blank space



#500

Contact Federal Government Officials


Fax legislators for free:  Reps:  https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php

or use Resistbot:  https://resist.bot/

 
********************************
Many newspapers, including New York Times and Washington Post require subscriptions, but without one we can see a few articles each month.  We can also check with our local libraries to find out how to get online access through them.

1.       This week in Congress:  The House will have a "District Work week" and return to voting on bills on next Tuesday, July 10 per Majority Leader's House Calendar.  Per govtrack.com, next week the House will be considering HR 6237: Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act as well as S2269: Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2017, which has already passed in the Senate. The Intelligence Authorization Act now includes a measure directing the Pentagon to disclose mobile device spying near U.S. military facilities. (Source: The Hill) The Global Food Security Act, initially signed into law in 2016, funds foreign aid programs that focus on ending hunger. We can read more about it at The Hill. Let's tell our representatives to support S2269.  The Senate returns next week on Monday, July 9 session at 3pm by resuming consideration of the nomination of Mark Jeremy Bennett, of Hawaii, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit. (Source: Senate Executive Calendar).

2.      Families Belong Together protests took place in 750 cities and towns on Saturday with clear messages about the tragedies unfolding at our southern border:  
https://apnews.com/69ceb617e2c241d29dd123cde6c40ae7  If we participated, let’s take the time to thank the organizers of the one we attended and let’s let our MoC know why we participated.

3.      The Defense Department is under orders from Trump and the DOJ to confine up to 12,000 immigrant parents with their children on military bases, as a way to deter future illegal immigration—arguing that this answers those who criticize family separation. Two military installations in Texas intend to begin building temporary housing after July Fourth:   https://www.wnyc.org/story/the-us-has-a-long-troubled-history-of-detaining-families-together This move means either indefinite detention for immigrant families—who are expected to wait out their asylum cases in effect in jail—or more family separations—using the 20 day limit on child detention in the Flores case as a rationale.  We must tell the White House and the DOJ neither is acceptable:  DOJ, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001 or 202-353-1555.  Let's tell our MoCs that we do not approve of our tax dollars being spent this way when the same accommodations have not been made available to our homeless vets, the displaced in Puerto Rico, etc.

4.      Even though they were aware of the problems, our government continued to contract with agencies and facilities for detained refugee children. In effect, our tax dollars have been used to support abuse and neglect of children.   https://www.revealnews.org/article/migrant-children-sent-to-shelters-with-histories-of-abuse-allegations/Let’s contact our MoCs about this terrible use of our tax dollars and then let's also contact the federal agencies that oversee these programs that we want changes made to insure the well-being of these children who have nothing, but us to care for them.  Office of Refugee Resettlement:   https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/office-of-refugee-resettlement and Dept. of Health and Human Services:  https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/u-s-department-of-health-and-human-services


5.      It is hard to believe this has not yet happened.  The United States' past is riddled with lynchings, used as a grotesque tool to maintain white supremacy in the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, as black Americans gained more freedom (https://to.pbs.org/2tVn1sKhttps://www.naacp.org/history-of-lynchings/). During that period, over 200 pieces of legislation were introduced, yet the Senate failed to pass any of them. Now, Congress has introduced legislation that would not only make lynching a federal crime, but would also categorize it as a hate crime, which carries more penalties (https://n.pr/2KGeAsQ). Let's ask our senators to support the Justice for Lynching Victims Act of 2018 (S. 3178).

6.      Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement, and Trump and the GOP have been clear that they will fill the vacancy before the next Supreme Court session begins on October 1st (https://lat.ms/2KDetxS). The Senate only needs a simple majority to confirm the next Justice, and we have a lot of work to do to ensure that they only approve of someone who will uphold civil, reproductive, and environmental rights. Indivisible has created a resource, titled the 2-Step Strategy to Win the Supreme Court Fight, which outlines the strategy, lists the senators we should be focusing our efforts on, and includes senator-specific call scripts we can use as we get to work. Let's read through the resource, then start making some calls!

7.      The ethics official for the Environmental Protection Agency has recommended further investigation into Administrator Scott Pruitt:     
https://apnews.com/71f4163eafe14d66ab763cb142397442  Let’s let Administrator Pruitt know that we still eagerly await his resignation: https://www.epa.gov/home/forms/contact-epaor on Twitter @EPAScottPruitt  Let’s also contact ou reps and ask them to push for Pruitt’s  resignation. They can act on this and they should. 

8.     It is not too late to submit a comment to the Commerce Department opposing the citizenship question herehttp://cqrcengage.com/censuscounts2020/app/act-on-a-regulation?0&engagementId=484734   Tell them that the government uses the Census to support and serve everyone —not just citizens. Tell them what it would mean for our community if families with immigrants are afraid to fill out the census—that our schools will be overcrowded if demographers don’t know how many kids there will be, our health care system will be strained. We can find some reasons why the Census matters here:  https://civilrights.org/census/

9.      Remember when we were deporting record numbers of undocumented immigrants, but only those who had committed crimes?  Remember when we kept border-crossing families together until their court date, unless of course they’d been charged with a serious crime? Remember when we handled our immigration crisis in a more humane way and did not conflagrate into a pretend bigger crisis, so we could fix it?  https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/did-the-obama-administration-separate-families/  It is time to tell our MoCs that we need to go back to where we were before the Trump administration and use the immigration guidelines in effect at that time.  They worked, and they were moral.

Election 2018 – General

An election guide from Postcards for America:  In this Google doc (updated regularly), each State shows ALL Democratic Candidates running for Congress, Governor, Lt Gov, Attorney General, Secretary of State (if applicable) with links to their websites and Twitter. Each has a link to a Twitter Thread, a Shareable Facebook Post and a Document. For most States, there are also Info & Links for Voter Registrations, Absentee Ballots, Early Voting & Voter ID, Age Requirements and being a Poll Worker.  Let’s check this out and use and share it:  

1.       If we are a candidate or working on a campaign, we may know that there are good tools out there to help our campaigns, but we may be too busy to hunt for them and then check them out. We can take some of the grunt and guess work out of our searches with The Campaign Workshops’ top 10 campaign tools here. https://www.thecampaignworkshop.com/top-10-campaign-tools. If we like want we see, we can sign up to get their more extensive list of 100 tools too. Let’s get this Blue Wave rolling!

2.      It's clear we can't count on the courts to protect our voting rights for a long time to come. So we're going to have to do the work ourselves. We have an opportunity to win a tremendous victory for voting rights on the ballot box this November in Florida, bringing down a Jim Crow law and restoring the vote to more than a million people (http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-voting-rights-ballot-voters.html). Let's read more on the ballot initiative here, and sign up to make phone calls for the Voting Rights Restoration Amendment here.

3.      Postcards to Voters volunteers wrote get-out-the-vote cards for Texas congressional district 27 candidate Eric Holguin, Campaign 92.  In Saturday's special election, Holguin lost to Republican Michael Cloud in this deep red district. (Results at Politico.)  We were not successful that time; let's keep trying. We have a chance now to flip a seat in Ohio with current Campaign 93: Danny O'Connor for US Congress. We can sign up to write for current Postcards To Voters campaigns here.

Election 2018 – By State

1.       Upcoming voting dates and deadlines:

July 2
Georgia
Early voting begins
runoffs
July 2
Alabama
Voter Registration Deadline
Runoffs
July 3
Tennessee
Voter Registration Deadline
Primary
July 6
Wyoming
In person absentee voting begins
Primary
July 9
Michigan
Voter Registration Deadline
Primary
July 9
Ohio
Voter Registration Deadline
Special congressional-cd 12
July 9
Washington
Voter Registration Deadline
Primary
July 10
Delaware
Filing Deadline
July 10
Ohio
In person absentee voting begins
Special-Aug 7 congressional dist 12
(source:  by date:  https://goo.gl/gjFv2u by state:  https://goo.gl/7gTzvE)

Other Actions

1.       CALLING ALL TECHIES!  RAICES, the Immigrants’ Rights group working to reunite families separated at the border, needs us. We can help build a database to  #ReuniteTheFamilies! They are looking for UX/UE Designers, HTML, CSS, JS, NODE JS, Python, C++, Ruby, Angular JS, Docker, MongoDB, CouchDB, MySQL, Postgres, Riak ESPECIALLY. While the first priority is connecting the adults with legal aid so they can process through the system quickly and be reunited with their children, RAICES is also looking for an advisory board and a list of tech volunteers to call upon for future projects. If we have technology skills, or can refer someone who does we can check out the Crisis Code website and sign up here:  https://www.crisiscode.com/ or contact Erin DeRuggiero at erin@crisiscode.com

2.      Republican Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan put on a pompous show this week when grilling Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein:      
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Etlf4tc0s  Jordan’s opponent in the fall is Janet Garrett. Let’s consider a donation to her if we can: 

3.      Last week we sustained our 154th mass shootings of 2018.  None of those shootings were committed by immigrants.  However, “Immigrants make up 22 percent of the health workforce and 30 percent of doctors and surgeons in the US.”  https://www.vox.com/2017/2/1/14470746/trump-travel-ban-health-care-doctors  Travel bans and immigration cut-backs hurt our country.  Our MoCs need to know that we want them to come up with an immigration plan that makes better sense for us. 

4.      The First Nations Development Institute and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation have collaborated on a project, Reclaiming Native Truth: A Project to Dispel America's Myths and Misconceptions, with the goal "to move hearts and minds toward greater respect, inclusion and social justice for Native Americans." The project launched with a research campaign to find out what the current narrative is regarding Native Americans, then used the results to create concrete messaging guides and an action plan for changing that narrative. For those of us who are not Native American, let's read through the guide for allies, then work through the action items (pages 16-19). If we are Native American, or are part of a Native American organization, we can read through our own message guide, which details how we can lead in the movement for a narrative change.

5.      Workers at Amazon have written to CEO Jeff Bezos to protest Amazon’s role in creating and selling facial recognition tools that can be used by law enforcement in perpetuating the administration’s immigration policies. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/amazon-workers-immigration-jeff-bezos-ibm-nazi-protest-a8411601.html. Citing IBM’s role in helping Nazi Germany, and following a similar letter to the CEO written by Amazon shareholders, workers are claiming an ethical choice in what they build and how it is used. Let’s add our voices and lean on Amazon to stop making and selling these tools. If we are frequent Amazon buyers or Amazon Prime members, we should make sure to mention that we are prepared to take our business elsewhere if they refuse to stop cooperating. We can reach Amazon at this link.  

6.      A Canadian copper mine project has been proposed for the land that was cut from the Bears Ears/Escalante Monument project in Utah. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/copper-mine-planned-for-utah-national-monument-shrunk-by-trump even while a lawsuit filed by the Grand Staircase Escalante Partners and other conservation groups that challenged the new boundaries has yet to be decided. Let’s insist to our MoCs and the Department of the Interior that any mining plans must be put on hold until this lawsuit has been decided. We can support the Grand Staircase Escalante Partners and find out more at this link.

7.      The Right has lost no time since the Supreme Court ruled that unions cannot ask public workers who benefit from their negotiations to pay union or “agency” dues. Teachers in New York are getting emails from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, funded by the DeVos, Castle Rock, and Koch Foundations, encouraging them to opt-out of their unions;  the Freedom Foundation, with funding from ALEC and the Kochs, has been knocking on union members’ doors on the West Coast to the same end:
https://ucommblog.com/section/union/trump-group-telling-teachers-opt-out-their-union Let’s tell these groups to stop harassing union members: Mackinac, 140 West Main Street. P.O. Box 568, Midland, Michigan 48640 or 989-631-0900 or 989-631-0964 (Fax) or mcpp@mackinac.org; Freedom Foundation, 360-956-3842, PO Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 or 503-951-6208, PO Box 18146, Salem OR 97305 or 949-954-8914, PO Box 6683, Fullerton CA 92834.

8.     Advice from President Obama, ""If you are one of these folks who is watching cable news at your cocktail parties with your friends and you are saying 'civilization is collapsing' and you are nervous and worried, but that is not where you are putting all your time, energy and money, then either you don't actually think civilization is collapsing ... or you are not pushing yourself hard enough and I would push harder."" https://ktla.com/2018/06/29/speaking-in-l-a-obama-offers-democrats-tough-love-ahead-of-midterms-enough-moping/  If we are one of the mopers, let's get moving!  We have work to do!  

Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.       The Parkland/March for Our Lives students are still on tour” to get young people educated, registered, and motivated to vote.”  Let’s meet up with them.  Here are their July dates and locations:  https://marchforourlives.com/tour/

2.      ​On Saturday, protesters took to the streets nationwide to ​protest Trump's cruel immigration policies (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-immigration-family-separation-protests-today-nationwide-2018-06-30-live-updates/). Now, the immigrant-led activist group Cosecha is calling for us to take the next step, with a national day of action to end cooperation with ICE on July 31st, demanding cities, counties, companies and all institutions stop working with them. Let's get involved. We can check out the #WeWillNotBeComplicit Action Guide at this link.

States


Find elected state officials: https://openstates.org/


1.       ME, TN, GA, AK, CA, NV, WY, --These states, along with Puerto Rico and Guam, have still not applied for election security funds. https://www.eac.gov/2018-hava-election-security-funds/#tabs-2. The deadline to do this is coming up on July 16. If we live in one of these states, let’s contact our state legislators and ask them to make sure this is done right away.  (From Americans of Conscience Action Checklist)

Reading/Watching

1.       Experts in authoritarianism advise us to keep a list of things subtly changing around us, so we’ll remember.  Amy Siskind is keeping that list for us. Amy writes, "Trump celebrated a Supreme Court victory for his Muslim Ban, and the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Kennedy — giving Trump the power to potentially reshape our highest court and place issues like abortion and civil rights, gay marriage, and healthcare in jeopardy."  Let's review Amy Siskind's list week 85

2.      “Here's the difference between a 'socialist' and a 'Democratic socialist'” - http://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-socialist-and-democratic-socialist-2018-6 

3.      “It is clear, now, that there was nothing to wait for. In the time we’ve been waiting, the rich have only gotten richer and angrier and whiter, but it will never be enough for them.” An excellent piece titled The America We Thought We Knew Is Gone by Lili Loofbourow  https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/supreme-court-is-now-trumps-and-so-we-grieve-for-america.html







No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.