#500
Contact Federal Government Officials
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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 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/2tVn1sK, https://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 here, http://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
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Primary
|
|
July 6
|
Wyoming
|
In person absentee voting begins
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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.
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
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
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