Mon – 8/6: How much is our wildlife worth? The GOP is willing to liquidate our natural heritage for cash. WRITE! Deadline Sept. 24th.

(Quote by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), the Natural Resources Committee’s top Democrat)

Action – Protect the Endangered Species Act by speaking out.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries has been forced by law to seek public input on proposed reforms to “Improve & Modernize Implementation of the Endangered Species Act”. So, let’s blow them out of the oil-polluted water in which they swim. Deadline is September 24th, so comment early and often. Continue reading “Mon – 8/6: How much is our wildlife worth? The GOP is willing to liquidate our natural heritage for cash. WRITE! Deadline Sept. 24th.” →

Fri 8/3: It just takes one census question on citizenship to steal power from our state. Comment now to stop this! Deadline Tuesday, Aug. 7th.

Action – Remove Discriminatory Citizenship Question from 2020 U.S. Census! – Deadline, Tuesday, Aug. 7th, 11:59 pm EST

How to comment on this census scam:

Click here to comment. Write, submit, you’re done.
You can also submit your comment through the MomsRising.org site here. Add a personal message if you can.
If you’re interested in reading the administration’s nonsense explanation of this whole scam, click here.
If you need more inspiration, go here. (currently under construction, apparently)

Background

Why is this census so important?: It’s critical that the U.S. Census gets an accurate headcount of everyone in the United States. The population counts are used to determine:

how to allocate billions of tax dollars (hospitals, public schools, public services, etc.)
how many U.S. representatives in Congress a state should have.
Every state is allocated a number of electoral votes based to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus one for each of its members in the U. S. House of Representatives. Right now, CA has the largest number at 55.

Continue reading “Fri 8/3: It just takes one census question on citizenship to steal power from our state. Comment now to stop this! Deadline Tuesday, Aug. 7th.” →

Thurs – 8/2: Killing Cecil.

(Updated 8/3/2018)

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 05: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) protesters hold pictures of Cecil the Lion as they stand in front of the Department of Interior building to protest against the importing of wild game killed as trophies August 5, 2015 in Washington, DC. Peta is calling on the Fish and Wildlife Service to take steps to end cruel trophy hunting by listing lions as a threatened species and banning the importation of their heads, tails, and skins into the U.S.

Action – We can’t stop them from killing things but we can make it less fun.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued more than three dozen permits for hunters to bring back lion trophy parts from Zimbabwe and Zambia between 2016-2018, and More than half of those hunters donated to Republican lawmakers or have ties to hunting advocacy group Safari Club International. The Trump administration is prompt in rewarding its supporters while putting a vulnerable species at risk.

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep./Senator [___] to bring an end to lion trophy import permits and to investigate whether the hunting-industry majority of the International Wildlife Conservation Council violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Contact:
Rep. Julia Brownley: email (CA-26): DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
or Rep. Salud Carbajal: email (CA-24): DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
Senator Feinstein: email DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email DC (202) 224-3553, LA (213) 894-5000, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 355-9041, SD (619) 239-3884
Other Contacts: https://hq-salsa.wiredforchange.com

Background

Killing Cecil was really expensive. Traveling across the world to see Africa’s animals in the wild is an costly proposition. To kill one is even more expensive, as a “trophy” tax must be paid for each dead animal, which is supposedly used for conservation efforts. We sprinkled a sampling in amongst our background report to give you a rough idea of what each kind is worth. (POA stands for “Price on application”)

dangerous game.jpeg Continue reading “Thurs – 8/2: Killing Cecil.” →

Wed – 8/1: The great Kavanaugh Paper Caper

(A copy of the ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,’ a 1,097-page Republican tax bill, including 503 pages of legislative text. Redistributing wealth upwards is complicated!.)

The GOP doesn’t mind huge amounts of paperwork…

They just ignore it. They passed their 500+ page tax scam even though Rand Paul stated “Not one member of the Senate will read this bill before we vote on it.” The GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee managed to ignore all the evidence on the connection between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin and walked away.

Why put on the brakes now?

The GOP suspects that Democrats will actually scrutinize every page on Brett Kavanaugh’s past before his nomination can be sent to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote, which Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley wants to happen prior to the November 6th election. So he’s trying to limit how far they can go. Democrats requested the emails and other papers from Kavanaugh’s time as staff secretary in the Bush administration, which Grassley refused to ask for. Considering that Ryan Bounds was knocked out of contention for a federal bench seat by articles he wrote for his college paper, this exception is arbitrary. Both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kagan generated substantial volumes of documents accumulated in their previous positions, and both nominees had these documents released as part of their confirmation process. Dianne Feinstein’s message to Grassley: “Your unduly restrictive reading of the law results in one political party having complete control over what records the Senate will be able to see,… a biased denial of document requests to one half of the Committee is unsupported by the law.”

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee fight back.

Continue reading “Wed – 8/1: The great Kavanaugh Paper Caper” →

Tues 7/31 – Today’s the LAST day to comment on the “gag rule”! Forced-birthers are all in. We need to be too.

(Quote source – Watch the whole disturbing exchange here.
This post was originally published on 7/26. It’s updated with new actions.)

Heads up, people! We are LOSING the numbers game on comments!!!

Action #1: Make a comment now!

If you did it yesterday, do it again. Comments supporting the gag rule are outnumbering us at what looks like 25:1. Most are form letters.

And remember that this is not just a women’s battle.

The majority of people, INCLUDING MEN, who’ve benefited by women having full access to reproductive care, support access to abortion. Ask the men in your life to write too. Commenting is really easy to do. It takes 5 minutes. After you make a comment, make another. Make a dozen. Call/email/facebook/instagram or smoke signal your friends and have them start making comments.

The group that came up with the Dept. of Reproductive Control has created an easy form here to submit before the deadline of July 31.
Or go old school – directly to the government comment form here.
Read the “Supplementary Information” and watch the comment tally go up here.
Examples of opposing comments at the bottom.

Action #2: Read this article.

Women Will Be Punished.

The gloves are off. Forced-birthers have pretended for a long time that women are Continue reading “Tues 7/31 – Today’s the LAST day to comment on the “gag rule”! Forced-birthers are all in. We need to be too.” →

Mon 7/30: “Ghost” guns, untraceable, undetectable, being made in a garage near you. Thanks, GOP! 5 actions to take now! This starts Aug. 1st.

Remember who allowed this to happen…

The day that metal detectors became useless.
The day that laws and restraining orders preventing the underage, the violent and the criminal from obtaining weapons became null and void.
The day the ability to trace weapons back to their source became moot.

…then do the 5 actions at the bottom.

This didn’t start yesterday: Five years ago, Cody Wilson, of Defense Distributed, published designs online for the “Liberator,” the world’s first 3D-printed handgun. The US Dept. of State office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance sued to block publication, arguing that they posed a national security risk and violated the Internation Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). The government won the initial trial as well as the subsequent appeal.

Continue reading “Mon 7/30: “Ghost” guns, untraceable, undetectable, being made in a garage near you. Thanks, GOP! 5 actions to take now! This starts Aug. 1st.” →

FREE DACA Renewal Clinic – get help with your paperwork! Volunteers needed!

Volunteers and immigration lawyers will assist eligible applicants fill out their DACA renewal forms at this FREE clinic!

¬Immigration attorneys!
¬ Scholarships for DACA fees available! See info below.
¬Get your DACA renewed while you can, laws are changing.

Monday, August 6th, 5:30-7:30 pm
Knights of Columbus, 136 S. Ojai St, Santa Paula

Flyers in English (here) and Spanish (here). Print them, clip the tags apart, hand them out, and plaster them all around Ventura County!

To sign up to volunteer, call (805) 650-1044. If you’ve never participated before and haven’t taken the training course, come at 5:00 pm for the training session. People with Spanish language skills are most appreciated, but not required.

DACA renewal fee waivers

Continue reading “FREE DACA Renewal Clinic – get help with your paperwork! Volunteers needed!” →

Saturday’s Families Belong Together Rally – “Where else would I be?”

After thanking them for attending our rally Saturday evening, people gave the same answer…”Where else would I be?

We had people for whom walking and standing was a difficult business. But still they came, to stand on the unforgivingly hard sidewalk. “Where else would I be?

We had people who were protesters back when Vietnam was the issue, and people who came out for the first time. “Where else would I be?

Every generation has its defining issue, where people of conscience speak out for those who can’t. Our president has left no part of our democracy unscathed, but it will be the deliberate weaponization of family destruction, with the welfare of children casually dismissed as collateral damage, that will forever mark this administration’s reign.

And for that, we will resist. Where else would we be?

(One participant shared these great photos with us. If you others you’d like to share, please send to indivisibleventura@gmail.com)

Continue reading “Saturday’s Families Belong Together Rally – “Where else would I be?”” →

Fri/Sat – 7/27-28: We have a lot to do for the economic and terrorism refugees on our border, so let’s get started…

This is part 1. Part 2 will be posted on Monday.

Action #1 – Join us at Families Belong together rally this Saturday!

There are things happening now we will not normalize and we will not forget.

Join us this Saturday, July 28th, from 6-8 pm at the Ventura Co. Government Center! Here are the links for information. RSVP and share, share, share on Facebook. If you’re too far away to join our rally, check here to see if there’s one closer to you.

“As a court-ordered deadline to reunite all eligible families the Trump administration separated at the border elapsed, one in three children still remained away from their parents, with no clear indication when they would be reunited.” (CNN)

The Trump administration stated that more than 900 parents are not eligible for reunification and they’d already deported more than 450 parents without their children. This is unacceptable, and we must continue to work together to demand that the Trump administration immediately reunite all families, end family incarceration, and end the 100% prosecution policy that created this crisis and chaos.

We DEMAND that Congress establish a task force dedicated to family reunification.
We DEMAND that families be provided counseling and any other services they require to deal with the trauma inflicted on them by our own government.
We DEMAND that this administration and its various agencies; indeed, ANYONE who had anything to do with this policy, be held accountable for this humanitarian disaster.
More talking points to review here.

Action #2 – Contribute to the “I AM A CHILD” movement.

The I AM A CHILD March in DC on Thursday paid homage to the historic I AM A MAN photo from 1968 when Memphis sanitation workers went on strike for their humanity. This new movement is to remind Americans that ALL children are human beings and deserve to be with their parents. Continue reading “Fri/Sat – 7/27-28: We have a lot to do for the economic and terrorism refugees on our border, so let’s get started…” →

Fri – 7/27: The fight over liability for tragedies like the Thomas Fire is almost over…join in now!

(Photo of site of Hawaiian Village Apartments, Ventura, CA)

Make this call immediately!

California investor-owned utilities, including Southern California Edison, are working at the State Capitol to change California’s liability laws to shield themselves from financial liability if they are found responsible for the devastating recent fires in the State, including the Thomas Fire and the mudslides it caused. Their proposed legislation, AB 33, has already passed the CA Assembly and is heading into its final state Senate votes.

How are they doing this?

Along with Governor Brown, PG&E and SCE are lobbying Sacramento to change California’s application of inverse condemnation law to investor-owned utilities (IOUs) like themselves. They are also trying to have California pass a bond measure that would require ratepayers to reimburse the bonds used to finance wildfire settlements.

What is “inverse condemnation”?

First, let’s start with a term most of us already know – “Eminent Domain”, where the government has the power to force the sale of private property for a public project or use provided that the owner is paid just conpensation. Governments with eminent domain power can sue defendants to force “direct condemnation“.”Inverse condemnation” switches the parties around, with the property owner suing the government for a taking of private property without eminent domain procedures and without payment of compensation. This can included temporary taking/occupation such as flooding.