WTH? Tell your senators to vote “NO” on confirming Wall Street stooge Andrew Biggs to oversee Social Security.
Action #1: Why is Andrew Biggs, a confirmed enemy of Social Security and all that it stands for, now a nominee for a seat on the advisory council to oversee it?
Andrew Biggs, a huge advocate for cutting Social Security throughout his career, has been nominated for the “Republican” seat on the Social Security Advisory Board. Biggs was instrumental in the Bush administration’s 2005 attempt to privatize this vital safety net program. He advocated for raising the retirement age in 2013, supported means-tested Social Security and dismissed our looming retirement income crisis as a “non-issue.”
The Senate can, and must, block this terrible nominee and pass a bill that protects Social Security by making the wealthy begin paying their fair share into the program! (Separate post on that bill here.) Please call your Senators and tell them to vote “NO” on libertarian extremist Andrew G. Biggs.
Minimal script for senators: I’m calling from (zip code) and I want Senator [___] to vote “NO” on confirming Andrew Biggs to the Social Security Advisory Board. In addition, I want [him/her/them] to prioritize passing S.3071 “Social Security 2100 Act – A Sacred Trust.” Why hasn’t this fundamental bill protecting the retirement and dignity of millions of Americans against the predations of Biggs and the GOP been passed yet?
Continue reading “WTH? Tell your senators to vote “NO” on confirming Wall Street stooge Andrew Biggs to oversee Social Security.”Good news is just what we need right now!
This has been a hard week, as the Supreme Court now openly sides with the party of Grifters-Oligarchs-Polluters to further degrade our tenuous hold on democracy. This list from Americans of Conscience, along with a few additions from us down in the “STATE” category, feels like the news we need right now!
Issues in the news!
- Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in as the Supreme Court’s first Black woman justice.
- The five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission will co-manage Bears Ears National Monument with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
- SCOTUS rules that the Biden administration can end a dangerous immigration policy known as “Remain in Mexico” ending the practice of sending asylum seekers to wait in dangerous conditions and thwarting due process.
- IN, MS, LA, TN, and TX will use paper ballots starting with 2024’s elections.
Reproductive Rights
Continue reading “Good news is just what we need right now!”Declare an environmental emergency, Mr. President!
Today the Supreme Court dealt another devastating blow to our health, environment and civil rights with their West Virginia vs. EPA decision.
Action: Write to Joe and tell him to “flex his powers.”
Contact President Biden here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Here is a sample you can use and it just fits into the word limit. However, length isn’t important. Speaking from the heart is.
“Dear Joe,
(This is a generic paragraph…Feel free to start from scratch, or edit and personalize with your own experiences with the effects of climate change or those of your family.) In June, a heat dome over the central and eastern US caused deaths, power outages, closed schools, and the deaths of 2,000 cattle. More than 100 million people were under heat alert and advised to stay indoors. The 2018 National Climate Assessment found that the frequency of heat waves has tripled since the 1960s, and that the average heat-wave season has increased by 45 days. This, along with the toxic air pollution of power plants, threatens all of us, but especially the poor, children, the elderly, and those who must labor or live outside.
Continue reading “Declare an environmental emergency, Mr. President!”Stealthing should be recognized as sexual assault nationwide.
Action: Call your legislators to vote “YES” to the H.R. 7928 – “Consent is Key Act” and H.R.7920 – “Stealthing Act.”
By now, most people have read Gabrielle Blair’s epic twitter thread, where a Mormon mother of six lays out her case that ALL pregnancies are caused by men’s ejaculations, including from those who refuse to wear condoms, and those who sneakily remove them during sex, the latter action now known as stealthing.
Those who’ve suffered this form of sexual assault – one that causes unwanted pregnancies, HIV, STDs and emotional trauma – also call it “A one-sided burden. A betrayal. A violation. Rape-adjacent.”
H.R. 7928 and H.R. 7920 are based on CA’s anti-stealthing law, which doesn’t send a harm-doer to prison for criminal sexual battery, but allows victims to file a civil action to get help with costs, including therapy and medical services, as a result of the assault. This strategy was based on the lower burden of proof in civil cases, making it more likely that stealthing survivors would win. This was, of course, before the fall of Roe. The stakes on impregnating someone against their will have risen exponentially.
Blair ends her thread with “Men often don’t know, and don’t ask, and don’t think to ask, if they’ve caused a pregnancy. They may never think of it, or associate sex with making babies at all. Why? Because there are 0 consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies.”
Let’s change that.
Continue reading “Stealthing should be recognized as sexual assault nationwide.”CA is trying once again to kick its plastic habit. Tell your legislators to vote “YES” on SB-54.
Update! This just passed! Newsom just signed “nation’s most sweeping law to phase out single-use plastics and packaging waste.” Thanks, callers!
(This video was created a couple of years ago for an earlier version of SB-54. That doesn’t change a thing.)
California is addicted to single-use plastic, even though we know that it’s harming us, our wildlife and our environment. Previous legislative interventions have been tabled or failed to pass in 2019, 2020 and 2021 due to fights between competing interests.
Action: Let’s get this done. It’s passed the CA Senate and now has to get through the Assembly by June 30.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code]and I want Assemblymember [___] to vote “YES” on SB-54 – the plastics and solid waste bill on the Assembly floor this week!
Note to our callers: Please be particularly kind to the legislative staffers who are answering phones, due to the verbal abuse they are getting from opponents to the abortion protection bills that are passing through right now. They have a really hard job. Tell them that you appreciate what they do.
Continue reading “CA is trying once again to kick its plastic habit. Tell your legislators to vote “YES” on SB-54.”Internet voting remains a really bad, rotten, no-good idea, even with the best of intentions. A huge “NO! NO! NO!” to SB1480.
UPDATE 06/28/22: YOUR CALLS HAVE HAD AN EFFECT! We’ve been informed that this bill is DEAD – that Assembly Elections Committee Chair Isaac Bryan just pulled it!
Action #1: Yes, we want to help disabled voters. No, we don’t have to destroy our election security to do it. Tell your assemblymember to VOTE “NO” on SB 1480- “Remote accessible vote by mail systems.”
Seriously, WTH? How did this dangerous internet voting bill pass the state Senate? Our senators were either swayed by impassioned disability rights speakers or not paying close attention to the details. Tell your assemblymembers to think this through – untrustworthy election results are bad for everyone.
Is your Assembly members are on the Elections Committee, which is meeting on Wednesday? If so, be sure to mention that you’re calling them both because they’re your assemblymember and because of their position on the elections committee: Isaac Bryan (chair), Kelly Seyarto (vice chair), Steve Bennett, Evan Low, Chad Mayes, Kevin Mullin, Blanca Rubio.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code]and I want Assemblymember [___] to vote “NO” on SB 1480!
Continue reading “Internet voting remains a really bad, rotten, no-good idea, even with the best of intentions. A huge “NO! NO! NO!” to SB1480.”The Supreme Court is deleting democracy.
Pres. Biden: “The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose…is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law. No executive action from the president can do that.”
“This fall, Roe is on the ballot.”
Originally tweeted by ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) on June 24, 2022.
In a short period of time, this corrupt Supreme Court majority has overturned a 50-year precident on a woman’s basic right to bodily sovereignty, ignored historical precedent on states’ right to control guns, attacked voting rights, allowed police to force confessions without Miranda warnings (Kagan speaks here), freed border police and other federal agents to commit violence without consequences, and forced states to fund religious schools, (read “Christian”), tearing a big ol’ hole in the separation of church and state, a foundational precedent. Today, Justice Thomas just publicly stated that he and his dark-money funded gang of six black-robed political operatives are now coming for contraception and gay rights.
Continue reading “The Supreme Court is deleting democracy.”UPDATE 7.06.22: March for Our Lives – Actions to take now!!
Two things have just occurred…
- March for Our Lives: “The Supreme Court just ruled 6-3 in favor of the gun lobby in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, an extreme and dangerous expansion of the second amendment that elevates the right to carry guns over every other right. This ruling reverses critical gun safety legislation in New York and will cause similar gun safety laws in seven other states to fall as well. Americans will die as a result of this decision. By overturning New York’s common sense gun law on concealed carry, the Court is stripping states of the ability to protect their citizens from gun violence. This is not about responsible gun ownership, but universal gun ownership. We have seen what happens when states do not act to limit carrying guns in public spaces. We must fight now more than ever for our right to not be shot.” Stay tuned for an action! This will affect laws in a number of states, including CA.
- Note: If the GOP retakes Congress, they will pass H.R.6248 – Stand Your Ground Act (Gaetz) – Florida’s get-away-with-murder legislation, on a nationwide basis, allowing daily executions of minorities and others on our streets by vigilantes who will be well-armed with concealed weapons.
- Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “found” a bare number of GOP deadwood, who are either retiring or not up for reelection until 2026, to vote for an extremely modest gun bill – The “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” includes funding for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It closes the “Boyfriend Loophole” and requires more gun sellers to register as Federally Licensed Firearm dealers. (What’s in the bill?)
Monday 6.20 – 3 Fast Actions
It’s easy to forget things after a beautiful Juneteenth weekend, but bills, both good and bad, are now speeding through the CA state legislature to Newsom’s desk, and the deadline to comment on a badly-written regulation is rapidly approaching.
- Action #1– stop private-equity-pirate-owned PG&E from turning us taxpayers into their cave of gold, while still leaving us exposed to the incredible danger from wildfires.
- Action #2– stop a proposed federal regulation that would allow literal pay-to-play corruption.
- Action #3 are bills to protect California residents from gun violence.
Program your phone to do this faster – an example of “HOW” and “WHY” are included at the bottom.
FAST Action #1! – Call your assemblymember and tell them to vote “NO” on SB 396 and SB 884, boondoggle bills for PG&E.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Assemblymember [____] to vote “NO” on SB 396 – Forestry. Instead of cutting down more than a million trees a year in an counterproductive attempt to stop wildfires, I want the legislature to require that all investor-owned utilities be required to upgrade their equipment and wiring to best modern practices.
I also want [him/her] to vote “NO” on SB 884 Electricity: expedited utility distribution infrastructure undergrounding program. PG&E wants to charge us taxpayers $20-30 Billion for 10,000 miles of undergrounding instead of fixing their wiring. SoCal Edison fixed theirs within 5 years. Undergrounding is 7 times as expensive and takes much longer, and with PG&E’s record, it will take 140 years. This bill, like SB 396, are related boondoggles for PG&E and we expect our legislators to put our interests to live without threat of fire over the financial interests of utility investors.
Contact (you can also email over the weekend):
- State Assemblymember Steve Bennett (CA-37): email, SAC (916) 319-2037, SB (805) 564-1649, VTA (805) 641-3700
- State Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (CA-44): email, SAC (916) 319-2044, CAM (805) 482-1904, OX (805) 483-4488
- Not your people? Don’t know?: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
FAST Action #2!: Email a note to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) – Remove some of Trump’s slime trail of corruption.
Continue reading “Monday 6.20 – 3 Fast Actions”If you love California’s trees, call your Assembly Member to vote NO on SB 396 (Vote is MONDAY!)
FAST Action! – Call your assemblymember and tell them on today and Monday to vote “NO” on SB 396.
This is a sleeper issue…
Most people won’t notice if this bill passes until a lot of trees – our source of clean air, pollution reduction, erosion control, shade, beauty and habitat of our local ecosystem, are lying in pieces at our feet, in our wilderness areas, our parks, and in our own backyards.
This bill exists because a particular “investor-owned” utilities (IOUs) – PG&E – wants to use the cheapest and least effective method of fire prevention. In fact, PG&E’s website states that they cut down over 1 million trees a year as part of “Enhanced Vegetation Management” (EVM), as these expenses are charged back to us taxpayers as “maintenance costs,” even though this system creates wind tunnels along transmission lines, and causes vegetation to be dryer. What their site DOESN’T say that they are the only IOU to retain EVM as a central tenet of its wildfire prevention; the others are following the science and modernizing their unsafe systems.
SB 396 would give companies like PG&E unprecedented authority to ignore environmental considerations, the rights of private landowners and homeowners, and the public interest, even when doing so increases the fire risk for landowners and communities.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Assemblymember [____] to vote “NO” on SB 396 – Forestry on Monday. Instead, I want the legislature to require that all investor-owned utilities be required to upgrade their equipment and wiring to best modern practices.
Continue reading “If you love California’s trees, call your Assembly Member to vote NO on SB 396 (Vote is MONDAY!)”
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 