7/5/18
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.
Late in
the day on July 3rd, before the holiday break, Republican Senator
Richard Burr quietly released the current report from the Senate Intelligence
Committee which reinforces the conclusion of our intelligence community that
Russia meddled in our election in 2016: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/03/senate-intelligence-russia-election-meddling-692616 Let’s let our MoC know that the timing
of the report did not escape our attention and that it is past time for them to
stand up to our “Fake News/Witch Hunt” president who has plans to meet with
Putin alone in mid-July.
2.
On the
same day the Senate Intelligence Committee saying that Russia meddled in our
2016 election, a group of GOP senators met with Russian officials in Russia
hoping to make nice, then asked that no American media be present. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/republican-lawmakers-come-to-moscow-raising-hopes-there-of-us-russia-thaw/2018/07/03/1213130c-7e94-11e8-b0ef-fffcabeff946_story.html?utm_term=.1c889a908e31 Let’s
tell these GOP senator that this is not normal and want them to explain
themselves: @SenJohnKennedy (LA), @SenShelby
(AL), @SteveDaines (MT), @SenJohnHoeven (ND), @SenJohnThune (SD), @JerryMoran
(KS), and @RepKayGranger (TX)
3.
On
Tuesday, the DOJ and the Education Department rescinded Obama-era federal
guidance documents concerning race-based college admissions policies and
guidelines which stressed that public school districts may employ “generalized
race-based approaches” when race-neutral approaches are not “workable.”
Although schools are nearly as segregated as they were in 1954 (http://www.newsweek.com/2018/03/30/school-segregation-america-today-bad-1960-855256.html) the DOJ deemed these 24 guidance documents
"unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise
improper":
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/03/trump-end-obama-affirmative-action-692610 We might point out the dramatic lack of
progress in desegregation in the US to AG Jeff Sessions and the Education
Department's new civil rights chief, Kenneth Marcus: Department of Justice, 950
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001 or 202-353-1555; Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20202 or
1-800-872-5327. Let's send them the Newsweek article!
4.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had this to say about school shootings: “I
don’t think at the federal level there’s much that we can do other than
appropriate funds.”https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mcconnell-there-s-not-much-federal-government-can-do-respond-n888676 Let’s let Senator McConnell know
that we find his impotence on this issue untenable and that other nations like
the UK and Australia have figured this out at the federal level: https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactform or on Twitter @SenateMajLdr
5.
Axios
has obtained a copy of a drafted piece of legislation from the Trump
administration, which would enable the president to bypass Congress and ignore
World Trade Organization agreements in order to establish or raise tariffs (https://bit.ly/2KzdO0x) While the acronym of the United States Fair
and Reciprocal Tariff act is ripe for mockery (https://read.bi/2KuNx7s), let's be sure to tell our MoC that the
content of the bill is what is most shocking; the president should not have
unilateral power, nor should he be immune to global trade rules.
6.
From Moms Rising: This
is wonky, but important. The NRA is trying to pull another fast one. The NRA
and gun manufacturers want guns everywhere, for everyone, not just here in the
United States, but around the world. They are pushing hard for a
rule change that would move the handling of export licenses of semiautomatic
assault weapons and other powerful firearms from the U.S. State Department
(focused on safeguarding our nation) to the U.S. Commerce Department (focused
on promoting American business). This transfer of authority would open new
floodgates for arms sales internationally, with serious implications for our
national security. http://thehill.com/regulation/368425-planned-shift-on-gun-exports-kicks-up-storm We
can submit comments now to the State Department and the Commerce Department
opposing this rule change: 1) U.S.
Department of State: https://action.momsrising.org/go/38289?t=6&akid=11004%2E2464717%2EHXCH6G, and 2) U.S. Department of Commerce:
7.
In a
rare moment of bipartisanship, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15-6 on the
Creates Act (S 974), a bill that would stop enabling large
pharmaceutical companies from preventing generic drugs from entering the
market. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/395334-creates-act-will-bring-lower-priced-prescription-drugs-to. Let’s make sure our Senators know that we
reject big pharma’s bogus claims that only their branded drugs are safe, and we
want them to vote for lower-priced generic drug options.
8.
The
stakes of this Supreme Court fight are clear: senators who vote to confirm
Trump's nominee are voting to overturn Roe v. Wade. To remind them of this,
some activists have been sending coathangers to Senator Susan Collins (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/coat-hangers-susan-collins/). Let's join them in sending them to our own
senators - along with a message that we expect them to defend the right to
choose. And let's post on social media about it with the hashtags #SaveSCOTUS
and #RogansHeroes.
9.
The
Voting Rights Advancement Act S1419/HR 2978 would require states that have passed
restrictive voting laws that disproportionately affect minority and low-income
Americans to seek approval from the Department of Justice before making any
further changes. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-06-22/house-democrats-move-to-restore-key-provisions-of-the-voting-rights-act. The bill has strong Democratic support but
not a single Republican has signed on. Let’s call our Republican MoCs and ask
them on this day after Independence Day to show their patriotism by signing on
to an act that will enable more people to vote.
10. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) had to
cancel several appearances due to death threats, after she suggested that
people non-violently confront administration officials to express their
disagreement with the president’s policies. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/28/politics/maxine-waters-threatened/index.html. She has also been repeatedly trashed by the
president, who falsely claimed that she had threatened physical harm to his
supporters. Let’s thank Rep. Waters (202 225-2201) for continuing to speak truth to power, as she did this weekend at the Keep Families Together Rally in LA,
and tell our MoCs that they should be speaking out in her defense. We should
remind them, as this Politifact article points out, that the president’s long
history of bullying and inciting people to violence are clearly the root of the
problem.
11.
In yet
another bite into our national park system, Trump wants to open part of Minnesota’s
Superior National Forest, on the edge of the Boundary Waters, to mining. The
mining industry is happy. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/trump-vows-to-open-minnesota-s-superior-national-forest-to-mines Let’s
join a number of environmental and business entities (https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/environmental-groups-slam-trumps-plans-for-superior-national-forest-mining) and tell Trump and the Department of the Interior
(https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/u-s-department-of-the-interior) to let our natural resources stay natural.
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.
Florida
still has a literal Jim Crow law on the books that denies more than one million
people, disproportionately people of color, the right to vote - permanent
felony disenfranchisement. Fortunately, we have a chance to fight back and
overturn it at the ballot box this fall (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/the-slave-power-behind-floridas-felon-disenfranchisement/552269/). We can do our part from anywhere in the
country by signing up to phone bank here, and now by signing up to text here.
2.
Postcards
To Voters posts results of each of its campaigns and we can see how 92 of them
turned out here. While we love the wins, we've learned from
the losses and gained postcard volunteers from those districts. Campaign 93: Danny O'Connor for US Congress in Ohio's 12th
Congressional District is going on now. We have an opportunity to help flip
this Central Ohio seat and bring new Ohio volunteers into our postcarding
efforts. If we're new to this effort, we can sign up here or send an email to
JOIN@TonyTheDemocrat.org.
Election 2018 –
By State
1.
Upcoming
voting dates and deadlines:
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
|
July 12
|
New York <state level>
|
Filing Deadline
|
|
July 12
|
Hawaii
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary
|
July 13
|
Tennessee
|
Early Voting begins
|
Primary
|
July 15
|
Wisconsin
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary (postmark)
|
July 17
|
Kansas
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary
|
July 17
|
Alabama
|
Election date
|
Runoffs
|
July 17
|
North Carolina (FED ONLY)
|
Election date
|
Runoffs
|
July 20
|
Louisiana
|
Filing Deadline
|
|
July 22
|
Alaska
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary
|
July 23
|
Georgia
|
Early voting ends
|
runoffs
|
July 24
|
Minnesota
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary
|
July 24
|
Georgia
|
Election date
|
Runoffs
|
July 28
|
Tennessee
|
Early Voting ends
|
Primary
|
July 30
|
Arizona
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary
|
July 30
|
Florida
|
Voter Registration Deadline
|
Primary
|
July 30
|
Arkansas
|
Early Voting begins
|
State Senate Dist 8
|
July 30
|
Hawaii
|
Early Voting begins
|
Primary
|
July 31
|
Kansas
|
Early Voting begins
|
Primary
|
(source: by date:
https://goo.gl/gjFv2u by
state: https://goo.gl/7gTzvE)
Other Actions
1. After
Alex Jones suggested that it appeared that the left was going to start another
civil war, social media took its cue and had some fun. Before long
#SecondCivilWar and @secondcivilwarletters became popular hashtags. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/395417-social-media-trolls-alex-jones-with-second-civil-war-letters and https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/03/no-place-to-recharge-my-kindle-letters-imagine-the-front-lines-of-americas-second-civil-war/?utm_term=.19b7225f4c18
For a bit of much-needed levity, we can search those hashtags in Facebook and
Twitter.
2.
Our
MoCs are still on home recess, but let’s not let them forget that we have not
forgotten the created crisis at our southern border and the fleeing immigrants,
including children, scattered all over the country. Now that a judge has ruled some of these asylum-seeker
detentions as wrong, hopefully we will see some more humane treatment. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/07/02/judge-rules-trump-administration-has-been-wrongly-detaining-asylum-seekers/753151002/ Let’s
use Indivisible’s #FamiliesBelongTogether
Recess Action Toolkit to
make some “good trouble”.
3. Northeastern
University has a contract with the Division of Homeland Security to develop
Exploratory Methods Mapping technology. https://www.usaspending.gov/#/award/23830676.
The university claims this will be used for weapons trafficking, but it can
just as easily be used to expand surveillance on immigrants and communities of
color. Let’s sign this action network
petition and remind Northeastern that it’s immoral
for anyone to have a contract with the ICE after what they are doing to
families. We can also contact the President of Northeastern,
particularly, if we have a university affiliation, to express our concerns.
Northeastern University has a contract with the Division of Homeland Security
to develop Exploratory Methods Mapping technology. https://www.usaspending.gov/#/award/23830676.
The university claims this will be used for weapons trafficking, but it can
just as easily be used to expand surveillance on immigrants and communities of
color. Let’s sign this action network
petition and remind Northeastern that it’s immoral
for anyone to have a contract with the ICE after what they are doing to
families. We can also contact the President of Northeastern,
particularly, if we have a university affiliation, to express our concerns.
4. Wondering
about the utility of all the postcard writing we are doing for candidates? This
is a good overview: https://demwritepress.com/2018/07/03/old-is-new-again-as-activists-use-handwritten-postcards-for-voter-outreach/ Let’s
keep on!
5. Christ
Church Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Indianapolis, Indiana, has
"detained" Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a cage on their lawn in protest
of the Republican administration's immigration policies. The
Rev. Stephen Carlsen, dean and rector of the church, said "This family is every family,
and every family is holy." Let's read more about this at the Indy Star.
Let's send postcards and emails of support to Christ Church Cathedral. If we attend Christian houses of
worship, is this a protest our own churches can copy?
6. “With
school out, a lot of teachers are thinking about a wave of protests that had
them walking off the job, demanding things like better pay and benefits and
more funding for public education. Some of those educators are now running for
public office and are on the ballot in North Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma,
Arizona, Colorado and in West Virginia where those strikes began. Still, others
wonder if what has been seen as a movement created by public school teachers
can translate to wins for seats in statehouses across the country.” https://www.npr.org/2018/07/02/625279409/w-va-teachers-campaign-for-public-office-during-summer-break
Republicans are claiming they gave the
pay raise to teachers but they are worried. Find the Democratic teacher candidates
in your district and give them some support.
7. From
one of our own: “… the latest Navigator report has some awesome information in
it, including what motivates progressives, how to fight exhaustion in our base
and which images are most persuasive in messaging against the administration.” https://navigatorresearch.org/images-and-ideas-to-engage-and-persuade/ Let’s take in this information and use it in
our resisting.
8. If
we are ready to update and hone our organizing skills, a newly revamped
Resistance School is ready for us with fresh new videos, techniques and tactics
to sharpen our skills and help us become even more effective. We can learn more
about Resistance School here and then sign up for online classes. Let Freedom
ring! https://www.resistanceschool.com/
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.
ALL: While many of us know that gerrymandering is
a problem, something that often goes under the radar is the issue of prison
gerrymandering, in which the census counts prisoners where they are
incarcerated, rather than at their home address. This artificially inflates the
population, giving more voting power and representation to those districts,
often white and rural, while taking it away from their home district (http://www.naacpldf.org/case/prison-based-gerrymandering). We can take
action to fix the problem at the state level; the Prison Gerrymandering Project has
information on where our state currently stands, along with legislation that
has been proposed, and model legislation we can send to our legislators as we
urge them to make sure that prisoners are counted correctly, in their home
district: https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/legislation.html
Reading/Watching
1.
Editorial by Jill Filipovic - Trump’s
worst enemy: Middle-aged Moms: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/opinions/trump-worst-enemy-middle-aged-moms-filipovic/index.html
2.
Governor David Ige on Tuesday signed
legislation which makes Hawaii the first U.S. state to enact a ban on
oxybenzone and octinoxate, ingredients in some sunscreen
products. Scientists have found the two substances can be toxic to coral
reefs which are a vital part of the ocean ecosystem. Between 6,000
and 14,000 tons of sunscreen are released onto coral reefs every
year. Let's read more at CBS News.
3.
The ACLU’s Anthony Romero recommends we read
this article to see how powerful the organization has become with our help and support.
He reminds us that, just last week, Trump signed an executive order ending
family separation – a policy that he had claimed he could do nothing about. And
then we solidified this win when the federal court ordered Trump to reunify the
thousands of families he tore apart. We the people made him back down with our
litigation and public outcry.” We can
read more about the ACLU’s battles here:
https://bitly.com/#
4.
It would behoove us to re-read the Declaration
of Independence in this July 4th week:
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