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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 be
considering 15 bills this week per the Majority
Leader Schedule. The Senate will convene at 3:00 p.m. on
Monday to resume consideration of the nomination of Trevor N. McFadden to
be United States District Judge for the District of Columbia. Roll Call tell us that "once Trevor McFadden
is confirmed to the district court in Washington,
D.C., Monday evening, the judicial wars appear sure to resume with a
cloture vote to limit debate on President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy
Barrett (see Rogan's list below) to be a judge on the 7th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals." We need to stay alert for the push by
McConnell to get nominees through and make our calls to our Senators in opposition
to these conservative extremist candidates. We'll talk about the
four nominees discussed in Politico in that we expect to see in the Senate this
week. These are lifetime appointments.
2.
On Friday evening, news came out that the first
indictments have been filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the
Trump/Russia investigations – with approval from a federal grand jury -- with arrests to be made as early as
today. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-charges/first-charges-filed-in-u-s-special-counsels-russia-investigation-source-idUSKBN1CX00V More
information will be forthcoming and many are seeing a connection to the
administration’s Friday and Saturday flurry about Clinton
and the Russia uranium deal – trying to muddy the waters as much as possible.
Before whatever is ahead, let’s take a moment to thank Mueller and his team for
stepping into this time in history under immense pressure: https://www.justice.gov/contact-us Let’s also contact our MoCs and ask them to
protect Mueller’s investigative role.
3.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has affirmed the
White House position that all of Trump’s sixteen accusers regarding sexual
assault and harassment are lying:https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/27/donald-trump-sexual-harassment-claims-women-lying-white-house Let’s
be in touch with Huckabee Sanders to ask how she has such confidence: The White
House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 20500 or on Twitter
@PressSec We can consider listing the numbers 1-16 on our
communications.
4.
Now that Senators Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Bob Corker (R-TN),
and John McCain (R-AZ) have made clear their belief that Trump is unfit for the
presidency, let’s hold their feet to the fire. Let’s A) Ask
Corker, who is head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to hold hearings
on Trump’s erosion of America’s position in the world, and B) Ask all three to
(1) support the Special Counsel Integrity Act (S.1741) protecting the
investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, (2) support the Restricting
First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 (S.200) that checks the power of the
president to launch nuclear weapons unilaterally, and (3) be ready to support impeachment.
A) Flake: 202-224-4521 https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff B) Corker: 202-224-3344 or https://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailme C) McCain: 202-224-2235 or https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form (Hat
tip: New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/opinion/thank-you-jeff-flake.html)
5.
The contract between Whitefish and Puerto Rico Electric
Power Authority (PREPA) has been made public, and there are many aspects of it
that are highly concerning http://n.pr/2gNpZgA The
language within asserts that FEMA approved of the contract, which FEMA
disputes. The contract also prohibits audits on "the cost and profit
elements" its labor rates, which creates a highly concerning lack of
transparency, as well as a concern for price gouging. Two House committees and
a federal watchdog group have opened investigations into the deal, with
numerous members of Congress in both chambers noting their own concerns http://bit.ly/2hk9ANJ San
Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz has called for the deal to be voided
altogether http://bit.ly/2llAjxZ Let's
contact our MoC and ask that they speak out against the deal between Whitefish
and PREPA, and that they follow Mayor Cruz's lead in asking for the contract to
be voided.
6.
Let's take a look at two of the extremist judicial
nominees we anticipate we'll see in the Senate early this week through the
letters of opposition written about them by the Leadership Conference on Civil
and Human Rights to the Senate. 1) Amy Coney Barrett
- (full letter here) "Professor
Barrett’s statements and writings reveal a strong bias against reproductive
freedom and LGBT rights." Her record demonstrates a dangerous
lack of deference to long-standing precedent and judicial restraint." We
are expecting a cloture vote TODAY to limited debate on Barrett. 2) Allison Eid
- (full letter here.) "As a member of the Colorado Supreme Court
since 2006, Justice Eid has a demonstrated record of conservative
extremism. She has consistently rejected civil rights and public interest
claims, often in dissent." We need to call our Senators TODAY to
tell them that we oppose extremists Barrett and Eid for the US Courts.
7.
Nominee to the the 3rd Circuit Court, Stephanos Bibas,
needs to be carefully questioned by Senators on his record per the Alliance
for Justice (AFJ). "In more recent year, in his
academic writings, Bibas also has taken troubling positions on mass
incarceration, people addicted to drugs, and certain core constitutional
protections. For example, Bibas has minimized racial disparities in the
criminal justice system and stated that drug addiction was not a disease but
rather something that people could choose to overcome. Moreover, Bibas has
questioned the propriety of the Miranda doctrine and argued against robust
habeas corpus protections." Let's ask our Senators to ask for more
clarification of specific issues that concern us.
8.
The fourth nominee that Mitch McConnell will try to
confirm this week is Joan Larsen. The Alliance
for Justice writes "Significantly, Larsen has written about
presidential power in ways that suggest she would not act as an independent
check on the Executive Branch, an issue of particular import at a time when the
President publicly lambasts judges and demonstrates repeated disdain for the
rule of law." Let's tell our Senators that we need to continue to have an
independent judiciary and that we oppose Joan Larsen.
State Actions
1.
ID: Put Medicaid Expansion on the November 2018 ballot!
The grassroots group Reclaim Idaho is collecting 48,000 signatures to get a
direct voter referendum on the ballot which, if it passes, will extend
affordable health care to 78,000 Idahoans. If we’re in Idaho, let’s offer to
sign and to volunteer by writing to reclaimidaho@gmail.com, and let’s consider donating at:
https://squareup.com/store/reclaimidaho . More Info:
2.
ALL: ACLU's People Power has launched the Let the
People Vote campaign. The campaign focuses efforts on voting rights, as well as
ensuring that each state is implementing key modernizations to voting, such as
automatic voter registration, online registration, no-reason absentee voting,
and more. People Power has constructed an action plan for each state. Let's
sign up with People Power and learn about how we can pressure our state
legislators to expand voting rights https://vote.peoplepower.org/getinvolved
3.
VA: If we’re not going to be around for the big November
7, 2017, election, let’s be sure to get our absentee ballot! The deadline to
request that an absentee ballot be mailed to us is 5PM tomorrow,
October 31, 2017. Let’s apply here: https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/absentee-voting/ ,
and let’s spread the word!
Other Actions
1.
This article provides an interesting perspective on why
the Resistance has been less engaged about Ralph Northam’s bid for governor in
Virginia than we were in the Ossoff congressional race in Georgia: https://www.apnews.com/fa3b81a105f34aaf9ad325a0ace63f0a/Power-of-anti-Trump-resistance-in-question-in-Virginia-race This
race has consequences on many fronts including gerrymandering so let’s do what
we can before the November 7th polls open: https://ralphnortham.com
2.
Don’t boo. Vote! Of all the actions we take,
nothing—nothing—is more important than voting. In every election. Local.
Statewide. National. Let’s use these tools from the League
of Women Voters to register to vote and get personalized voting
information. And let’s encourage others to do the same by sharing this
link: http://www.vote411.org/home
3.
On October 20th, Los Angeles' KFI morning radio host
Bill Handel called Representative Frederica Wilson, who has been outspoken
against Trump, a "cheap, sleazy, Democrat whore" http://bit.ly/2yZ3Pi4 Since
then, Handel has only offered a defensive clarification, saying that he should
have referred to Representative Wilson as a "media whore" http://bit.ly/2yXTEsh Meanwhile,
as Trump continues his own attacks on Representative Wilson, she has been
receiving multiple death threats http://bit.ly/2id9SWp It is clear that Handel's words
do real damage, and the lack of action from KFI and iHeartMedia Inc. is
unacceptable. Let's join Color of Change in asking that iHeartMedia fire Bill
Handel immediately. We can contact iHeartMedia by phone: (210) 822-2828 mail: 6222
W Interstate 10, San Antonio, Texas 78209 or send KFI a message: https://kfiam640.iheart.com/contact/ We
can also sign Color of Change's petition http://bit.ly/2iIctLP
4.
We have appealed unsuccessfully to Scott Pruitt and the
EPA not to yield to chemical industry lobbyists and change (or refuse to
implement) rules governing the use of pesticides, including the dangerous
chlorpyrifos marketed by Dow Chemical, the infamous producer of napalm B and
(with Monsanto) of Agent Orange for the U.S. military. (A brief but horrifying
account of the effects of chlorpyrifos, especially on children, is here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/28/opinion/sunday/chlorpyrifos-dow-environmental-protection-agency.html)
Dow has a long history of ignoring the impact of its products on human beings
as long as they remain profitable. Maybe it is time to barrage Dow with
phone calls, faxes, letters, postcards (with copies to the EPA) demanding that
they stop flooding the country (and the world) with dangerous chemicals: 1-989-636-1000 or FAX 1-989-832-1456 or Andrew N. Liveris, CEO,
Dow Chemical, 627-693 Washington St., Midland, MI 48640
5.
Postcards to Voters launched Campaign #27
for Kelly DeLucia,
Virginia House of Delegates. Voters in Virginia's 96th House District will
have their first chance to vote for a Democrat to the House of Delegates since
2007. Returning writers may text KELLY to (484) ASK-ABBY which is (484) 275-2229 and get
addresses right away, 24/7 with an emailed courtesy copy for added convenience.
If we are new, we can send an email to: JOIN@TonyTheDemocrat.org
We can also check out the new Postcards to Voters website at https://postcardstovoters.org/ for
more information about the organization and the people involved.
6.
One League of Women Voters group in North Carolina
found a fun way to raise funds. They are
holding the inaugural Gerrymander 5k this weekend. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/10/26/voting_rights_group_holds_gerrymander_fun_run_in_north_carolina.html If we are looking for something new to fund
resistance activities, let’s take a look at this!
Petitions
1.
Barack Obama is on a MISSION to get more Democrats out
to vote! Let’s sign up to help him:
http://go.turnoutpac.org/page/s/stand-with-president-obama
2.
Stop Trump from putting a campaign donor's interests
ahead of the people of Puerto Rico: https://us.e-activist.com/page/3732/action/1
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms
to attend/organize
1.
There is concern on several fronts that now that
arrests will be made because of the Mueller investigation that Trump will try
to fire Mueller. https://lawnewz.com/high-profile/is-trump-looking-for-an-excuse-to-fire-mueller-before-hes-impeached/
This has been a concern before and rapid response teams are already on alert in
many parts of the country. Let’s check
here to see more information such as materials, press, partners and to see if
there is an event scheduled close to us, or if we should create one https://www.trumpisnotabovethelaw.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/search/
2.
Warning: There
are marches being planned for November 4 organized by Refuse Fascism. These rallies aren't planned or endorsed by any
of the major, organized Resistance groups like Women's March, MoveOn, etc. It
is an outgrowth of the Revolutionary Communist Party and we will not
participate.
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, " The feelings of anxiety and
fear amid continued chaos and eroding norms were palpable in this
second-consecutive, record-setting week. The Trump regime continued their
attacks on rights and protections, while the Republican Party split deepened
after a historic anti-Trump/save our country speech by Senator Jeff
Flake. The week closed with the unexpected news that the Mueller probe has
produced its first results: charges filed in federal court. The news provided
the first relief, and possible accountability after unending news of corruption,
incompetence and kleptocracy. The humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico worsened
amid news of an insider-deal and cover-ups, as Trump continued to turn a blind
eye of indifference." " Let's review Amy Siskind's list week 50
2.
In follow-up to recent news story, an update: the
school district in Biloxi, Mississippi was going to be striking To Kill a
Mockingbird from their curriculum because it makes some people uncomfortable.
Now, following public outcry, it will remain in the curriculum but with
permission slips from parents and alternative options: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/28/mississippi-to-kill-a-mockingbird-harper-lee
3.
Before we get too excited about Hollywood, Weinstein,
and celebrity sexual harassment, it is worth listening to Lin Farley, an
originator of the term, talk about the widespread but largely-ignored use of
sexual harassment as a way of controlling the young, female, low-wage
workforce: http://www.wnyc.org/story/sexual-harassment-revisited/
4.
And, as always, our weekly dose of Small
Victories which now has its own webpage:
https://www.celebratesmallvictories.com/,
and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SmVictories/
and Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/SmVictories
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