10/3/19
NATIONAL
ISSUES
|
(Including Emails & Twitter)
Fax
legislators for free:
Or use Resistbot: https://resist.bot/
Or use StampsLicked to
have messages hand-delivered to our own legislators: https://stampslicked.org/
White
House contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house
|
IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATION:
Democrats are moving ahead with
impeachment without bipartisan support:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/464000-house-democrats-threaten-to-subpoena-white-house-for-ukraine-docs We
want Congress to pursue the same intensive, rigorous investigation process
that they used with Hillary, so the truth comes out. Let’s stay in touch with our MoC,
especially those who have not agreed to the need, to let them know that we expect this
investigation of Trump due to multiple violations of obstruction of justice, violations
of the emolument’s clause, and possibly treacherous engagement with other
nations, to go forward. Let’s also call the White House to call for Trump’s
resignation: 202-456-1111
CONGRESSIONAL RECESS: While the
members of the various Congressional committees have remained in Washington,
other members of Congress are on recess and, hopefully, in their home
states. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/765085075/lawmakers-head-home-for-2-weeks-but-impeachment-inquiry-rolls-on Let’s try our best to contact our MoCs
during this break and tell them about the issues and concerns we have at this
time.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has now admitted
to being ON the phone call that took place between President Trump and Ukraine
President Velenskiy: https://apnews.com/031efded26154e7988361a38d38942d8 This
means both that he lied and that he took no action after the president asked a
foreign nation to intercede in our election via investigating Hunter
Biden. Let’s contact the State Department to call for Pompeo’s
resignation:
https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform or
on Twitter at @SecPompeo
DEMAND THAT POMPEO
RECUSE HIMSELF FROM UKRAINE-RELATED WORK: If he will not resign, now that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has
admitted that he was on the infamous phone call in which Trump asked the
Ukrainian president to intervene in the election by digging up dirt on
Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his son, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has
asked him to recuse himself from any Ukraine-related issue. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/464062-top-foreign-relations-democrat-calls-on-pompeo-to-recuse-himself-from-ukraine.
Let’s echo this call by asking our MoCs to support Menedez, and contacting the
State Department directly at 202-647-6575 or via this
form.
TRUMP UNHINGED: A recent New York Times report revealed that at a
meeting at the Oval Office in March, Trump wanted to construct a moat with
snakes and alligators, electrify the border wall, and allow soldiers to shoot
migrants. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html.
While we’re not surprised that Trump is denying these crazy allegations, this
is unfortunately just one sign of how unhinged he is. Since the launch of the
impeachment inquiry, Trump has called for the arrest of House Intelligence Committee Leader,
Adam Schiff on charges of treason, a crime punishable by death, and
compared Congress’s finally beginning attempts to save our democracy, a move
that is long overdue, as a coup. If we want to see what a real coup looks like, all we
need to do is look at Amy
Siskind’s weekly list. Let’s make sure to tell our MoCs that we want to
see them to continue their Constitutional duty of saving our democracy and we
are concerned that Trump’s escalating rhetoric against anyone he perceives as
an enemy is harming the country and should show every moral, ethical, and sane
politician, regardless of views, how unfit he is to serve.
DEMAND ACTION ON
CLIMATE CHANGE: Four feet of snow fell on Montana in September, an iceberg
larger than the city of Los Angeles has broken off from Antarctica. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/464054-iceberg-larger-than-the-size-of-los-angeles-breaks-off-of,
and Trump and the Republican members of Congress continue to do nothing. Let’s
tell our MoCs that we support the Green New Deal and it’s time for them to stop
putting corporate profits before a sensible energy policy. We should remind
them that soon it will be too late to do anything, and no one will
benefit.
IMMIGRATION: Immigration continues to be a divisive
political issue, while the United States' treatment of immigrants is
causing international and domestic concerns over human rights
abuses. While some of our friends or relatives on the other side of the
political aisle may not be willing to engage in conversation over the humanity
of migrants, and the abuses they endure, we now have another way of starting a
dialogue: Netflix is launching a series, Living Undocumented, which
follows the journeys of eight undocumented families. Let's be sure to
not only watch the series ourselves but encourage our friends and family to
watch it as well and gain a better understanding of these families' struggles
and motivation as they face deportation. We can read more about it from singer
and producer Selena Gomez's article in Time, and we can check out the trailer for
the series here.
ANTI-SEMITISM IN APPS: From Sleeping
Giants: A couple weeks ago, Mother Jones broke the story of a neo-Nazi group sharing
a list of Jewish people on Telegram App. For the people discovering themselves
on the list, it's utterly terrifying. But more importantly, this anti-Semitic
intimidation campaign is in clear violation of the App Store's terms of
service. So why hasn't Apple's leadership booted Telegram from the App Store?
Help us find out: Contact: Matt Fischer, VP App Store at Apple. Email:
mfischer@apple.com, Twitter:
@mattfischer415 We can find an e-mail template here:
SIGN UP FOR CANDIDATE
TRAINING: The Emerge candidate
training application period is closing soon. These training programs offer
Democratic women the tools and skills they need to run — and win. If we
are a woman considering running for office, we can find out more about
Emerge’s Candidate Training, see if there is one near us and apply here: https://emergeamerica.org/candidate-training/signature-program/emerge-america-affiliates-2019-signature-program-application-dates/
SUSPEND TRUMP’S
TWITTER ACCOUNT: “Democratic
presidential hopeful Kamala Harris called on Twitter’s CEO on Tuesday
to consider suspending President Donald Trump’s account, saying his tweets
violate the site’s anti-bullying policy.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/mnunez/2019/10/02/kamala-harris-tells-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-to-suspend-president-donald-trumps-account-in-new-letter/#436974166488 Let’s join Senator Harris and make the
same request: Jack Dorsey @jack on Twitter,
or email at: jack@twitter.com, or
Twitter, 1355 Market Street, Suite 900,
San Francisco, CA, 94103
ELECTION/VOTING
UPCOMING 2019 ELECTIONS: In
order to keep track of upcoming elections, we can use this from Ballotpedia: https://ballotpedia.org/Elections_calendar
VULNERABLE VOTING MACHINES: “Participants vetted dozens of voting machines
at Defcon this year, including a prototype model built
on secure, verified hardware through a Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency program. Today's report highlights detailed vulnerability
findings related to six models of voting machines, most of which are currently
in use. That includes the ES&S AutoMARK, used in 28 states in 2018, and
Premier/Diebold AccuVote-OS, used in 26 states that same year.” https://www.wired.com/story/voting-village-results-hacking-decade-old-bugs/ Let’s ask our state and federal MoCs to
make election security a top priority. We do not have time to waste.
TEXTING VOTERS: “The Open
Progress Text Troop is a diverse community of committed volunteers from
across the country who are engaging in issue-focused conversations with voters via
person-to-person text messages. We encourage citizens across the country,
whether English or Spanish-speaking, to register to vote. We even work to
persuade and identify their support for our causes and candidates.” Let’s see how we can help: https://www.openprogress.com/text-troop
HELP FLIP VIRGINIA: Virginia is America’s
12th most populous state. It currently has a Democratic
governor and a Republican legislature—but just barely. With VA’s entire state
legislature up for re-election this November, this is our last, best chance to
flip the entire state into Democratic control. If we succeed, we will end extreme
Republican gerrymandering there for a decade. We’ll see the passage of
progressive laws around guns, health care, reproductive freedom, public
education, the environment, and more. Let’s do one or more of the
following TODAY, as the election is mere weeks away: 1) Donate what we can to
one or both of these funds: https://sisterdistrict.com/virginia/ , https://flippable.org/our-targets/virginia/,
2) Write get-out-the-vote postcards to Virginia voters through: https://postcards4va.com/,
and/or 3) Volunteer to make phone calls to VA voters through: https://swingleft.org/virginia or https://sisterdistrict.com/volunteer/
STATE/LOCAL
MOST: FIGHT
GERRYMANDERING: By
getting trained to help working on redistricting in our local community.
“Redistricting U is [a] free, in-person organizing training initiative. We’re
sending dedicated trainers to cities across the country to train volunteers, give
them the tools to impact the redistricting process in their state, hear from
them on how to best make change in their communities, and empower them to be
leaders in the movement for fair maps.” We can look up events near us
and sign up here: https://allontheline.org/redistrictingu/
MA—WINTER CLOTHING DRIVE FOR IMMIGRANT
FAMILIES: Together & Free and
the Lynn Rapid Response
Network are collecting winter clothing for immigrant
families. Items are needed by Oct 11, 2019: Let’s
take a look at this to see what is needed and how to drop off: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SELXZmzUBASQ6PESpNJ5jAeW7bi78zIZNOQHwrZZ-vY/edit?usp=sharing Let’s share and contribute if we can!
OH: VOTER REGISTRATION PURGES: Roughly 87% of the 182,000 Ohio voter
registrations that were purged in September was due to inactivity, or not
having voted in the past six years (https://bit.ly/2oxOMZK). While some purging of voter rolls
can be legitimate, such as cases of death, or moving outside of the state,
there are still instances where registered voters are removed from voter rolls
for simply being "inactive." Let's check the Fresh Start database
to see if we are among those whose voter registration has been revoked: https://www.ohiosos.gov/freshstart/ If
it has, or if we have not yet registered to vote, let's be sure to sign
up: https://olvr.ohiosos.gov/
RALLIES/GATHERINGS/TRAININGS
JOIN THE #CountryOverParty TWITTERSTORM: It is
time for Republican lawmakers to put country over party for the sake
of our nation and support impeachment. We can tell them to take up their
constitutional responsibilities when we join Action Together
Network’s Twitterstorm TODAY, Thursday October 3 at 8pm EST. We
can click on this link for prewritten tweets asking Republican Members of
Congress to put #CountryOverParty and support Impeachment: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/136gSR5cLlL_HNa492LiMK88ro0SjhEEqvQDBZ87JaiY/htmlview
We can find out more about the event here:
FRIDAY CLIMATE STRIKES: As
per Greta Thunberg’s tweet: “Last Friday over 4 million people striked for the
climate. This Friday we do it again! 170 countries and 6383 events so far in #weekforfuture
Find or register your strike at Fridays for Future: http://fridaysforfuture.org or local
websites.”
MARCH FOR BLACK WOMEN: Join the March
for Black Women on Saturday, October 5, in Washington D.C. We will drive
home the message that our everyday lives are political, and we are worth
fighting for. We can find more information
and toolkits here: https://www.blackwomensblueprint.org/copy-of-all-about-the-march
and follow their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/marchforblackwomen/
MARCH TO IMPEACH TRUMP: “By the
People issued a call for marches nationwide in support of impeachment on October
13th. Announced during a #ImpeachNow rally on
Capitol Hill alongside several Members of Congress, the call to action encourages
Americans to “take to the streets” and turn up the public pressure on Congress
to swiftly impeach Trump.” Let’s check
this out to learn more, find or organize and event, and find a toolkit to use,
too: https://www.bytheppl.us/impeachnow
END OF YEAR FUNDRAISING PLANNING WEBINAR COURSE: In this four-session October webinar we can learn the essential strategy, tactics, and tips for a successful End of Year Fundraising Digital Strategy in this 4-session live course. More info and application here: https://community.thedigitalplan.com/end-of-year-fundraising-digital-strategy/
IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE: From Justice
for Our Neighbors: Families separated at the border, threats of
increased deportations and ICE raids, enormous historic backlogs in
naturalization applications and all-time-lows in refugee admissions: All of
these issues and so many others will be at the forefront of topics
@nationalimmigrantintegrationconference this October 20-22, 2019 in
Detroit, Michigan. Let's learn more and register here: https://niicnewamericandreams.org/
DIGITAL ORGANIZING BOOTCAMP: Have you been trying to figure how best to
use digital organizing strategies and tactics to accentuate the organizing work
you do? Do you have a little experience working in digital organizing but want
to fine tune your strategies? Then, check
out this Digital Organizing Bootcamp to be held in Nashville, TN from Jan.
26 through Feb. 1, 2020. Applications
close at midnight November 30, 2019: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeD8tt90Os-YDuUK28q-NPCX1SJ_HEIPl6JbFkqBa4vpAlzDA/viewform
READING/WATCHING
We are
businessmen in the 1%. It's time to increase taxes on us - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/02/patriotic-millionaires-who-want-to-pay-more-taxes
If Hunter Biden
Is Fair Game, So Are Trump’s Kids - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/trump-children-corruption/599176/
Life on the U.S.
asylum waitlist: a long and dangerous wait - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/09/life-united-states-asylum-waitlist-long-dangerous/
What Happened to
Kid President? | Kid President Travel Show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEabswbUNdw&list=PLzvRx_johoA-YabI6FWcU-jL6nKA1Um-t&index=2&t=0s
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We can stay up to date
on Congress by checking out their schedules. a) The House publishes a
weekly schedule at The Weekly Leader (published and dated Friday)
as well as daily schedules at The Daily Leader. b) The Senate updates
their schedule daily at the Senate Floor Schedule
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