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

Jan. 22: Biden: “We cannot, will not, let people go hungry.”

“Fierce urgency of right now!” See the discussion here with Senator Nina Turner (starts at 47.22).

Joe Biden discusses two executive orders he’s signing…(The full White House statement is here.)

  • COVID ECONOMIC RELIEF EXECUTIVE ORDER: This order will increase the amount of money poor families get for food each month and provide additional meal money for students whose schools have been closed as a result of the virus. Workers can turn down work in unsafe environments and still be eligible for unemployent. Mr. Biden will also direct the Treasury Department to find ways to deliver stimulus checks to at least eight million Americans who are eligible for money but have not yet received funds. (NYTimes)
  • PROTECTING AND EMPOWERING FEDERAL WORKERS AND CONTRACTORS: This order reverses some of Mr. Trump’s actions related to the federal work force, including one that gave presidents more leeway to hire and fire workers and others that limited some bargaining rights for employees. It additionally requires that federal contractors pay their workers a $15 an hour minimum wage and emergency paid leave benefits. The order would apply to about 4 million workers, according to a Brookings Institution report last year. His legislative relief bill will attempt to extend that minimum wage to all worker.
  • Yesterday he signed the Executive Order on Ensuring the Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery.

NOW, IT’S OUR TURN…

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

Friday 1/22: Get ready to flush the filibuster!

Image and new movie date: In Frank Capra’s classic film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart’s everyman hero uses a filibuster to shame a corrupt Senate baron into confessing his schemes.

We have only 2 years before the next election and we have a lot to fix NOW!

This is a great video explainer from 2019 explaining what a Senate filibuster is.

The potential of the Democratic majority in the Senate actually passing progressive legislation has so alarmed now-Minority (oh, say that again!) Leader Mitch McConnell, that he’s already begun obstructing Joe Biden’s policy agenda. He’s threatened to delay an Organizing Resolution (which determines the power-sharing agreement in the 50-50 Senate) unless Democrats commit to keeping the archaic filibuster rule intact, hobbling ourselves on his hope that a majority of GOP will be ushered in at the midterms.

However, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) stated: “I don’t think there is any way that Democrats would find it acceptable to invoke new rules that McConnell certainly never volunteered to abide by himself.” Encourage and embolden our senators by calling them!

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Senator [___] to be sure that Majority Speaker Schumer is willing to end the filibuster as necessary to get the will of 81 million Americans pushed through the Senate.

Continue reading “Friday 1/22: Get ready to flush the filibuster!” →

Thurs 1/21: In the beginning, there was H.R.1.

H.R.1/S.1 – For the People Act of 2021: The most important bill for our democracy is still the first one.

HR 1, first introducted in 2019, is a collection of reforms to campaign finance, voting rights, and government ethics for all three branches of government. After Trump’s real-time master class in corruption, we need this bill’s stronger guardrails more than ever.
(This helpful video, from 2019, is a great conversation with the bill’s author, Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD-3). More videos from him on this bill here.)

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] to ask Rep./Sen. [___] to cosponsor [House: H.R. 1/Senate: S. 1], the For the People Act and urge [him/her] to work to swiftly pass this legislation.

More script if you want it: Addressing corruption, protecting voting rights, and reforming campaign finance should be bipartisan priorities to make our democracy better for all Americans, regardless of their political affiliation.

Continue reading “Thurs 1/21: In the beginning, there was H.R.1.” →

Fri. 1/15: Senators – Convict Trump NOW!

Action #1: Call out your senators. What are they waiting for?

Your calls for impeachment worked, and reports suggest we’re close to having the votes to convict in the Senate. But we need to keep pressuring Senate Republicans to act immediately — Leader Schumer has already agreed to do this and on January 12th, the New York Times reported that Mitch McConnell agreed that Trump committed impeachable offenses. Hell is freezing over and pigs are flying. The people have important work to do, and the Senate needs to open up for business now! (Contact info. at bottom of post.)

Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to tell Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell to use their emergency powers to immediately reconvene the Senate for Trump’s second impeachment trial, and that I expect Senator [___] to vote to convict and then disqualify Donald Trump from ever holding federal office in the future.

More script if you want it: Please be sure that Trump’s failure to act – gleefully watching insurrection on live tv while refusing calls for help, is included in your charges. (Slate)(WaPo)

If you are emailing: Add in the ACLU’s charges. You can also use their comment link and sign their petition as well:

  • Repeatedly made knowingly false statements about voter fraud and improprieties designed to undermine the legitimacy of the election results, including in a series of frivolous lawsuits, without evidence to support the claims
  • Pressured election officials in several states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, to interfere with the results of the election, including a January 2 taped phone call
  • Sought to disenfranchise people of color by targeting many of these efforts at counties and jurisdictions with predominantly Black or Brown populations
  • Directed Vice President Pence to block Congress’s certification of the Electoral College results, where the Vice President had neither the authority nor the grounds to do so
  • Urged an unruly mob to riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, in an effort to prevent the certification of the Electoral College results and to intimidate members of Congress from carrying out their constitutional duties

Action #2: GOP – You want unity? Where’s that personal responsibility you’re always talking about?!

Continue reading “Fri. 1/15: Senators – Convict Trump NOW!” →

Thurs 1/14: There is no more time to wait! D.C. statehood NOW!

The recent riots in D.C. have clarified a serious issue…

Very enlightening interview with the D.C.’s shadow legislator – Sen. Paul Strauss.

Beyond being taxed without representation, (an issue “real” patriots should be concerned about), the recent riots clarified why continuing to deny statehood to DC. is dangerous. Though larger in population than two states and almost 60 countries, D.C., as a city, lacks a governor with the ability to call up the D.C. National Guard, leaving that power with the federal government. So while our president was mesmerized by the televised spectacle of real-time insurrection in his name, the Capitol Police force was overwhelmed, and a city with over 712,000 people was left helpless for three hours as riots carried out. 

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is both rightfully angry and exasperated. At a Thursday conference, she said, “We must get statehood on the President’s desk within the first 100 days of the 117th Congress. Congress must immediately transfer command of the District of Columbia National Guard from the President of the United States and put it squarely under the command and control of the District of Columbia.”

Asked how she would have responded to the riot had she been a governor instead of a mayor, Bowser said, “We would not be restricted in any way for how to deploy the Guard, so we wouldn’t have to clear a deployment plan with the secretary of the Army.”

Call your legislators!

D.C. statehood is addressed in both in the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, and in H.R. 1- For the People Act of 2021 (Part 3, Section O, Title II – Election Integrity, Subtitle C, Section 2201)

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] ensure that Rep./Sen. [___] will be an original cosponsor for the new Washington D.C. statehood bill, as well as for H.R. 1- For the People Act of 2021.

Continue reading “Thurs 1/14: There is no more time to wait! D.C. statehood NOW!” →

Tick, tock! We’re waiting for resignations!

Quote from Washington Post. Image of Capitol from Tyler Merbler 

Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, & Mo Brooks helped set the stage for tragedy. Make ’em resign before they are arrested.

Extreme right-wing activist Ali Alexander, originator of the fraudulent “Stop the Steal” movement, reported that he had able assistance from Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-5), Paul Gosar (R-AZ-5), and Mo Brooks (R-AL-5) in planning the January 6th event in DC. “We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted video. The plan, he said, was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.” Whether the legislators knew that the crowd, riled up by speeches by Trump and others, was going to breach the Capitol and kill people is immaterial. The intent of their event was to scare legislators into changing their vote – overthrowing an election and a democracy for fear for their lives. Not only is that sedition, but with deaths involved, each of these men should face criminal charges of, at minimum, involuntary manslaughter.

Action #1 – Email Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Continue reading “Tick, tock! We’re waiting for resignations!” →

Remove the whole eco-system of sedition.

It’s not just the president…

Action #1: Expel GOP legislator objectors for putting one man over democracy.

After the riot, 4 of the 12 senators apparently chickened out.

Continue reading “Remove the whole eco-system of sedition.” →

Disbar the lawyer/legislators who helped set our country on fire!

(Header quote from earlier Florida Bar complaint against Rep. Matt Gaetz)

  • We have a list of the lawyer/legislators involved in possible ethics violations AND promoting the overthrow of a presidential election here. (Hmmm….they do not seem interested in de-seating themselves!)
  • We have a list of ALL the legislators involved in Trump’s campaign to overthrow the election here.

Action #1: Put the American Bar Association on notice that their professionals have gone rogue.

We’re not focusing on the melting-sideburns guy or the kraken lady. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) has got that covered – he’s filed complaints in five states seeking to disbar Rudy Giuliani and 22 other lawyers affiliated with Trump’s campaign for frivolous lawsuits and “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.” More that 1,500 lawyers have already contacted the American Bar Association (ABA) to agree with him.

We have a separate post to deal with all seditious legislators, lawyers or no, here.

Right now, we’re just looking at the LAWYERS who also HAPPEN TO BE LEGISLATORS who are destroying democracy for political gain. Trump didn’t do this on his own, but four years under a lawless president with no discernable consequences for his offenses, may have encouraged these dual-action figures to let their hair down a bit. They may believe that, as elected officials, they can enjoy the same immunity for lying, or sedition, as their non-lawyer colleagues. But they’d be wrong. Not if they want to remain as lawyers. So, let’s give them the freedom enjoyed by their non-licensed friends, by having them disbarred for violating a foundational rule governing those licensed as lawyers.

Instructions:

Copy/paste this letter or write a snappier one of your own and send it to the American Bar Association at gpsld@americanbar.org or snail mail to American Bar Association, Government & Public Sector Lawyers Division, 1050 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036.

Action #2: Fill out some petitions!

  • Sign this petition to the Florida Bar in support of the disbarment of Matt Gaetz here.
  • Sign Rep. Pascrell’s petition to disbar Giuliani and his gang here.

Action #3: Track ’em down, state by state. Ask governing agencies to disbar their seditionist lawyers.

OK, this action is EASIER THAN IT LOOKS! You can go total “COPY & PASTE” for your chosen lawyer/legislators, which will actually just take a few minutes, or you can personalize your letters!

Continue reading “Disbar the lawyer/legislators who helped set our country on fire!” →

Thurs. 1/7/21: Impeach Trump. Expel his back-up band.

Time tip: This action should only take you 3 minutes to do. But you can go even faster if you put the scripts for Action #1 and #2 together on your calls to both Senators. Our one representative only gets the script from Action #1.

Action #1: We deserve a president who doesn’t threaten election officials, AND one who doesn’t incite insurrection.

Rep. Ilhan Oman (D-MN) is drafting up articles of impeachment now. Make sure your legislator knows you are in support of an impeachment action.

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep./Sen. [___] to know that Trump should be impeached (articles of impeachment) not once, but twice. Once because his call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger constituted an impeachable abuse of executive power, as well as a possible violation of GA state and federal laws. He should also be impeached for inciting a riot that threatened the safety of our elected officials in Congress, breaking his sworn oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Please ask Rep./Sen. [___] to ask President Trump to resign, effective immediately, or institute impeachment proceedings.

  • UPDATE 1/9/12: Another instance of “obstruction: “Between leaning on both Gov. Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump also made a call to Georgia’s lead elections investigator to “find the fraud” in a lengthy December phone call, saying the official would be a “national hero,” according to an individual familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the conversation.“
  • UPDATE 1/8/12: (Vox) How Congress can permanently disqualify Trump from office after impeachment. The impeachment process to prevent Trump from running in 2024, explained.

(Contact information below)

Action #2: Trump didn’t do this damage by himself. He had help.

We deserve legislators who don’t manipulate fraudulent information for political gain or to incite insurrection.

Continue reading “Thurs. 1/7/21: Impeach Trump. Expel his back-up band.” →

Thurs 1/7: Save Polar Bears From Seismic Testing – DEADLINE TODAY – 11:59 pm EST!

While our Capitol was being attacked, Trump’s team was auctioning off oil and gas leases in the ANWR. – Comments due tonight by 11:59 pm EST!

Image: Polar bear sow and cubs. Photo by Steven Kazlowski.
Video is from August 21, 2020, before the lease sales.

(Sorry, everyone. Our attention was wholly taken earlier by Georgia and yesterday by the riot in Washington DC. Make a comment as quickly as you can!) Here’s where we are: “Trump administration officials auctioned off oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday (yesterday), capping Republicans’ decades-long quest to drill in one of the nation’s most vast unspoiled wild places. The move marks one of the most significant environmental rollbacks the president has accomplished in his term.“

…While a 2017 law (IV: The Trump Tax Scam!) compels the government to auction another several hundred thousand acres by the end of 2024, the incoming administration may be able to overturn that requirement now that Democrats have won control of the Senate in the wake of Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia.

Continue reading “Thurs 1/7: Save Polar Bears From Seismic Testing – DEADLINE TODAY – 11:59 pm EST!” →

Wed. 1/6/21: Impeach. Rinse. Repeat.

Photo credit: Mr. Donald Trump returning to White House, after losing the presidential election while on his golf course, 7 November 2020, Secret Service, NIMA

We deserve better. We deserve a president that doesn’t threaten election officials, AND one that doesn’t incite insurrection.

Update 1/6/21: “Last month, Trump teased Wednesday’s protests in Washington D.C., pushing the Senate to not certify the election for Biden. “Be there, will be wild!” Trump tweeted.” Why, yes it was. So wild, in fact, that after Trump told the rally outside the White House that Pence needed to reject the results of the election and “We will never give up, We will never concede,” armed and body-armored protesters pushed past barricades and police officers in riot gear to get into the Capitol. Asked to calm his followers, Trump tweeted them to “go home in peace,” along with repeating his claims of a stolen election, a perfect “QAnon” mismatch of tone, facial expression and verbal phrasing.

Four years ago, Donald Trump swore an oath to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Today, he has broken that oath by inciting an assault on the Capitol, the people’s house. Not only does this monster need to be impeached, he needs to be isolated from all communication devices (OK, this just happened) and remove him from office.

(1/4/21) Seriously. Raise your hand if you thought, upon learning of Trump’s Saturday call to Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger, that our country had become a backdrop in an old movie in which “The Boss” made veiled threats “…you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you…” to the shakedown victim, who recorded himself just in case things went south. (Full call and transcript here.) However, “Raffensperger told his advisers he did not want the recording or a transcript of the call released UNLESS Trump attacked him or misrepresented the call….”

Wait for it…Wait for it…

Trump attacked Raffensperger the next morning in a tweet. OK then. That didn’t take long. Noah Bookbinder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. (CREW), a watchdog against government excess whom we respect, stated that “The president of the United States has been caught on tape trying to rig a presidential election. This is a low point in American history and unquestionably impeachable conduct. It is incontrovertible and devastating. While the logistics of holding impeachment proceedings in the final two weeks of a presidency are admittedly hard to pull off, if this isn’t impeachable conduct, then literally nothing is. Congress must act immediately.” Also, take a moment to wonder how many other calls like this Trump has made since his loss…

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep./Sen. [___] to know that Trump should be impeached not once, but twice. Once because his call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger constituted an impeachable abuse of executive power, as well as a possible violation of GA state and federal laws. He should also be impeached for inciting a riot that threatened the safety of our elected officials in Congress, breaking his sworn oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Please ask Rep./Sen. [___] to ask President Trump to resign, effective immediately, or institute impeachment proceedings.

Continue reading “Wed. 1/6/21: Impeach. Rinse. Repeat.” →