will you ride to Fort Kimus, honey? No, Totto. All the Indian want is beef. I'm wondering why Garrett wouldn't admit that. They must find out. You want me to go into town? Find out what he'll do now. There we'll both go. Come on, Silly Ray. Come on, Totto. The light sky clouded over as the lone ranger and Totto rode through the back streets of the town. Finally, they reached the alley in the rear of the sheriff's office. And with a great crowd in the main street, the masked man and the Indian dismounted. He crept along the side of the building until they could hear what was going on. Roger Garrett was speaking to the men. Quiet down, men. You may wonder what suddenly got into the tribe. I'll tell you. There's a renegade white man around here.  He's the one who's responsible for this rebellion. If you ever see him, shoot the kill. That's enough, Totto. What to do now? I want to find out just how much beef the Indians have been getting. The record should be in the agency office. We've got to get in from the rear. The lone ranger and Totto led Silver and Scout down the alley to the rear of the Indian agency. The masked man tried one of the windows. Good. It is locked. The office is in front. Shades are drawn, that helps. Fantastic. That cabinet must be where the papers are filed. Let me have your hunting knife. I think I can force it open. Ah, yeah. Thanks. He must have a... somebody at front door. Into the back room. Quick, man. The lone ranger let the door open a little and watched as Derek Forbes entered the office. After lighting a lamp, Forbes went to the cabinet, unlocked it, and took off some papers. And he went to the desk and sat down. He examined the paper on the top of the pile, took a pen, dipped it in the ink, and bent over the paper. Swiftly, the lone ranger entered the room. Hey! I'll take that paper. Keep him covered, Totto. Ah. Give me that receipt. Yes, a receipt for cattle. A receipt with white eagle's mark on it. Pot hook brand, one thousand head. But the ink on the last zero isn't dry. You've just changed this receipt from a hundred head to a thousand. Now I'll take a look at these others. One hundred, one hundred, one hundred, five hundred a head to feed all those Indians for six months. No wonder they're starving.  Yes, Totto. There are plenty of pot hook steers on Colby Raines. That's true, I remember seeing them. Now what are you going to do? Investigate this cabinet a little further. Looking for some bills of sale. Yes, here they are. Pot hook steers bought and paid for by this agency. Not hundreds of head, but thousands. So that's the answer. The government agent, Garrett, bought thousands of head of cattle delivered a few hundred head of the Indians. Yet the rest, given to the Colby ranch. Manager of the Colby ranch, he paid for them. But the money didn't go into the agency account. He went into Garrett's own pocket. So the Indians have been cheated. The government has been cheated. And K Colby has paid good money for stolen cattle. You have it all figured out, huh? Partically. I'll only need to look at the Colby ledgers. Garrett's private bank book to prove my case. And if the bank book's in this desk, I'm not here. Yes, here it is. You see, April 15th, May, June. A nice hole for Garrett. This won't do you any good. You better forget those papers and get out of town. I'm taking the papers and the bank book with me. You've been branded a renegade. If anyone sees you, they'll shoot. We'll make sure that you don't interfere with our getting away. When Roger Garrett and the sheriff entered the agency office a few minutes later, they found Derek Ford lying on the floor bound in gag. When the gag had been removed and his ropes cut. Derek, what happened? The masked man was here. Broke into that cabinet and took a lot of paper. Well, don't worry, we'll get him. I have a posse all set to ride. But the long ranger and tuffer were well on their way to the Colby ranch. There they found K and Larry Gage at the ranch house. One close look at the mighty silver. And the girl and the foreman were absolutely sure of the masked man's identity. They invited him in and he showed them the papers he had brought from the agency. Then together they examined the ranch ledgers. Yes, you paid for all the cattle you received, Miss Colby. But the money went to Garrett. So Roger is a crook. And you were right about Derek all along, man. The question is, what do we do now? The first thing is to stop the Indians from raiding the valley. How? By giving them their rightful property, the Pothook steers you're grazing. I certainly don't want them if they don't belong to me. You may be able to get your money back later on from Garrett. Now we must move fast. Larry, how long will it take you to round up the herd and get it moving toward the reservation? Well, an hour or so. None of the boys are going to bed. I can have them in the saddle in 10 minutes. Toto, if you could tell the chief the herd was on its way, could you persuade him to hold his braves in check? Let me try. We can depend on you, Larry. Sure thing. All right, let's go, Toto. Larry and his men were starting their drive. But Roger Garrett and Derek Forbes had guessed the Lone Ranger might pay the ranch a visit and persuaded the sheriff and his posse to ride out there. They caught sight of the cowboy's south of Rock Canyon. Those cattle are on the move. Rustlers, there, rust is nothing. Who's your own men? That's Larry on the saddle. I still say rustlers. Now we have no orders for me to move that herd. Even if it shows. They're driving straight off Colbyland. I want you to stop them, Sheriff. Arrest them if you have to. Hold up there, Larry. What do you want, Sheriff? Stop hazing those steers, boys. Pay no attention. Keep them moving, boys. I give the orders around here. Not any more. You don't arrest him, Sheriff. This herd belongs to the Indians and we're driving it up the reservation. Who, what? Did the masked man persuade you to do that? He sure did. Dirty renegade. Renegade nothing. He's the Lone Ranger. That was no reason. A renegade and an outlaw. He started the uprising. He broke into the agency. I know he's dead. And I just wish I had the papers he took from there. Sheriff, it's these two who are trucks. I'm telling you, this herd belongs to the Indians and that Roger Garrett stole it. What do you say? That's true. The only reason the Indians have gone on the walk path is that they're hungry. Roger. It isn't true. They want scalps. And the masked man is their leader. Here he comes. Straight toward us. A thousand dollars to the man who kills him. Don't let him shoot, Sheriff. It's a Lone Ranger. Look at his cost. That's silver. The engine on the paint behind him, that's tunnel. Hold your fire, folks. Not a chance. I've got him dead in my sights. Before Garrett could squeeze the trigger, the Lone Ranger fired and the bullet caught the easterner and the right forearm. Good shot, mister. I know it's you trying it, and then, Jared, I've got you covered. Hold him. Hold him. He needs to be caught. Sheriff, I know you think I'm an outlaw. Not anymore, I do. Please believe me, then. This herd doesn't reach the Indians before dawn. There'll be a massacre. You get any proof that Garrett's been starving the Indians tonight, his own pockets? Yes, Sheriff. This bank book and these papers, read them all, but let's get the herd moving. Go to it. Come on, boys. Sheriff, the mask man's absolutely wrong. About me stealing. Certainly, those papers don't prove anything. They do, then. Got a thing.   But I am smart enough to lock you both up until I can turn you over to the United States Margin. And don't talk to me about these papers. They're proof positives. They tell the whole story of an honorary scheme that might have ended up in a massacre if it hadn't been for the Lone Ranger. Where a copyrighted feature of the Lone Ranger Incorporated is produced by Tranglo Campbell Muir Incorporated. The part of the Lone Ranger is played by Brace Beamer, your announcer Fred Foy. Listen to the Lone Ranger brought to you by special recording Mondays through Fridays at this same time.


But in terms of the sort of politics that you occupy, is that making it worse? Are you only encouraging people to get even more annoyed about what they already feel? I mean, I think at Navarra, I think we generally publish, we do podcasts with peer-reviewed academics, researchers, top writers. We did a podcast last Friday with a gentleman who's just written a history of neoliberalism. And we do try and couch these broader debates, which can fall into that. We do try and couch them in a more analytical, historical context. And I would answer, really in brief, people are angry, the anger is justified. Let's provide them with an analytical framework as to why things are the way they are and how we can change them within the parameters of a democratic system, which respects freedom of speech, freedom of expression and fundamental human rights.


Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, and Governor Charles Stone. Thank you. I needed that, and then in deference to John Kenefeck, we'll say we can handle it. For those of you that don't know, although I was just introduced, I'm Jim Keck. You know what? Jim Keck, thank you very much. All Nebraskans are honored today by President Reagan's visit to our state. Ours is a state Nebraska endorsed the President by a margin of more than two-and-a-half to one in the 1980 election. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. I can't tell you how pleased I am to be here at this nonpartisan gathering. It's grateful to be back here and to see so many friendly faces. I feel like I'm coming home to old friends and neighbors. As a matter of fact, the governor just informed me a little while ago that he used to listen to me when I was Dutch Reagan on WHO to Moin. Whereas he then added, he only listened to me when the cards were playing the cubs because he was a card fan. So he's a very happy fellow today. But you know, there's one big difference between Nebraska and Washington. You've got your priorities straight. In Washington, too many in the Congress vote against balanced budgets so they can run up big red ink deficits. Here in Nebraska, a balanced budget is an article of faith between you and your leaders. And the only big red in your state is a football team. Back in those broadcasting days, I have described that team a number of times when I was a sports advisor doing play-by-play football broadcasts. But let me just say a few words about your governor, and I'm mighty proud to stand here with him today. He doesn't just believe in your Nebraska bedrock values, values like self-reliance, love of family, patriotism, and faith in God. I've known Charlie Thornton, valued his friendship for a long time. I've seen the job he's done. And no one works harder or has done more to increase Nebraska's farm and industrial exports. He doesn't play both sides of an issue. He doesn't play both sides of an issue. He's a man who says what he means, means what he says, and does what he promises. Charlie Thornton has stood by Nebraska through sun and storm. He's earned your support. And if you give it to him, and I mean all of it, he'll stay right where he belongs, doing his great job as your governor. Now we gave him a problem in Washington. I understand how your tax system is geared to the federal income tax. And then when we changed the federal income tax and reduced it, he was faced with having to make a rate change in order to not change your tax. But those who said that he raised your taxes in doing that are lying in their teeth. He had a hard decision to make, and he made it. Now I understand that he is faced, as we're faced in Washington, with having in these hard times to make some adjustments in state budgeting and in cutting government spending. And that's the approach that he's taking. And I'd like to know who in America, well I do know who in America, but I don't like them, thinks that's wrong. The right way to change is to reduce government spending. He needs your excellent representatives that he named up here, Doug B Rider, Hal Dobb, Virginia Smith back in Washington. And wouldn't it be great if we had an outstanding Senate candidate, Jim Keck, be the outstanding senator that I know he could be? Let me if I could, because there is some mystery to many people about the way things work there in Washington and what that means. As he told you, the first time we've had a Republican Senate in 26 years. As a matter of fact, all the past Republican presidents, all the way back to the war. Only for one two-year period has a Republican president served with a Republican legislature, a Republican Congress. And here's what it means to have, we only have a slight majority in that Senate. But that slight majority is so important because having that majority means our party names the committee chairman. Our party names the majority to the committees. And look at the difference in this last session that we've just been through. The balanced budget amendment, which 80% of the people in this country said they wanted, passed out of the Senate with a two-thirds majority. For a year it was held in the House in committee and not allowed to come to the floor for a vote because they control the majorities and the chairman of the committees in that other House. Finally, it came out when 218 signed a petition to bring it to the floor and it got a majority vote, but it fell short of the two-thirds it needs. But I've got news for them, they're going to have another chance to vote on that balanced budget amendment because we're going to keep presenting. Your train here today, and I might add with a very lovely cargo, represents a great success story, an industry of new growth, of jobs and progress carrying your people and their goods toward brighter horizons and a better life. It wasn't long ago that people were saying that rail industry couldn't make it without government subsidies, where we're seeing proof of how wrong they were. This industry has turned around, it's getting stronger, the payoff is more jobs and opportunities and that's darn good news for Nebraska. And part of that reason that it can do that is because we've been lifting the stultifying hand of government regulations that has been hindering business and industry in this country for too many years. Let me speak a moment about another turnaround, another comeback story. Our economy is turning around. Our critics are saying our economy is on its knees, but you know something, if the economy is back on its knees, that's quite an improvement because two years ago it was flat on its back. A little less than two years ago when we went to Washington, all those years of government living beyond its means had come to roost with a terrible vengeance. Today's Monday morning quarterbacks have already forgotten the monster they left us, spending shooting up at an annual rate of 17%, double digit inflation, two years in a row of that, high unemployment, a 21.5% interest rate, the highest in more than a century, and nearly a trillion dollar debt, which if we don't correct things soon is going to be handed as a heritage from us to these wonderful young people who are here today. And I'm determined that must not happen. We were having the highest tax burden, peacetime tax burden that the people of this country had ever known. Now I don't want it reported that I'm being partisan here, so let me quote a source from the other side, way on the other side. Happens to be the senior Democratic senator from the state of Massachusetts. In May of 1980, Teddy Kennedy warned that under his party's leadership, America was sliding into the worst recessions since the Great Depression. So you see, it isn't true that he and I don't agree on everything. In 1980, government was growing like toadstools after a rainstorm, spinning out of control like a washing machine that was out of cycle. Washington and the bureaucracy were growing fatter and fatter while they were making everyone else poorer and poorer. Think about that trillion-dollar debt. This year, the government will have to spend $110 million just to pay the interest on that debt. That is much greater than the total federal budget was just 20 years ago. That's about $3,500 for every time your heart beats. We wouldn't be worrying about a deficit today if big spenders hadn't wallowed in red ink for 21 of the last 22 years. And we wonder why it's so hard to bring down interest rates, make more money available to your consumers and small businessmen and family farmers. But those in the Congress who have spent your hard-earned dollars with such glee still resist the medicine of a balanced budget amendment. They claim it would be a dangerous risk. Well, there is no more dangerous risk to America or the loved ones that we'll leave behind us than deliberate, planned inflation that would destroy our country. And we're not going to permit that. Here in America's heartland, farmers are still paying dearly for the mistakes of the past. The sky-high inflation and interest rates of the late 70s and that mistake in Soviet grain embargo led to a vicious cost-price squeeze and lost markets. Confidence in America as a reliable supplier was shattered. Confidence in Washington forgot what Dwight Eisenhower once warned. Without a prosperous agriculture, there can be no prosperity in America. We're remembering, and with your help, we're going to put the pieces back together.  I went there to face up to those problems and with your support and prayers from wonderful Americans like yourselves to begin to solve them. Together, we have pulled America back from the edge of disaster. We are solving those problems. No, we haven't been able, in 21 months, to clear away the wreckage that had built up for more than 20 years. Bob Dole kind of described that the other day in a speech out in Kansas another way. He kind of likened it to a stable that you couldn't un-pile what was, well... But much of the legislation that we need still hasn't been enacted. But we're taking action. And of those five critical problems I mentioned, runaway spending, runaway taxing, double-digit inflation, record interest rates, and high unemployment, we've already made solid progress on four. And in anybody's league, four out of five is not bad. First, we cut that bankrupt government spending growth by nearly two-thirds. Second, despite tremendous resistance from the big spenders, we passed the first real tax reduction for all American taxpayers in nearly 20 years. And that tax bill was not a giveaway to the rich. That was an across-the-board tax cut that benefited everyone in this country. And today is benefiting those at the bottom of the scale probably even better than it is those at higher earnings and at the upper top of the level of the scale. Here's what it means for your families. When next July first comes and the third installment of the income tax cut is put in place, it'll be a total of a 25 percent personal rate cut. Then indexing will follow. In 1985, to protect you from being pushed into higher tax brackets when you get a cost of living pay raise. And that's what's been happening. Inflation has been one of the finest tax increases and the highest tax increases that our government has managed for all these inflationary years. A reduction in the marriage penalty, the unfairness of the fact that a working husband and wife were cheated in the amount that they had to pay it being greater than if they weren't married. And reduction or an increase in the child care credit for working mothers. Does that sound like it's a benefit for the rich? New incentives for retirement savings. Again, hardly something that benefits the rich. And a major benefit for family farmers and family businesses. We're raising the estate tax exemption in installments to $600,000. And of even greater help, there will no longer be any estate tax for a surviving spouse. It's not right. It's not right for widows and children to lose a business, to have to give up a business or a farm. The generations of love and toilet created just in order to pay the government a tax because of death in the family. And now they won't have to do that. Third, that double digit inflation rate hit 18% in January of 1980. It is now down for the first eight months of this year to 5.1% and has been even lower in the most recent of those months. The experts said that it couldn't be done. They said that it was institutionalized inflation in our system. No way to get rid of it. Well, we got news for them. We did it and we're going to do even better. It's going to come below where it is. And fourth, we don't have a 21.5% prime rate anymore. We have a 12% prime rate, and that's not finished. Going down yet and I predict it will go down more before this year is over. Now that leaves unemployment, which everyone knows is far too high. But just as surely a single digit inflation started the interest rates tumbling, getting interest rates down will drive unemployment back down to single digits too. And then we will have delivered the knockout blow to the recession once and for all. We are on course to recovery, but not another counterfeit recovery like all those other seven in the past that sent inflation and interest rates shooting right back through the roof. I wish you could see some of the charts that we have of what has been happening in recent years to see this peak and then drop into recession and then this artificial stimulant of the money supply and so forth, the quick fixes that they employed and things would go back up only two years later to go back down into a recession. But each time the recovery came, we have noted that the unemployment rate stayed higher than it was before the recession, so that each time we started increasing unemployment from a higher base. And now we have the present rate of unemployment. But we're on course to recovery, not as I say another counterfeit recovery. Unlike some before us, this administration is determined to get the job done and to get the job done right. You hear so much in Washington, of course, with all of this about fairness and compassion. Well, we're providing compassion that never existed under the policies of the past. It's easy for all of us because we're the most generous people on earth to feel sorry for that person who through no fault of their own must have help from the rest of us. And nothing is ever going to change that in this country. We're going to continue doing that. But under the policies of the past, in the empire building that goes on in government, there was only one way to go in enlarging those programs and enlarging the bureaucracy. They had to keep raising the levels at which people became eligible for those helpful programs until people who had no moral right to be receiving benefits from their fellow taxpayers were getting them. But, yes, we've cut back on some programs trying to correct that and be able to continue helping the people of real need. But what we've done without any expensive government programs is bring them help of a different kind. You know, a family at the poverty income level today is about $500 better off because of the drop in inflation. Their purchasing power has increased that much. The average family of four on a fixed income of about $20,000 is about $1,500 better off than if inflation and taxes had stayed at their 1980 rates. And none of these called for any bureaucracy or none of them called for any high administrative overhead on presenting some kind of a grant. We've just made their money buy more than it was buying. Inflation is the tax they were having to pay because those at the bottom level didn't have any income upon which to pay a tax. There's an example that has to do with the aid for dependent children. During the decade of the 70s, their grants were increased by a full one third. In that same decade, their ability to purchase declined by almost a third. So that now even the people on those benefit grants because of their need are better off and have more purchasing power than they did before. For farmers trapped in that vicious cost price squeeze, our progress against inflation and interest rates spells R-E-L-I-E-F, if a well-known football player and a commercial will forgive me for saying that. It can make a life and death difference. The price of fuel so important to farmers has actually dropped in real terms. And each decline of one percentage point in the interest rate and the farm debt will translate into a $2 billion reduction in interest cost to farmers in America. And that's not all. We didn't put that Soviet grain embargo on your farmers, but as the governor told you, we took it off. And as you heard last Friday, we want to sell the Soviets a lot more grain, a total of 23 million metric tons, and we will guarantee give assurances of reliable delivery. And we share Governor Thone's determination to increase your exports throughout the world. From the first moment we took office, we've been working to cure our terrible economic disease and make America well again. Oh, yes, I hear those who say that we haven't done enough. And there's a double standard there. I won't, they accept responsibility for what they did during the last 25 years when they control both houses of the Congress. But they insist on demanding that we take full blame for not producing a miracle in less than 25 months. But I've listened and I've listened to their criticism. And I've waited to see if they propose an alternative. And they don't. All they have to offer is a blind return to big spending, big taxing, more regulations, meddling and make work, more government coming through the windows under the doors and down the chimney. And I don't think that's an alternative for the American people. And if you don't believe that the big spenders will go back to their old ways, then you believe that JR Ewing, when he promises he'll never be unfaithful again. Let me ask you, do you want to return to their policies of compassion that gave you 21 and a half percent interest rates? Do you want to return to their policies of leadership that gave you back to back years of double digit inflation? Do you want to return to their policies of fairness that taxed working families into higher brackets that were once reserved for people up in the millionaire class? Or is there a better way? Do you think the program we all work together to pass, the program that is still just a toddler, just beginning, but that has already brought down spending, brought down taxes, brought down inflation and brought down interest rates, do you think that program deserves a little more time to clear our one remaining obstacle of high unemployment so we can put people back in the job and get America back on our feet? Yeah. Quout and mobilize an army of common sense Republicans, Democrats and independents all across Nebraska. Ask them to support Charlie Thone, Jim Keck, Doug B. Rider, Hal Dobb and Virginia Smith. They are leaders determined to lighten the burden of that terrible trillion dollar debt on Nebraska's children and grandchildren. You know, there's a passage in the Psalms which says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Well, America has endured a long, terrible night of economic hardship, but now we are seeing the first welcome bursts of sunshine, the dawning of a new day for our country. We know the momentum for recovery is building and we know that confidence is returning and that America's on the move again. But you know, there's something I can't understand, election year or not. With all the hopeful signs we now see, inflation and interest rates, down sharply, real wages, savings, retail buying, housing starts and investment up again, why do our critics seem so down in the mouth? Why do they seem so ready to stir up more fear and anxiety which can only hold back recovery? There is a psychological element to a recession. If people just start hunkering down and saying it's gonna get worse, but if people say, wait a minute, you know, we've done it before, we can do it again. You have to ask, do those critics in this election year, do they really want a recovery? Or would they be smiling broadly if things were getting worse simply because it might be politically advantageous to them? Franklin Roosevelt warned that fear can paralyze us. Let us turn away from voices of fear and doom and move forward together to embrace recovery with confidence and courage. Those who make our country, made our country sick, however their intentions must not keep her from getting well now. The partisan politics must not delay the healing of America. If others cannot encourage, pitch in and help the rest of us, then let them stand aside and get out of the way. This nation wants to move forward. I thank you for keeping up the struggle. With your faith, we can put strong wings on weary hearts. We can make America stronger, not just economically and militarily, but also morally and spiritually. We can make our beloved country the source of all the dreams and the opportunities that she was, missed me. And we can do it by, as I said, you keep Charlie Thone right here in that governor's chair. You send Doug and Hal and Virginia and Jim back to Washington with us, and we will get these things done. We only need to believe in each other and believe in the God who so blessed this land of ours. I thank you all very much and God bless all of you.


So, my name is Baljibar Bosa, I'm from Brazil. I'm a member of the Brazilian community, LibreOffs, and I work at the Paulista State University, UNESP. I try to talk a bit about how we got great states. Paulista University State University, one major public university of Brazil. Today, I have 34 colleges and 24 cities, over 3,800 professors and 7,000 administrative employees. UNESP offers 102 undergraduate programs and 123 graduate programs and prepares students for 680 careers and now 24 campuses. Where everything is stated? It started in Ilha Soutira, a small municipality in the state of São Paulo with 26,000 inhabitants. The municipality is one of the 24 that have an university campus of UNESP. It's my little seat with yours, beautiful landscape and university UNESP campus. How do I start it? In August 206, a probe of the implementation of a free software in an administration of UNESP in Campos Ilha Soutira. The work was to clarify the reasons of the use Firefox, Thunderbird, VROffs and the training users in free software apps in February. Continuous capacitation in Ruby Office in 2009 started training in Linux. In 2009, it started operation system replacement in the administrative computers. 95% of computers of administration were working in Linux. We maintained the Microsoft Windows where strictly needed only. Yet in 2009, was created an institutional development plan. A program of strategic management covered several dimensions of university how undergraduate, graduate, search and the administration. With migration success for the free software of faculty, of engineer of Ilha Soutira, the project was extended for at all universities in administrative area. In 2011, it started working as the community. Through awareness, lecturers and the clarification of the project objectives. Everybody have a natural hesitate the chance. We can add to that the legacy of more 20 years of using Microsoft Office. However, since the 80s, having gone through several chains in Office application. I visit each of the 34 university units to break or reduce this resistance. In 2011, starting training in LibreOffice in our community, UNASP. And user support. More than 3,000 training users. And we still have a lot of work. But we have 7,000 employees. Just making an observation. The professors were invited to join the migration to LibreOffice but without obligation. We hope that over time, they feel the need to use LibreOffice. One since the documents will be extended or made available in ODF format. In 2012, that's good if we use LibreOffice and ODF where just rise awareness and clarify. But, no. It has been necessary to prepare two ordinance. First, to buy computers, prioritize the use of free software. And second, recommending adoption of open document formats. We define free software users' policy at the university with application that is replacing proprietary software. The students. LibreOffice have been installed in teaching laboratories. Template of academic work format for LibreOffice is available for the students. This template is a motivation for the use of LibreOffice and students. And, I assume, we will be offered course of LibreOffice in distance learning. 2015. Document to comply with finally we set a deadline for the FTB use of LibreOffice and ODF. This has already been set in free software user policy but was not respected. This document was sent by the Hector to Hector E and all directors in university units and defined the month of September 2015 to start the FTB use of LibreOffice in October the Hector exchange and available of documents at university showed using the ODF format. But this does not happen. The challenge. The distance. It's great challenge. We have colleges with distances of 700 to 800 kilometers. And we have to train more than 7,000 employees. So, we had the idea of creating the course LibreOffice in distance. This year, still in production, this course are available initially for the UNESCO community and will be subsequently available for the other institutions with university extation certificate or not. With maturing or not. The university, the things don't happen as we wanted. We begins to press the committee of information technology to set a timetable with deadlines for change. So, in February 55 the university board composed of our directors of the University approved the calendar for use of LibreOffice and ODF. The LibreOffice became the official office switch and ODF the standard format of university. Finally, with a little delay there are two months left to normative instructions. The goal is to guide and support teams and users on the procedures for installing LibreOffice and co-migration of your files to the ODF format. Of course, we will live together with the Microsoft formats but we hope that this will decrease with time. This was a great achievement for us after five years of hard work. Therefore, we are observing and the provisions of the normative instructions are being followed. Thanks so much.


T.F.N.N. Headline News Update What's happening for this T.F.N.N.N. Update? I'm the host of the Tiger Technicians Hour coming up straight after this update and the author of the opening called Daily Newsletter. We're looking at the Dow down 25 at 26,511. I think the S&P and the Dow would be much, much higher if Boeing down nine points wasn't really the culprit here. But this is what we've got and that means it's an even longer delay before it'll be next week before we can get to the 26,908 level to start an egg C in the daily chart. Certainly the 26,000 might put it at the 440 area should hold. Otherwise, you're probably going to test the 40-period moving average. Meantime, the technicals are still pretty good and the S&P at this moment isn't packed up eight. At 29,21 holding the nine-period moving average. The MACD is good. Stochastic is pulled back to 71% in the daily chart. But I think that here as well, there should be a leg C starting probably Monday or Tuesday going into next week to the upside. 29,14 to 29,07 is absolutely key support to hold. The QQQ NDX100 is trading up 46 cents at 186.25. Here as well, it needs to get to the 190 area to start leg D. The weekly chart unlike the S&P and the Dow has not gone to a new leg D. This is still underneath the 191,32 high of April. So we're watching this one closely and IWM has already been the lag at on the day. Once again, it has one of these days where a percentage basis is better than the others. It's up 1.53, 152,34 up 1%. But still, it's not a good-looking chart. Made that peak D in the chapter where just as it did at 161.11 and back in early May, late April. And this is something to watch because it needs to get to the 153,60 area and pretty soon. If you look at gold, gold's taking a breather after again, a second session after having hit the high. Just three days ago, it's now at 1,409, down 6. And if you look at the dollar, the dollar's really not moving very much to the upside. In fact, it's down to Texas at 96.21. So it's really gold that's leading the way out of the looking at it as part of a currency and metals. Kind of a duo that's working in counterpoint. I'll be right back. Talk more about it in my show, the Thai Technicians Hour. Stay tuned to TFN and all day you've got me, Steve, Dave and Tom. I'll be back in a few minutes time. Otherwise, see you tomorrow.