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White House
contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house
o THIS
WEEK: The House will consider fourteen (14) bills
this week starting Monday. On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee will take up
concurrent resolution
H.Con.Res.24, expressing the sense of Congress that the
report of Special Counsel Mueller should be made available to the public and to
Congress. Let's mark our calendars: this hearing will be broadcast live at 5pm
ET on C-SPAN3. Let's review the week's agenda at The Weekly Leader. On
Monday, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Paul B.
Matey to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit. Alliance
For Justice opposes Matey's nomination. We can read their report here. The
Senate updates their schedule daily. We can check out the next day's events on
the Senate Floor Schedule.
o ADDITIONAL
WALL FUNDING: President Donald Trump on
Monday will request at least another $8.6 billion in funding to build more
sections of a wall along the Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress
less than one month after Trump declared a national emergency. The request will come as part of a broader
proposal that would call for major spending cuts across a range of domestic
government programs while seeking a large increase for the Pentagon. One senior
administration official said the $8.6 billion in additional funding, combined
with the money Trump is attempting to redirect with through national emergency
declaration, would allow the White House to complete at least 722 miles of new
barriers - a figure that has long been a White House goal. https://www.philly.com/politics/trump-demand-billions-us-mexico-border-wall-funding-congress-20190310.html We need to
let our governors, and MOCs know that we oppose any wall funding particularly
at the expense of domestic government programs. Feeding families and
supporting citizens that have true emergencies is more important than a Wall
built for vanity purposes.
o
IMMIGRANT FAMILY DETENTION: A pediatrician
visited a family detention center in Texas and had this to say, “I can tell you that what I saw was like no
summer camp I’ve ever been to. These women and children are in detention. What
will we do about it?” https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/03/05/doctor-sick-immigrant-children-border-detention-centers-captivity-conditions-column/3050522002/
He goes on to say, “detaining families
together is not a solution to separating immigrant parents from their children.
There are other safer options, like community-based alternatives, that are much
more effective. We need the government to be willing to implement and fund
them. I will continue speaking out on behalf of the immigrant children and
families in federal custody until I see policy solutions that prioritize their
health and do not worsen their suffering.”
Let’s join in his quest and ask our MoCs to start making positive
changes for these families.
o NATIONAL
SECURITY AND CORRUPTION: Unfortunately, the swamp keeps getting swampier. The
woman who used to own the “massage” parlor that was the location of Patriots’
owner Robert Kraft’s alleged crimes seems to be involved in a scheme to sell
access to Trump at Mar-A-Lago to Chinese businessmen. Also, many photos emerged
over the weekend of her with prominent Republicans:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/433342-founder-of-florida-massage-parlor-chain-reportedly-offered-chinese This story has both national
security and corruption implications and in any other administration would be a
scandal of epic proportions. Let’s let our MoC know that the presidency
of the United States is not a commodity and that our national security needs
actual guardians.
o VOTING
BILL: We knew it was coming, and now here it is.
Lobbyists and corporations are siding with Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP
against HR 1, and no wonder, because the For the People Act slams the
brakes on their dark-money clown car. https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/k-street-mounts-offensive-to-hr-1 https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/06/mcconnell-election-reform-bill-1207702
Let's tell our senators that we are average voters who
are among the 82 percent of Americans who want to see legislation
that takes money out of politics and ask
them to demand that Senator McConnell take the bill seriously and bring it up
for a floor vote, and/or to support Sen.Tom Udall's (D-NM) plan to introduce
a companion bill to HR1.
o WOMEN’S
HEALTH: We all know that access to good information, family
planning, birth control, and counseling are keys to low unwanted pregnancies
and abortions. With the US focusing on
abortion and not the prevention of pregnancies, abortion rates are rising
worldwide. https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-03-04/abortions-rise-worldwide-when-us-cuts-funding-women-s-health-clinics-study-finds Even when
abortion is outlawed, we know what really is outlawed are safe abortions. Let’s tell our MoCs that we need to be more
proactive in helping to prevent pregnancies.
o PUBLIC
COMMENT NEEDED: From one of our own: This week's list - two major items - the President's
proposed "climate security panel" - still to be officially announced
- to review and undo all the climate change work in government agencies,
contradicting science. Former military and national security leaders wrote a
letter to Trump this week pushing back. The
second major new item is that Dept of Interior has granted over 1600 waivers to
regulations in place to stop another Deepwater Horizon spill. I posted an
article from Union of Concerned Scientists about it. Oh, and they're taking
comment about exposing miners to diesel exhaust. Here's the link to the list - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QtwNYffWssS42B_KJjjaJup829-7Spft Let’s
check the list and see where we can be effective.
o DRONE
STRIKES: The administration has just
issued an executive order that revokes the Obama era guideline requiring the
military to report civilian deaths caused by drone strikes in non-combat areas.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-executive-order-stop-reporting-civilian-drone-strike-deaths-2019-3?. Let’s ask our MoCs to introduce legislation
that would require the military to report these deaths, as they are
required to do in combat areas.
o GMO
SALMON: The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration is now allowing salmon that are genetically engineered to grow
twice as fast as normal, arguing that the new GMO labeling law is sufficient in
alerting customers to make their own food choices. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/08/fda-salmon-1253697 and https://www.apnews.com/1be7085378684f4990e240870e7c546c. However, there’s nothing preventing this
salmon from being served at restaurants without the knowledge of the general
public, and the FDA allows GMO products to be labelled discreetly with QR
codes. Let’s ask our local grocery stores not to sell this product and ask
our MoCs to block this move until legislation is passed that requires all GMO
salmon be identified in both grocery stores and restaurants. For more
information on the health and environmental impacts of GMO Salmon, we can check
out The Center for Food Safety.
o SOCIAL
SECURITY DISABILITY: Once Trump insisted, he would “Save Medicare,
Medicaid and Social Security without cuts,” but his budgets have consistently
proposed reductions in the 60-year-old disability insurance program. “Do
you really think that Social Security disability insurance is part of what people
think of when they think of Social Security?” Mick Mulvaney asked in 2017; “I
don’t think so” he answered himself. Although the number of recipients of
SSDI has been declining since 2014, the average benefit is around $1199/month,
and the application process a nightmare (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/6/16735966/social-security-disability-insurance), the current administration is determined both to
cut SSDI and make it more difficult to obtain; the new regulation Trump and
friends plan for 2020 would, without Congressional approval, allow SSDI to
monitor social media to "catch" any SSDI recipient who appears less
disabled than they claim:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/us/politics/social-security-disability-trump-facebook.html These attacks on the privacy and the
financial security of the disabled must stop. Let’s tell the White
House and our MoCs to protect disabled workers who have, like all of us,
dutifully paid into Social Security throughout their working lives.
Election/Voting
o “So far in March, there are 22 elections scheduled.
If one of these is your district, make sure you vote! For everyone else, please
share this with your network to spread the word in order to increase awareness
and turnout!” Let’s let Political
Charge tell us about them and then let’s help where we can: https://politicalcharge.org/2019/02/28/elections-in-march-2019/
Other Actions
o RELATIVE
SENTENCES: Given the seemingly lenient sentence Manafort got,
there are now efforts to have others who have been sentenced to much longer
time for less crime. https://newsone.com/playlist/black-people-harsh-prison-sentences/
Take Crystal who voted while unaware that she
was not eligible. She is currently serving at least five years. Let’s ask Texas governor Greg Abbott to
pardon Crystal: https://gov.texas.gov/organization/financial-services/contact
o HIGH
SCHOOL ESSAY OPPORTUNITY: Americans United for
Separation of Church and State (AU) is
sponsoring a student essay contest for high school juniors and seniors. The
topic is “What can the next generation
do to counter these attacks and take action to protect the real meaning of
religious freedom and prevent our country from moving backward?” They are looking
for well-written, well-researched and original student writing, 750-1000
words, supported by specific examples and/or sources. Cash prizes will be
awarded, and the winning essay will be published in AU's monthly magazine. We
can find out more about the topic and rules here. The entry
deadline is May 1. Let's tell the young writers and teachers in our lives
about this opportunity.
o CONTINUING
CHANGES: 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, "A shocking story
by an NBC affiliate revealed U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has been keeping a
database of journalists and other activists involved at the Southern border,
the second list by the Trump regime targeting U.S. journalists that has been
uncovered since Trump came into power." Let's review Amy
Siskind's list Week 121.
o CHELSEA
MANNING: Chelsea Manning, the former
Army private, is back in federal custody, jailed over her refusal to testify
before a grand jury in a case involving WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Let's
read more at NPR. We can
send letters only (no postcards or greeting cards) of support to: Chelsea
Elizabeth Manning, A0181426, William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center, 2001
Mill Road, Alexandria VA 22314. (More
information at the Chelsea Manning is Free Facebook page.)
o POSTCARDING:
From one of our own: This week’s issues and addresses for
postcarding: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sy_muHL0BSzkhdULSvfc3iGFq4JIk1pgBoM4p6dc_kA/edit Let’s
get a fun group together and write postcards!
o FACEBOOK
SAFETY: We who are Facebook users have all seen and have
sometime taken part in what seem to be innocent quizzes. “Two Ukrainian men used online quizzes to
lure more than 60,000 Facebook users into installing malicious browser
extensions that leaked their profile data and friends lists to offshore
servers, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the company.” https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/ukrainian-hackers-used-quizzes-to-leak-over-60k-facebook-users-data/articleshow/68342536.cms As fun as
these quizzes seem, let’s not participate.
o CLIMATE
CHANGE: Americans in the military, active duty and veteran
status, tend to be more conservative than Americans generally. However, new
research shows that belief in climate change and its disastrous effects is
strong among military Americans, on par with that of all Americans (https://theconversation.com/veterans-are-concerned-about-climate-change-and-that-matters-110685). The American Legion (https://www.legion.org/contact), along with smaller state/local veterans/military
advocacy groups, exist to voice the will of those who serve/served, so let's
make sure that veterans’ organizations are aware of their constituents' view on
this crucial national security issue!
o ENVIRONMENTAL
FUNDING For DIVERSITY GROUPS FLAWED: “Indigenous people and communities of color have
historically seen the worst environmental degradation and biggest health risks
from pollution, yet campaigns to protect the environment and fight climate
change have often sidelined them. The mainstream movement has a well-documented
diversity problem that is not quickly improving. As some Democrats propose a
radical Green New Deal centered around
o justice and equity, backstage they’re facing a reckoning over the
environmental movement’s homogeneity. Research repeatedly shows communities of
color are more likely to be subjected to pollution. The parts of the country
with dangerous, cancer-related air pollution have lower percentages of white
residents, according to an analysis by the Intercept. At the same time, most environment
and climate change funding goes to groups with white leaders. Research has
shown 95% of the $60bn in annual foundation funding for all causes goes to
organizations led by white people and 70 to 80% goes to those led by men, the
Solutions Project notes.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/environment-climate-change-movement-indigenous-minorities-sidelined
We must ask the
groups we support to consider adding more members of color, women and Native
Americans and take up environmental issues that affect these particular groups.
We can also send some of our dollars to groups lead by more diverse
people.
o ACTIVIST
UPDATES: If we want to stay up to date on
how we can make our voices heard in Congress, we can sign up to get texts
from Indivisible co- founders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. All we do is text: INDIVISIBLE to
977-79 for the latest updates, breaking news, calls to action and more.
o CANDIDATE
TRAINING: If we know we have the ability to change our
community, are looking for a place to start, and thinking about running for
office, the National Democratic Training Committee invites us to their 30-day
“Ready, Set, Run Challenge”. Each day in April, those who sign up will get one
simple task to complete to set up our run for office. By the end of the
month, we’ll receive a personalized syllabus and will be ready to launch our
campaigns! We can find out more here:
https://blog.traindemocrats.orWg/run-for-office-challenge/
State Actions
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to
attend/organize
o CLIMATE
CHANGE: On Friday, March 15, there will be
Youth Climate Strikes all over the world.
Let’s keep an eye on this site for updates of where and when we can attend
and help: https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/strikes
Reading/Watching
o All the Legal Trouble in
Trumpworld : Robert Mueller may be the
least of the president’s worries - https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/08/all-the-legal-trouble-in-trumpworld-scandals-trump/
o The Disparity Between
Manafort's Sentence And Other Crime Sentences - https://www.npr.org/2019/03/08/701671554/the-disparity-between-manaforts-sentence-and-other-crime-sentences
o Inside the unprecedented
partnership between Fox News and the Trump White House - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/inside-the-unprecedented-partnership-between-fox-news-and-the-trump-white-house
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