3/12/18
Contact Federal Government Officials
********************************
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
consider sixteen (16) bills this week starting Tuesday. Let's check out
the Majority Leader's Schedule so we know what's coming.
2.
On
Monday, the Senate will convene at 4:00 p.m. to resume consideration
of S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and
Consumer Protection Act. The Leadership Conference, a civil rights coalition,
opposes S2155 because it "would undermine one of our nation’s key civil
rights laws and weaken consumer protections enacted after the 2008 financial
crisis." We can read the Leadership Conference's letter of
opposition here. Let's tell our own Senators that we oppose
bank de-regulating act S2155.
3.
Federal
government funding runs out again on March 23.
Instead of doing another stop-gap measure, Congress is working on an
omnibus spending bill which would last through the fiscal year. As usual, many riders are being discussed and
need to be watched: https://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/omnibus-spending-bill-riders Let’s
make sure our MoCs know how we feel about some of these riders.
4.
Saudi
Arabia’s campaign in Yemen has been marked by war crimes and has led
to the deaths of thousands of civilians and a worsening humanitarian
crisis. Trump has not only continued to back Saudi Arabia, he’s expanded American support for their war, despite the fact that Congress has never
authorized our involvement in the conflict in the first place. A bipartisan
group of senators led by Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders is going to use a
procedure under the War Powers Resolution to force a vote on the Senate floor
to stop Trump’s war in Yemen (S.J.
Res. 54),
and that vote may come as soon as LATER TODAY. http://thehill.com/policy/defense/377457-experts-urge-senators-to-support-sanders-lee-bill-on-ending-us-involvement-in Let’s contact our senators and let them know
we want them to support this effort. We can use talking points and call scripts
from Indivisible here.
5.
Rep.
Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) has introduced the Securing Our Elections Act, (H.R.
5147)
which authorizes emergency funding to make sure that every state can adopt a
voter-verified paper trail by the midterm elections in 2018. Let’s ask our
representatives to co-sponsor this important legislation.
6.
For
reasons no one can fully understand, the Trump administration is not taking the
Russian election meddling seriously and our top US commander in Europe is
concerned: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/russia-cyberattacks-election-2018-curtis-scaparrotti-congress-a8246691.html Let’s
make sure our MoCs know that we are concerned, too, and that we need to step up
our congressional investigations.
7.
Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Land Management have submitted a
proposal to repeal the Waste Prevention Rule, an Obama-era rule which reduces
methane emissions http://bit.ly/2EqdvG8 While the courts have struck down
Zinke's efforts to delay the implementation of the original Waste Prevention
Rule, his proposal in the Federal Register is a separate attack which is open
to comments until April 23rd http://bit.ly/2FsWFDV There are currently less than forty
comments on the proposal; let's change this. We can submit our own comment
directly:
http://bit.ly/2Hrgtrh or we can use a form letter through the
Sierra Club https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0106930&id
8.
22
senators have introduced the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which would
legalize discrimination, so long as a person claims "religious
belief" http://bit.ly/2FHStml The bill would protect individuals
"on the basis that such person speaks, or acts, in accordance with a sincerely
held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be
recognized as a union of one man and one woman, or two individuals as
recognized under Federal law, or that sexual relations outside marriage are
improper." If our senator is one of the cosponsors, let's be sure to give
them a call and express our disgust that they would sign on to a bill which
violates free speech and the Equal Protection Clause (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/equal_protection). We can read the bill and find the
cosponsors here: https://www.scribd.com/document/373318007/FADA
9.
“From
Brussels to Tokyo to Capitol Hill, the White House faces backlash over its
steel and aluminum duties.” https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/11/trump-tariffs-trade-international-405685 Sen.
Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has announced he will propose a bill to negate these
tariffs: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/377477-flake-to-introduce-bill-to-nullify-trumps-tariffs Let’s
ask our senators to sign on as co-sponsors and support stopping these tariffs.
10. The president’s infrastructure plan is
hitting a wall in Congress due to Republican opposition to fund it through
gasoline taxes. http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/377681-trumps-infrastructure-push-hits-wall-in-congress. Senate Democrats have released an alternative
infrastructure plan that would be financed by eliminating some of the recent
tax breaks given to the 1%. According to an article in Politico, the Democrats’ proposal would “raise the
top individual tax rate to 39.6 percent, set the corporate tax rate at 25
percent, go back to 2017 law for the Alternative Minimum Tax, undo the
exemption increase for the estate tax and end the beneficial tax treatment of
carried interest.” Let’s tell our MoCs that we want to see the benefits of the
recent tax bill focused on Main Street, not on Wall St., and that this is a
sound way of addressing our infrastructure issues.
11.
Russian
leader Vladimir Putin made headlines this weekend by suggesting that Jews were
responsible for the 2016 hacking of the U.S. election,
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/after-putin-says-jews-may-be-behind-meddling-lawmakers-urge-sanctions-1.5889309 and
again the President is silent, as he was in Charlottesville, when he suggested
that there might be “very
fine people on both sides.” In a year where anti-Semitic
incidents have risen by 60%, faster than any other time in the
last 40 years, we
must urge the White House to publicly denounce hate speech and put much needed
sanctions on Russia, as Congress has directed them to. We should also tell our
MoCs to publicly denounce Putin’s remarks and keep up the pressure on this very
important issue.
12. From one of our own: A provision in the House-passed Homeland
Security reauthorization bill [H.R.
2825] would
allow Trump to send Secret Service agents to polling places on Election Day.
This provision is not in the Senate version [S.
1103] &
CANNOT stand when the bills get reconciled. https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/03/09/top-elections-officials-raise-alarm-over-allowing-trump-new-authority-over-polling-places/qvdmfTe7N7AFZXl0k4CwEO/story.html
Election 2018 –
General
1.
Our next
chance to flip a House seat will be on April 24th, when Democratic
nominee and emergency room doctor and cancer researcher Hiral Tipirneni will face off against the scandal-tarred Republican
former state senator Debbie Lesko. Dr. Tipirneni wants to expand Medicare
access, protect Social Security and the right to choose and block funding for
Trump’s border wall. Senator Lesko is an advocate for school vouchers who
opposes common sense gun control measures (http://www.peoriatimes.com/news/article_9fba784a-2236-11e8-a854-bb183615413f.html). Postcards to Voters is helping turn out
voters for Dr. Tipirneni! Let’s check out the details and then sign up to help
with this or other P2V campaigns here: https://postcardstovoters.org/2018/03/09/hiral/.
2.
Postcards
to Voters is currently running three (3) campaigns. 1) NY- Campaign 58: Shelley Mayer for State Senate. 2)
FL- Campaign 59: Ricky Shirah for State House 3) AZ-Campaign 60: Dr. Hiral Tipirneni for US
Congress. Returning writers may text WIN 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
to this effective grassroots effort to help get out the vote, we can
email: Join@TonyTheDemocrat.org OR text JOIN to (484)
ASK-ABBY.
3.
Democrat
Conor Lamb is up by four points in the polls in the Pennsylvania Special
Election (March 13th) for the Congressional seat in District 18 but,
according to The Economist, is “likely to lose”: http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/377579-poll-dem-leads-by-4-points-in-pa-special-election and https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21738400-still-consistent-idea-democratic-wave-conor-lamb-likely-lose In other words, the election actually
needs to happen and people need to get to the polls. Thanks to all who
supported Lamb via writing for Postcards to Voters. If you are on the ground in
PA, please engage in Get Out The Vote efforts and if not, please consider a
donation to help support these “day of” efforts: https://conorlamb.com
4.
Millions
of young voters of color who voted for Obama in 2012 didn’t vote at all in the
2016 presidential election—and they’re not being courted they way older, white
voters are. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/obama-trump-voters-democrats.html
Let’s contact (google for info) the campaigns of our Democratic
candidates for Congress and statewide offices and tell them that we care that
the voices of these voters are heard, and we expect them to campaign in their
schools and communities.
Election 2018 –
By State
1.
PA: Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13, voters in
the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District will choose their next U.S.
representative. If we live in the district, let’s make sure we get out and vote
for Democratic nominee Conor Lamb. If we don’t, let’s send Trump and
Lamb’s “Trump Before Trump Was Trump” opponent Rick Saccone a message by
helping Conor get out the vote! We can sign up to make phone calls here or send texts to voters here.
2.
TN—State
Senate District 14 has a special election tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13.
Let’s be voters for Democrat Gayle Jordan, http://gaylejordanforsenatetn14.com/ . Election day voting locations are on
her website: http://gaylejordanforsenatetn14.com/voting-polling-locations/
3.
MI: Dan O'Neil is running to become the first
Democrat ever elected to the 104th State House seat. There will be a
volunteer event this Sunday afternoon, March 18th from 2 to 3:30
pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse. Dan will
be there to answer questions and provide an update on the campaign. Come out
and meet the team and find out how you can help. We will begin direct voter
outreach in April! If you can’t make that date, there is another on
March 19th from 6 to 7:30 pm. Sign up here to come to one or the
other: http://signup.com/go/AuyVhoi For more information and to connect
with the campaign, visit our website or Facebook
page.
Other Actions
1.
The
example set by West Virginia’s teachers is inspiring educators across the
country to stand up for better pay and benefits. Last week, Oklahoma’s teachers
announced that they will go on strike on April 2nd if the legislature
doesn’t agree to a pay raise before then (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-oklahoma-teachers-20180308-story.html). Let’s show our teachers we have their
backs. We can pledge to stand with them at this link, and help amplify their message on social
media by following the Oklahoma Education Association on Twitter. And those of us who live in Oklahoma can
contact our legislators and let them know we want them to pay our teachers what
they’re worth: http://www.oklegislature.gov/FindMyLegislature.aspx.
2.
From one
of our own: If you're a high school
student, teacher, or administrator walking out on April 20 and would
like pizza delivered to your school, please register by clicking here: https://pizzasaves.org/
3.
This is
National Public Schools week. Network for Public Education has a few things we can do to celebrate the
week and demonstrate the power of public education: https://networkforpubliceducation.org/2018/03/10332/
4.
Bass Pro
Shops are not making changes to their business practices in the vein of Dick's
Sporting Goods and Walmart (http://footwearnews.com/2018/business/retail/bass-pro-shops-semi-automatic-rifles-walmart-dicks-sporting-goods-509890/). We can boycott Bass Pro's brick and
mortar stores (https://stores.basspro.com/search.html), restaurants (https://stores.basspro.com/search.html?), Cabela's stores (Bass subsidary)
5.
(https://www.cabelas.com/stores/stores_home.jsp#StoresByState), and boating centers (https://www.bassproboatingcenters.com/dealer-locations.html). We can urge friends who patronize these
brands (or who like them on Facebook) to drop them.
6.
A newly
formed Facebook group, My Voice! My Vote! (https://www.facebook.com/groups/153895975255202/), is a hub for Spanish speaking volunteer
opportunities of textbanking or phonebanking. If we speak Spanish, we can use
our skills to help get out the vote and engage in candidate outreach to
Spanish-speaking communities everywhere. (From https://www.solidaritysundays.org/)
7.
California
Congressman Adam Schiff has written a strong op-ed for the LA Times about what
Democrats need to do to win the midterms: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-schiff-how-democrats-can-win-midterms-20180309-story.html Let’s share with our local party
affiliate organizations and get involved there to do our part in the blue wave.
8.
The
Movement for Black Lives will be hosting a webinar today at 8pm ET,
highlighting the Electoral Justice League https://ejp.m4bl.org/ The League is "a paid fellowship
for Black organizers to gain campaign and advocacy skills." Let's check it
out! http://bit.ly/ejpJLw1
9.
The New
York Times has launched the Overlooked project; newly-written obituaries of
remarkable women who were never duly recognized by the newspaper
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked.html Overlooked is slated to be a recurring
feature in the NYT. If we know of someone who never received an obituary, and
meets the criteria for the Overlooked project, we can nominate them here:
http://nyti.ms/2G6wxiF
10. “Announcing an additional 700 million euros
investment for solar-energy, French President Emmanuel Macron, at the first
International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit here (New Delhi) on
Sunday, called for "joint duties" for a "planet that has
to be shared". Speaking at the summit, Macron said that while some (the
US) decided just to leave the Paris Agreement, others decided to act because
they wish good for their children and grandchildren.” https://www.socialnews.xyz/2018/03/11/macron-announces-700mn-euros-to-solar-power-at-isa/ FYI,
last year France paid the 2 million euros to U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change that tRump refused to pay after leaving the Paris’s Climate
Agreement. We can thank President Macron by sending him a Tweet here
@EmmanuelMacron for his continued dedication to health of our planet.
11.
Storytelling
is at the heart of social change. If we are running for office, working for
policy changes or want to effectively advocate for change, we can learn how
to,use stories to change hearts and minds. The Center for Story-based
Strategy has an excellent outline of storytelling applied to strategy, in which
we can analyze the current narrative, determine our strategy for intervention,
take action, and then reflect on our results:
https://www.storybasedstrategy.org/intro-to-sbs
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to
attend/organize
1.
Wednesday, March 14th, is the
17-minute #ENOUGH National School Walkout all over the country coordinated by
Women’s March Empower youth group. Let’s check here to see if there
is an event near us: https://www.womensmarch.com/enough
2.
Wednesday, March 14th at 7:30pm
EDT, there will be an organizing tele-conference with Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war
activist, whose son was killed by enemy action during the Iraq r, regarding to
the upcoming Women’s
March on the Pentagon on October 20-21, 2018. More details here: https://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2018/03/womens-march-on-pentagon-organizing.html
States
1.
A rider
has been added to a Homeland Security bill to give federal presence (via
avenues like the Secret Service) with the president’s authority at polling
places. Many Secretaries of State have already spoken up about this
authoritarian move:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/03/09/top-elections-officials-raise-alarm-over-allowing-trump-new-authority-over-polling
places/qvdmfTe7N7AFZXl0k4CwEO/story.html Let’s contact our own Secretaries of
State (or Commonwealth) – names can be found on this link:
2.
https://ballotpedia.org/Secretary_of_State_(state_executive_office) (unless we live in Alaska, Hawaii, or
Utah which does not have the position) and our MoC to express our concerns
about this rider.
3.
Check this
map
from Verified Voter to see if your state has adopted a tracking system to make
sure our votes are secure, accurate and audible. Then, if necessary, contact
your state legislators here and ask them to push for trackable voting
before the 2018 elections.
4.
NY: As
students prepare for school walkouts, the New York City Department of Education
has prepared a guide for students and parents. Absence policies, ways to
proceed in an orderly fashion and ways to have respectful discussions are all
covered on this page, along with a letter on attendance to parents in several
languages. http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/schools/Safety
Reading/Watching
1.
“How to Tell If a Bill Is Serious With 5 Tips” -
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-tell-if-a-bill-is-serious-with-5-tips
2.
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, "This week, Trump acted like
a dictator, taking policy matters into his own hands. After praising China’s
President Xi for ending term limits, Trump took controversial actions, imposing
tariffs and setting up a meeting with Kim Jong-un — both
against his party’s
positions, and taken after foregoing or ignoring experts’ and allies’
advice." Let's review Amy
Siskind's list week 69.
3.
And, as usual, our weekly dose of Small
Victories: https://mailchi.mp/peaceisloud/small-victories-anybody-can-do-it
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.