7/2/19
NATIONAL
ISSUES
(Including Emails & Twitter)
Fax
legislators for free:
Or use Resistbot: https://resist.bot/
Or use StampsLicked to
have messages hand-delivered to our own legislators: https://stampslicked.org/
White
House contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house
|
CONTINUED IMMIGRATION ATROCITIES: As the awareness grows of the self-made
humanitarian crisis, there are many ways we can help. Last week’s suggestions are still appropriate to work on: http://roganslist.blogspot.com/2019/06/62519-nationalissues-deplorable.html and http://roganslist.blogspot.com/2019/06/62719-please-note-that-rogans-list.html Here are more:
PRESSURE COMPANIES DOING
BUSINESS WITH ICE/CBP: After facing a lot of consumer
pressure, Bank of America recently announced that it would stop
making loans to companies that run private prisons.
Sludge.com has made a comprehensive map of companies whose business
contracts are furthering Trump’s deportation machine. Let’s check out which
companies in our area are doing business with ICE/CBP and publicize this
widely, as well as put direct pressure on them to stop.
EMERGENCY BORDER AID: We
need to be very wary of the House “Problem Solvers Caucus,” which Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has characterized as the emerging “tea party
within our own Democratic Party”; its members are largely responsible for the
House’s capitulation to the Republican Senate’s $4.6 billion emergency border
funding bill despite its lack of Congressional oversight and of the language to
protect migrant children that House progressives had pushed for, language Mitch
McConnell refused even to allow the Senate to entertain: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/border-bill-democrats-1386116 Let’s
make it clear to our MoCs that we want our tax dollars used to shut down the
concentration camps on our southern border not to hype up Trump’s “border
security.”
CHILD DETENTION: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly struck a deal with VP Mike Pence that lawmakers would be notified within 24 hours when a child died in custody and that a 90-day time limit would be placed for migrant children to be housed in influx facilities: https://abc7news.com/politics/congress-passes-$46b-bill-to-care-for-migrant-families/5368478/ It is disturbing that Pelosi thinks that keeping children in detention for 3 months is acceptable; let’s tell her so: 202-225-4965 or 1236 Longworth H.O.B., Washington DC 20515.
EMERGENCY BORDER AID: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) backed the Senate version of the emergency border aid package, although leaders and members of the Democratic House Progressive Caucus viewed it as "entirely insufficient to protect vulnerable children in our care"; 90 House Democrats, including Pelosi’s entire team of negotiators on the border aid bill, voted against the Senate version of the bill while almost all Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, voted for it: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/nancy-pelosi-chuck-schumer-progressives-democrats-border-aid-bill Let’s all—but especially NY Democrats—tell Schumer that if he hopes ever to be reelected, he must stop undermining the House Democratic majority and capitulating to the White House now: 322 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 or phone: (202) 224-6542 or fax: (202) 228-3027.
CHILD DETENTION: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly struck a deal with VP Mike Pence that lawmakers would be notified within 24 hours when a child died in custody and that a 90-day time limit would be placed for migrant children to be housed in influx facilities: https://abc7news.com/politics/congress-passes-$46b-bill-to-care-for-migrant-families/5368478/ It is disturbing that Pelosi thinks that keeping children in detention for 3 months is acceptable; let’s tell her so: 202-225-4965 or 1236 Longworth H.O.B., Washington DC 20515.
EMERGENCY BORDER AID: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) backed the Senate version of the emergency border aid package, although leaders and members of the Democratic House Progressive Caucus viewed it as "entirely insufficient to protect vulnerable children in our care"; 90 House Democrats, including Pelosi’s entire team of negotiators on the border aid bill, voted against the Senate version of the bill while almost all Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, voted for it: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/nancy-pelosi-chuck-schumer-progressives-democrats-border-aid-bill Let’s all—but especially NY Democrats—tell Schumer that if he hopes ever to be reelected, he must stop undermining the House Democratic majority and capitulating to the White House now: 322 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 or phone: (202) 224-6542 or fax: (202) 228-3027.
INVESTIGATE THE BORDER: Who are the
private contractors running the detention facilities? How did they get their
contracts? Why are they running operations that violate basic human rights that
endanger people, including children, and cause humanitarian crises? Why are
private contractors operating on federal properties where they are insulated
from state oversight? These are just a few of the many, many questions that the
US House of Representatives could be investigating to create a record for
posterity and to bring the corruption at the border to the attention of the
American people right now. Let’s make a list of questions we want answered,
send them to our US Representative, and demand that the House conduct hearings
and investigations into the crisis at the border.
SPONSOR
AND HOST LGBTQ+ ASYLUM SEEKERS: The Santa
Fe Dreamers Project, in conjunction with Diversidad Sin Fronteras, Freedom
for Immigrants, and other immigration and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are actively
seeking and training individuals willing to act as sponsors, hosts and members
of Community Support Networks for LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers. We can help by
providing free housing and support to asylum seekers who identify as LGBTQ+. In
addition to housing, sponsors (with the assistance of the SFDP legal advocacy
team) help released individuals to form support networks and connect them to
community-based legal, social and health services. If we are
willing to open our homes, we can provide a safe, positive, LGBTQ+ competent
and trauma-informed space for an asylum seeker. Ideally, sponsors will
have at least one person in their home with a working proficiency or fluency in
the Spanish language. To qualify to be a sponsor we must have a steady source
of income, be a lawful permanent resident or citizen in the United States, have
a clean criminal record, and have or be willing to develop LGBTQ+
competencies and awareness of trauma-informed care. Sponsors must be willing to
commit to a minimum 6-8 months of housing and support. If we are
interested in sponsoring and hosting a LGBTQ+ asylum seeker and meet the
above requirements for sponsorship, we can complete and submit this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYCFQFq5NxgnR6Cn6v8Ez13bpTDU598RuyY23Ji-uQvr9Asg/viewform If we have
further questions we can contact Tina Galante at tlgalante@gmail.com
WITNESSING AT HOMESTEAD: Many people are providing witness outside of
the Homestead detention center in Florida.
They have a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/339957239906299/
They ask that if we are planning to go witness at Homestead for a day
or more to fill out this form as it helps them with organizing: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkGLdVpqjPUhukRNwpE4-gLUT7lLvaX-lPGkqCsv64cAZ3dA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR0QxY4KdTkWXO3c1GZ82m6MXFSo3jhXTcJHhFLB_VKYF9rJ12SmLYcW2bI
PENSION FUNDS AND DETENTION
CENTERS: Many people have retirement funds that, unbeknownst to them, are
funding detention centers. If we have
retirement holdings with Vanguard or
Fidelity, which together hold 20% of CoreCivic’s shares, we can us
this tool by SumOfUs to contact our fund managers and demand they divest from
CoreCivic and other private prisons that profit on the pain of immigrant
families: https://actions.sumofus.org/a/tell-fidelity-and-vanguard-divest-our-pensions-from-private-prisons/
CONSULTING COMPANIES PROFITTING: Three
consulting companies are profiting hugely from their contracts with ICE:
Deloitte (@Deloitte), Booz Allan Hamilton (@BoozAllen), and
PricesaterhouseCoopers (@PwCUS). https://popular.info/p/children-are-suffering-these-companies It is time to call these companies out
and ask if they really want to be known for adding to the suffering: 1)
Deloitte: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/footerlinks/contact-us.html
or @Deloitte, 2) Booz Allen: https://www.boozallen.com/tools/footer-navigation/contact-us.html
or @BoozAllen, and 3) Price Waterhouse Cooper: https://www.pwc.com/content/pwc/global/forms/contactUsNew.html
or @PwCUS
(h/t Chop
Wood Carry Water)
MASS ATROCITY: An expert who has studied mass atrocities
tells us that the treatment of immigrants from the border can be considered
one. She goes on to say that
perpetrators at all levels need to held accountable. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/opinion/immigration-children-detention.html
Let’s make sure to use this kind of language when talking with our MoCs and
any others who are responsible for what is happening.
IMPEACHMENT: Over
the weekend, Trump became the first sitting president to step into North Korea
during a side jaunt to the DMZ after attending G20. He seems to have done so
with no gains in the denuclearization of North Korea and no significant plan
for diplomacy going forward. This news was followed by the news that Iran has
breached the uranium stockpile level set by the framework Obama enacted with
them that Trump has pulled out of: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48814975 and https://apnews.com/3e2d08074a4f4256ba6ee379cdb168f7 The
guiding principle in Trump’s approach with significant adversaries seems to be
to crash through and do the surface opposite of what Obama did. This is no way
to lead. Let’s continue to contact our MoC to state that Trump’s rash
actions are part of what makes him unfit to lead and that we expect an
impeachment inquiry to proceed.
ELECTION SECURITY: Only one Republican member of
the House of Representatives (Brian Mast, R-FL) voted with the Democrats last
week for the Securing America’s Federal Elections Act, a bill that would
provide funds to all states to booster election security and assure a traceable
paper ballot system. https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/house-passes-election-security-measure-requiring-cybersecurity-safeguards-paper-ballots. Now
the bill is headed for the Senate, where it will likely die, since Majority
Leader, Mitch McConnell, has refused to address the issue, despite clear evidence in the Mueller Report that Russia
did indeed hack the 2016 election. Let’s call out our
Republican MoCs for enabling continued hacking and cheating, and press on them
the need to secure our elections.
END GERRYMANDERING: Even though the Supreme Court
failed to end partisan gerrymandering, there are two bills in Congress that address
this issue. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/450903-california-democrats-unveil-redistricting-reform-bill-after-supreme-court and
https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/bennet-fields-supreme-court-gerrymandering-punt.
Let’s ask our MoCs to co-sponsor S1972,
The Fair Maps Act of 2019, and The Redistricting Reform
Act of 2019. Let’s also tell our Senators we want a vote on HR 1, which addresses many of the
same issues. (From the Americans
of Conscience Checklist.)
PUBLIC COMMENT NEEDED: From one of our own: Comments and actions week ending July 7,
2019 includes more Alaska, Drinking water, Nuclear weapons, LCBTQ health,
Redefining how the government measures things - poverty rates, pollution index.
LGBTQ and Trans rights, RoundUp, HUD targeting undocumented residents:
BOYCOTT HOME DEPOT: Home Depot CEO, billionaire
Bernie Marcus, has announced that he is giving away 90% of his wealth. While
most is going to non-controversial philanthropic causes, he is also giving away
substantial amount to Trump’s re-election campaign. https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-cofounder-to-donate-fortune-to-philanthropy-trump-campaign-2019-7. Let’s
remember this and consider alternatives to Home Depot when we need household
maintenance and building products.
FAKE POLITICAL SITES: Be aware and read the
fine print. A trump campaign consultant has set up a fake Joe Biden
account. You can read about it here in The NY Times, here is a bit of it.
“From top to bottom, the website, JoeBiden.info, breezily
mocks the candidate in terms that would warm the heart of any Bernie Sanders
supporter. All the site says about its creator is buried in the fine
print at the bottom of the page. The site, it says, is a political parody built
and paid for “BY AN American citizen FOR American citizens,” and not the work
of any campaign or political action committee. There is indeed an American
behind the website — that much is unambiguously true. But he is very much a
political player, and a Republican one at that. His name is Patrick Mauldin,
and he makes videos and other digital content for President Trump’s re-election
campaign. Together with his brother Ryan, Mr. Mauldin also runs Vici Media Group,
a Republican political consulting firm in Austin whose website opens with the
line “We Kick” followed by the image of a donkey — the Democratic Party symbol
often known by another, three-letter, name. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/politics/fake-joe-biden-website.html This was not the only disinformation problem
last week: https://politicalcharge.org/2019/07/01/did-you-spot-last-weeks-disinformation/ Let’s all be very conscious about what we are reading, and the
source for the information. If you are not sure. . . DON’T SHARE IT.
GOV. SNYDER INVITED TO HARVARD FELLOWSHIP: In a breathtaking move, The
Harvard Kennedy School of Government has invited former Michigan Governor Rick
Snyder to serve in a senior research fellowship there in spite of his hideous
role in the Flint water tragedy: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/451175-harvard-facing-backlash-for-for-naming-former-michigan-gov-rick Let’s
let Harvard know that this is an embarrassment to their institution and in
direct contradiction with their mission: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/more/contact-us or
on Twitter @Kennedy_School using the hasgtag #NoSnyderFellowship
POSTCARDING: From
one of our own – here we can find a document with current write-ups that we can
share with our own postcarding group: https://www.whatifknits.com/2019/06/issues-addresses-write-ups-for-the-week-of-6-29-2019/
NATIONAL MONUMENT TO FALLEN JOURNALISTS: “House and Senate lawmakers
introduced bipartisan bills on Wednesday to build a memorial in Washington to
honor fallen journalists. The new legislation,
entitled “The Fallen Journalists Memorial Act of 2019,” comes just ahead of
the anniversary of the mass shooting that left five
journalists dead last year at the Capital Gazette, a newspaper based in
Annapolis.” The legislation would
establish a foundation whose role would be to raise the funds and follow
through with the memorial itself. https://wamu.org/story/19/06/27/a-national-memorial-to-fallen-journalists-could-be-coming-to-washington/ Here is a rare bipartisan issue in Congress that could actually
pass. Let's tell our MoCs to support the effort to establish a national
monument to fallen journalists.
ELECTION/VOTING
GET OUT THE VOTE: In previous election cycles, Swing Left has
focused on increasing voter turnout in key districts across the country in
order to flip these areas from red to blue. For the 2020 election, Swing Left
is launching the Super State Strategy, which will work towards registering new
voters in 11 battleground states in order to win the White House, Senate, and control
over redistricting. We can all help, whether we live in one of the Super States
or not, by sending
letters to potential new voters, or by raising
money for Super State nominees. Let's read through
the Super State Strategy, write letters, and for those of us who are able,
donate to ensure that nominees in the Super States have a fighting chance in
their elections: https://swingleft.org/p/super-state-strategy
WIN KEY STATE RACES TO FIGHT
GERRYMANDERING: After the Supreme Court refusing to rule on partisan
gerrymandering it is up to us to flip key state legislatures to draw fair maps
and ensure fair representation. We can start by checking out the
Grassroots Redistricting Project, where Swing Left, Run for Something,
and Arena are teaming up to help end the unfair Republican practice of rigging
maps to win elections. Their focus is on winning back key legislative chambers
in 9 critical states in 2020.
VOTER EDUCATION: Vote Riders, www.voteriders.org, has
printable, wallet-sized cards with information on acceptable voter ID for each
state. Great for voter registration drives! Let’s print a card for
ourselves, and share this resource with others, https://www.voteriders.org/get-voter-id/voter-id-info-cards/
REGISTER SWING-STATE VOTERS BY MAIL: Vote Forward
now lets us send voter registration forms directly to underrepresented,
Democratic-leaning voters in AZ, CO, GA, ME, MI, NC, OH, PA, TX, VA, and WI.
Let’s build an electorate for 2020 that will flip the US blue! Let’s
download a minimum of five letters from https://votefwd.org/ and
help our fellow Americans register to vote.
GERRYMANDERING: Now that the Supreme Court has ruled
that the federal courts cannot determine whether election maps are too
partisan, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-the-supreme-courts-gerrymandering-decision-means-for-2020, it is more
important than ever for Democrats to gain control of state legislatures and
governorships. That’s because 1) it is the states that draw the congressional
districts, and 2) the gerrymandering battle will now be fought in the state
courts—and we need judges appointed by Democrats on state benches. The group Sister
District makes it possible for us to help flip state legislatures across the
country blue. Let’s get involved: https://www.sisterdistrict.com/volunteer/
TECHNOLOGY FOR CAMPAIGN CANVASSERS: “Canvassers need to be managed, get timely
information, quickly enter meeting notes and campaigns need to make the
best use of the information collected. Technology makes a big
difference.” Let’s see how two free
apps (GlideApps and Google Sheets) helped a
candidate and then see if it will help us:
https://mailchi.mp/thedemlabs/glidecanvassingapp?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_4_6_2018_COPY_01)
STATE
SPECIFIC ISSUES
RALLIES/GATHERINGS/TRAININGS
IMMIGRATION- #CloseTheCamps Protest: Today, July
2nd, Families Belong Together, United We Dream, and American Friends Service Committee, are
encouraging us to visit our MoC local office and demand three things: 1.) Close
the camps, 2.) Not one dollar for family detention and deportation, and 3.)
Bear witness and reunite families. Let's find out if there
is a Close the Camps protest nearby, and if there is, show up. If we do not
have a local protest being hosted, let's still visit our MoC local offices as
they are on recess for the Fourth of July holiday, and be sure to share our
demands with them. We can find resources, including signs, posters, children's
testimonies, sample scripts, and more, at the Close the Camps website:
VIGIL FOR REFUGEES: “On Friday, July 12th, 2019,
Lights for Liberty: A Vigil To End Human Concentration Camps will bring
thousands of people to locations worldwide as well as to concentration camps
across the country, into the streets and into their own front yards, to protest
the inhumane conditions faced by refugees.”
https://www.lightsforliberty.org/ Let’s
plan to attend a vigil near us:
NATIONAL NETWORK ASSEMBLY: The first
National Network Assembly, made up of hundreds of local grassroots leaders
organizers from around the country is happening in Des Moines, IA, August 22
to 25. https://mailchi.mp/thedemlabs/nationalnetworkassembly
There will be workshops, sessions, and meetings in
which participants will strategize, plan, and learn skills to take home to
their groups. The 2019 National Network
Assembly will
strengthen the connective tissue between grassroots groups by bridging multiple
networks and organizations that represent over 1,000
leaders across all 50 states. We
can find more information, register to attend, and donate to the scholarship
fund here: https://www.nationalnetworkassembly.org/
We can use this document to invite others to attend: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oKWdGLESqQYFVIa3JXQrtsXO9zrZv7ihCdGfnmSZ0-M/edit
READING/WATCHING
US air quality is slipping after years of improvement
- https://www.apnews.com/d3515b79af1246d08f7978f026c9092b
This Quora Answer Is the Perfect Metaphor for White
Privilege - https://time.com/4948371/white-privilege-metaphor/
Increasing Support for
Religiously Based Service Refusals - https://www.prri.org/research/increasing-support-for-religiously-based-service-refusals/
The Fearless Megan Rapinoe Embodies the Best of America
- https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/27/megan-rapinoe-american-values-trump-criticism
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We can stay up-to-date on Congress by checking out their
schedules. a) The House publishes a weekly schedule at The Weekly Leader (published and dated Friday)
as well as daily schedules at The Daily Leader. b) The Senate updates
their schedule daily at the Senate Floor Schedule
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