“Wake up, America!” #BLM protests & other antiracist, anti-fascist & pro-democratic things to do…

Event calendar
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We have so much work to do & nobody’s slowing down…

ANSWER THESE (3) QUESTIONS:

1. Are you on Medicare NOW?
2. Will you be on Medicare in (7) years?
3. Do you know and love someone who depends on Medicare?

Then get your coffee and sit down to watch this video on the privatization of Medicare from the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) (protectmedicare.net).

The facts are in. Share, share, share! While the GOP is threatening to cut Medicare to pay for Trump’s tax cuts for the rich and corporations, those same entities are already slicing up Medicare on the back end, through Medicare Advantage, and much more quickly through a newer entity, ACO/REACH.

Tyre Nichols’ mom is praying for a “greater good.” Let’s start with systemic change – pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

“The race of a police office isn’t the determining factor of whether they’re going to commit excessive use of force, but the race of the victim.” – Ben Crump.

The 2021 bill – George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – addressed a wide range of law enforcement policies and issues including:

  • Lowering the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution, 
  • Limiting qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer,
  • Granting administrative subpoena power to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in pattern-or-practice investigations.
  • Restricting the use of no-knock warrants, chokeholds, and carotid holds.
  • Creating a National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct
  • Creating uniform accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies and requires officers to complete training on:
    • racial profiling,
    • implicit bias
    • the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force.

What that bill was missing: Its scope was limited to law enforcement officers. Plenty of other government officials, such as prison guards, can and do violate the rights of citizens, including their right to continue living. A separate bill – the Ending Qualified Immunity Act– was proposed to close this loophole.

Let’s put them both together this time!

Action: Tell your representative and senators we want systemic change – Re-start and improve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

Continue reading “Tyre Nichols’ mom is praying for a “greater good.” Let’s start with systemic change – pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.” →

The GOP’s first bill is its most important – “It’s a giant tax cut for rich tax cheats,” while adding to the deficit.

The GOP are masters at protecting the interests of their real base – the wealthy and corporations.

Call/email action – Tell your senators – Make the wealthy tax cheats pay their fair share!

Continue reading “The GOP’s first bill is its most important – “It’s a giant tax cut for rich tax cheats,” while adding to the deficit.” →

The GOP clown-car-to-nowhere wants to remove the brakes.

“Today’s Republican Party is rife with ethical transgressions,” says Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen. “And it is now trying to make it much harder to hold members of Congress accountable to the standards of decency we expect.”

Action: Call your legislators, and get your friends and family in red states to call theirs!

Continue reading “The GOP clown-car-to-nowhere wants to remove the brakes.” →

EMERGENCY! Wall Street’s privatization of Medicare at our expense is starting now!

The GOP is threatening to hold debt ceiling legislation hostage in order to savage Social Security, Medicare and other safety-net programs. However, the destruction of Medicare is already taking place, off-stage, with corporate entities lining up at the trough with the poisonous ACO-REACH program. Tell Biden to executive order this out of existence and make sure your legislators know you are wise to this threat, or in 7 years, Medicare will be no more.

“The ACO REACH program is Medicare privatization, hidden in layers of bureaucracy. Essentially, seniors are put into this program, which allows a profit-seeking third party like a health insurer or private equity-backed firm to step in and get paid by Medicare to manage the care that they get. Taking for themselves the profit that is whatever they don’t want to spend on the patient.” – U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) 

Dr. Corinne Frugoni explains how commercial insurance companies have been chipping away at our crucial public health programs for decades and the unconscionable profits they realize from Medicare Advantage. Now, the ACO/REACH program will allow third-party middlemen, including the same private equity pirates who wreaked havoc on wheelchair, air ambulance and retail industries, to pocket up to 40% of Medicare dollars in overhead and profit that should be dedicated to patient care, with a goal of completely replacing Traditional Medicare by 2030.

Our voices can change this!

“I learned the hard way. If Wall Street firms are allowed to make decisions about your health care, their profits will always come first.” – Rick Timmins

Continue reading “EMERGENCY! Wall Street’s privatization of Medicare at our expense is starting now!” →

Tell Congress to stop the real steal before the House goes red! Corporations are robbing BILLIONS from their employees and now they want a tax break too!

At Ventura County’s monthly social justice fair, volunteer employment lawyers are kept busy talking to residents about wage theft. One attorney noted that despite all the GOP handwringing over street crime and demands for more street-level policing, wage theft by employers far outstrips other common forms of thievery

America’s corporations steal $50 billion a year from their workers. The GOP, who, despite their ludicrous claims to be the “party of workers,” protects these criminals with friendly legislation: reducing the power of unions, forced arbitration, redefinition of overtime eligibility and low fines for those caught. Trump’s Supreme Court piled on by making it harder for employees to bring collective action lawsuits to redress wage theft. This combines to make wage theft standard operating procedure for America’s largest companies.

And it’s not just workers who suffer. Wage theft also robs federal and state treasuries of many billions of dollars in taxes, and puts employers who play by the rules at a serious competitive disadvantage.

Before we let our legislators go home for the year, demand that after they raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, they pass H.R.7701/S.474 – Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act so that Americans get paid a fair day’s wage for a day’s work. And instead of rewarding these grifting corporations with a tax cut (and the GOP legislators who serve them), demand that they start paying their fair share. (See original post on this here.)

Call/email action – Stop rewarding corporate thieves and price-gougers

Continue reading “Tell Congress to stop the real steal before the House goes red! Corporations are robbing BILLIONS from their employees and now they want a tax break too!” →

(3) Energy actions: Local, state and federal.

Three news items we noticed within the last two days…

  1. 600,000 gallons of Canadian tar sands crude just spilled out of the Keystone pipeline into a Kansas river. This type of oil is the hardest to remediate, as the sticky gunk sinks to the bottom. (Who profits?) (CA’s oil is even dirtier!)
  2. ‘Firmageddon‘: Researchers find 1.1 million acres of dead trees in Oregon as the climate change heats up the earth.
  3. (Politico) “Even though Big Oil CEOs admitted to my Committee that their products are causing a climate emergency, today’s documents reveal that the industry has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come,” Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

Action #1: LOCAL – #DeclineToSign! Watch out for paid signature-gatherers trying to reverse SB 1137 – humane setbacks from oil wells. (Deadline Dec. 15)

This video posted below is from 2017. SB1137, just signed by Gov. Newsom, would create a 3200 foot margin between people and oil production…unless it’s stopped by the oil industry’s multi-million dollar referendum, now in the signature-gathering stage!

Continue reading “(3) Energy actions: Local, state and federal.” →

Legislators! Raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, then put up guardrails to protect our democracy!

Tell Democratic legislators to stay in session for the rest of the year so we can minimize the harm Republicans are planning to do after regaining power in the House. The FIRST thing Democrats must do before they lose their House majority is raise or eliminate the debt ceiling to protect our social safety net programs. Make sure your legislators hear you by calling daily!

Then they must pass bills to secure the democratic processes that we took for granted before Trump’s administration. This includes a bill to prevent Trump, or a similar GOP tyrant, from replacing a merit-based professional civil service with a “spoils” system started under Andrew Jackson that American history refers to as a”vast public evil.” His executive order lays in waiting, dormant, unless we take action now. The Electoral Count Reform Act would prevent electoral vote fiddling by clarifying the vice-president’s role along with a number of other ambiguous or chaotic rules.

Action #1: Call/email your senators.

Minimal script to your senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to stay in DC and spend every minute of available time working to RAISE or ELIMINATE THE DEBT CEILING NOW through budget reconciliation. Then, I want [him/her/them] to push through bills to protect the democratic processes that we took for granted before Trump’s administration, including S.4573 – Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act Act and S.4702 – Preventing a Patronage System (PPSA) Act of 2022

(PPSA Act prevents another would-be dictator from firing civil servants who stand in the way of corruption. It passed in the HOUSE. (H.R.302) Read more about it here.)

Continue reading “Legislators! Raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, then put up guardrails to protect our democracy!” →

Keep ’em in DC until they get their work done! #1 on the list – Raise or eliminate the debt ceiling!

Tell Democratic legilators to stay in session for the rest of the year so we can minimize the harm Republicans are planning to do with their regained power in the House. The GOP won’t just waste two years banging away at Hunter Biden – they have far more malicious and damaging plans, including chopping up social safety net programs. The first thing Democrats must do before they lose their House majority is raise the debt ceiling.

(Vox) “Addressing the debt ceiling, which essentially involves increasing the amount that the United States is able to borrow, is a routine congressional duty. Failing to do so would cause the US to default on its debt, triggering a global financial crisis. Recently, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) suggested he’d be willing to risk such a crisis as speaker of the House, if doing so won the GOP serious spending cuts to climate and social programs.”

Make sure those who depend on these programs know the GOP’s intent and get them to start calling as well, no matter what their political affiliation.

Action #1: Call/email your senators.

Minimal script to your senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to stay in DC and spend every minute of available time pushing through important bills and minimize the harm the GOP intends to do. First, I demand that Senator [_____] work to RAISE or ELIMINATE THE DEBT CEILING NOW through budget reconciliation. (He/She/They) should not assume that the GOP will take the blame for the slicing and dicing of popular programs and economic chaos when Democrats HAVE A CHANCE TO FIX THIS NOW! Then I want [him/her/them] to concentrate on passing the following bills:

Continue reading “Keep ’em in DC until they get their work done! #1 on the list – Raise or eliminate the debt ceiling!” →

Tell Congress – Raise, don’t cut, corporate taxes during the lame-duck session!

Corporations have hidden obscene price increases behind the inflation, affecting products from food to gas and raking in record profits. And unlike small businesses who could be prosecuted for price gouging during times of crisis, limited competition means there are no real market forces to stop the huge ones. But those profits are not enough for America’s oligarchs…

They are also demanding that Congress give them a new round of tax breaks before year’s end that could cost $100 billion over one year and up to $600 billion over 10 years―their true goal.

Action #1: Call action – Stop rewarding corporate price-gougers

Continue reading “Tell Congress – Raise, don’t cut, corporate taxes during the lame-duck session!” →