Tell Biden and your legislators that we want our post office back.

Quote by Michael Hiltzik, LA Times

Action #1: Senators – Replace Ron Bloom and John Barger on the Board of Governors immediately.
Action #2. Representatives – Congress must enable postal leadership to build the USPS of the future.
Action #3. Talk to Joe.

“The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people. “ – 39 U.S. Code § 101(a)

Things are heating up under the USPS pot.

Seven representatives have submitted H.Con.Res.54 – “Objecting to the slowdown in mail delivery and postage rate increase instituted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and seeking to halt both actions pending further investigation.“
77 public interest groups sent a letter to President Biden demanding that he NOT reappoint Chair of the USPS Board of Governors Ron Bloom, documenting how his backing of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy implicated him in DeJoy’s failure of leadership, poor performance, and conflicts of interest of both men. (Letter with list of signers here)
Soon after Postmaster Louis DeJoy began sabotaging the post office, over 300 organizations, including groups like Public Citizen, ACLU, NAACP, Indivisible, MoveOn, Color of Change, the American Postal Workers Union, National Farmers Union, VoteVets, and RuralOrganizing.org – put together a list that will be our marching orders today.

“The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people.” – 39 U.S. Code § 101(a)

Action #1: Senators – Replace Ron Bloom and John Barger on the Board of Governors immediately.

Continue reading →

Tell your senators to vote “YES” on the Freedom to Vote Act and to kill the filibuster to get it through!

Action #1: Call your senators.
Action #2: Call the White House
Action #3: Email Joe.

Action #1: Call your senators.

Minimal script for SEN. FEINSTEIN (not a cosponsor): I’m calling from [zip code] to ask Sen. [___] to support S.2747 – the “Freedom to Vote Act,” a nationwide minimum standard to protect the rights of voters and to strengthen our democracy while we still have one. We’ve read that she may now be willing to support bypassing the filibuster rule to enact this bill. Please convey to the senator that her active and enthusiastic cooperation with such an effort is the basic minimum or we will be asking for her resignation.

Minimal script for SEN. PADILLA (cosponsor): I’m calling from [zip code] to thank Sen. [___] for supporting S.2747 – the “Freedom to Vote Act,” the nationwide standard to protect the rights of voters and to strengthen our democracy. I also want to thank him for understanding the importance of this bill and being willing to flush the filibuster to make it happen.

Contact:

Cosponsor update (9/20/21): Check here.
(Other senators to worry about: Manchin (WV), Sinema (AZ), Jon Tester (MT), Coons (DE), Carper (DE), King (MN) Hassan (NH), Cardin (MD))

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 Padilla: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (310) 231-4494, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 981-9369, SD (619) 239-3884
Who is my senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com

Action #2: Call the White House

Minimal script: President Biden said we’re facing “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” He’s right and we need him to use every lever of power and influence at his disposal to persuade the Senate to pass the Freedom To Vote Act, including speaking out against the filibuster.

Contact: 1.202-456-1111 The White House comment line is open Tuesday to Thursday, from 11 am – 3 pm ET. When you reach a staff member, tell them your name and that you are a constituent. Then, demand that President Biden do everything in his power to help overcome the filibuster and pass the Freedom to Vote Act.

Action #3: Email Joe.

SAMPLE script: Joe, you’ve said that we’re facing “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” You’re right.

Continue reading →

Invest in the rest of us! It’s time to pass our budget reconciliation priorities! Contact your senators!

Action #1 – Call your senators now!
Action #2 – Email your senators now! Indivisible and NAACP scripts to mix-and-match!
Action #3 – Get your friends and relatives in Arizona and West Virginia to call their senators

Share this video with GOP friends and family you know…

It’s getting close, resistance-campers! Biden wants this done before he heads off to explain why we can’t have nice things (Manchin, Sinema) to the Glasgow Climate Summit.

Continue reading →

There were actually two coup events. Jan. 6 was the second one. Time to do some House-cleaning.

Every Member of Congress who was involved should be expelled.

Every staffer who was involved should be fired.

Every lawyer who was involved should be disbarred.https://t.co/hsUqo9oFi6
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) October 25, 2021

The first one happened on Jan. 2nd, where, from their “command center” at the Willard Hotel, Trump and Giuliani spoke by conference call to 300 GOP state legislators, urging them to decertify” the election results based on alleged fraud. Trump assured them, “You are the real power. You’re the ones that are going to make the decision.” Dozens contacted Pence, urging him to delay certification of Biden’s victory for 10 days to allow “our respective bodies to meet, investigate, and as a body vote on certification or decertification of the election,” despite the continued court losses and lack of evidence. Jan. 2 was also the date of Trump’s mob-boss phone call to GA SOS Raffensberger

However, we in Democratic states have no power over these lickspittles. And for the second coup attempt on Jan. 6, we won’t be able to get rid of all 147 lawmakers who fed the Big Lie to their constituents. But recently testimony at the Jan. 6 select committee named federal lawmakers directly involved in the insurrection planning, confirming early reports. Rep. Gosar even dangled pre-emptive pardons for organizers. So let’s contact our own legislators and Nancy Pelosi and urge them to clean house.

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I have been following the testimony from the Jan. 6 select committee. I want Rep. [___] to do whatever is necessary to expel every legislator implicated in the planning of the Jan. 6 insurrection, including Reps. Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, and Louie Gohmert. My tax dollars should not be wasted on seditionists.

Contact:

Rep. Julia Brownley (CA-26): email, DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
or Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24): email. DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
Who is my representative/senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com

Continue reading →

Wednesday, 10/20 – “Dear Joe, is an inevitable tragedy an accident?”

10/20 Action: Write him and ask.

Sample letter: Dear Joe,

Californians awoke to another “accident” – a beach covered in oil, dead fish and wildlife. An anchor snagged a pipeline, leaking 588 barrels of oil. It joins 17 similar incidents, and more will come as the storms of climate change blow ships off-course, anchors dragging.

Is Enbridge’s next catasphrophe an “accident?” This foreign corporation, with 800 spills in the last 15 years, including our nation’s worst inland oil spill, has already breached an aquifer constructing Line 3, and spilled drilling fluid 28 times. Its line carries Canada’s tar sands oil – toxic sludge born in the destruction of boreal forests, whose first tears are acid rain, and whose waste – petcoke – poisons poorer countries and shreds our atmosphere. And between its birth and its burning, it crosses 227 water bodies, until human error, frost heave, or corrosion allow it to drift to the bottom, poisonous and unrecoverable.

Can actuaries quantify the risk to rice fields noted in records from the 1600’s, rice so sacred that it’s the first plant species in the US to be granted legal personhood, with legal rights to “flourish, regenerate, and evolve” in “pure water and freshwater habitat” and “a healthy climate.” How about the risk of poisoning Lake Superior, drinking water for 40 million?

Joe, stop this pipeline in the name of Native treaties, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, the National Historic Preservation Act, the EO on the Protection of Sacred Sites and the “disproportionate and adverse impacts” on Native people noted in the EIS.

Stop this pipeline for the Paris Accords. Even without the CEPP, preventing 50 new coal plants’ or 38 million additional cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere every year for the next three to five decades and a “social cost of carbon” to MN of $287 billion, is significant.

Stop this pipeline BEFORE the inevitable “accident” occurs, and we’re forced to quantify irreparable loss.

Contact Joe here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Continue reading →

Tuesday evening 10/19 – It’s done! Criminal contempt charges for Bannon!

The Jan. 6 House select committee ~~will meet this evening (Tuesday 10/19) to consider holding~~ just voted unanimously to ask the House to hold former Trump White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol shot down a last-minute request from former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon to delay a scheduled vote to refer him for prosecution based on a lawsuit filed Monday by President Trump. (Chairman Bennie G. Thompson’s statement of cooperation of witness Steve Bannon here.)

A quick review:

He was fully aware of pending chaos on Jan. 6. He told listeners to his radio show on Jan. 5: “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” And again on the morning of Jan. 6 he warned: “Today’s not just a rally. At one o’clock that starts and there’s going to be some pretty controversial things going on.”
Bannon was no longer part of the White House staff since being fired in 2017 and therefore is in no way protected by “executive privilege.
By refusing to testify, Bannon’s breaking federal law. 18 U.S. Code Section 1505 state that whoever “influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law” by government departments, agencies, and committees is subject to a fine and five years in prison.

What happens after now?

“The committee’s report is then referred to the House for a vote. If the vote succeeds, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi certifies the report to the United States attorney for the District of Columbia. Under law, this certification then requires the United States attorney to “bring the matter before the grand jury for its action,” but the Justice Department will also makes its own determinations for prosecuting. Any individual who is found liable for contempt of Congress is then guilty of a crime that may result in a fine and between one and 12 months imprisonment.”

Then other witnesses will see that they’ll face consequences and the committee can get on with their business.

Action #1 & #2 are COMPLETED:

The House and the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have done their work. Now it’s up to Attorney General Garland.

Action #3: Email Attorney General Merrick Garland

Continue reading →

Tell your senators to vote “YES” on the Freedom to Vote Act and to kill the filibuster to get it through!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-sweeping-voting-rights-bill-republicans-promise-filibuster-n1281651

The Freedom to Vote Act (S.2747) has replaced the “For the People Act” in the Senate. This bill, which is backed by Stacey Abrams of Fair Fight, makes Election Day a holiday, ends gerrymandering, combats the anti-voting laws working their way through state legislatures, requires states to allow 15 days of early voting (including 2 weekends), massively expands voting access through automatic voter registration and Election Day registration, increase election security by creating a national standard for voter verified paper ballots, implement a national voter ID standard with reasonable alternatives like utility bills or bank statements, requires voting machines be made in the United States, protect nonpartisan election officials from partisan interference, shines a light on dark money, and makes it harder for billionaires and special interests to buy elections. It’s a good start and and Manchin’s reputation, and the future of the filibuster, is also on the line.

Action: Call. Today. Tomorrow. Wednesday.

Minimal script for SEN. FEINSTEIN (not a cosponsor): I’m calling from [zip code] to ask Sen. [___] to support S.2747 – the “Freedom to Vote Act.” It’s imperative that we set a nationwide standard to protect the rights of voters and to strengthen our democracy. We also expect [her] to step-up and support killing the filibuster outright or carving out a voting-rights exception in it to support this bill

Minimal script for SEN. PADILLA (cosponsor): I’m calling from [zip code] to thank Sen. [___] for supporting S.2747 – the “Freedom to Vote Act.” It’s imperative that we set a nationwide standard to protect the rights of voters and to strengthen our democracy. We also expect [him] to step-up and support removing the filibuster to support this bill.

Cosponsor update (9/20/21): Check here.

Contact:

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 Padilla: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (310) 231-4494, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 981-9369, SD (619) 239-3884
Who is my senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com

Information on the Freedom to Vote Act.

Continue reading →

Update: Invest in the rest of us! It’s time to pass our budget reconciliation priorities!

What are we getting for our +20% in combined taxes? Let’s compare, point by point, with the Swedish guy above and they talk to our legislators…

Healthcare: Even with the Affordable Care Act, two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills, with 20% of those in the 55+ age group. 70% of Americans with medical bills had to cut their food expenses to avoid bankruptcy.Our students owe. A 2019 poll found 25% of Americans say they or a family member have delayed medical treatment for a serious illness due to the costs of care. 34 million Americans know of family member or friend who died in the last 5 tears after being unable to afford treatment.
College: U.S. student loan debt totals $1.6 trillion as of March 31, 2021. 62% of students graduate with debt and the average U.S. household with student debt owes $57,520.
Retirement: “The U.S. is on a path to a predictable and unfortunate outcome — millions of working Americans unable to meet their basic needs in retirement.” This is helped on by corporation replacing pensions with 401k’s or refusing benefits entirely.
Welfare: Read and weep. “In comparing poverty in the U.S. to these OECD countries, we find that American poverty is both more prevalent and more extreme.”
Parental leave: Among 41 countries, the U.S. is the only developed country that does not require employers to provide any paid leave to new parents, though some states, like R.I, and N.J. require it.
Child care: Rich countries contribute an average of $14,000 per year for a toddler’s care, compared with $500 in the U.S. The Democrats’ spending bill tries to shrink the gap.
Paid sick leave: The U.S. is the only developed country that does not guarentee paid sick leave in any capacity, though some states like NY and CA have statewide mandates.

Action: Call/email your legislators now! Pick a script to call or email!

Continue reading →

Undeniable – Addressing the systemic racism behind U.S. housing. Vote “Yes” for equity.

Event and an action!

The Event: Today, at 6:30, you can participate in a free webinar regarding Richard Rothstein’s book – ”The Color Of Law – A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” (6:30 pm PDT) Sign up here – www.rebrand.ly/colorlaw

Rothstein, who is an engaging lecturer, documents how American governments in the twentieth century deliberately imposed residential racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide. His book offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation.” If you can’t make this event, we’ve included two great video lectures to watch at the bottom.

Continue reading →

Wednesday, 10/13 – “Dear Joe, did you mean what you said about listening to Indigenous peoples?”

Action: Write him and ask.

If you haven’t done Monday’s tasks yet, go here.

Today’s letter to Joe is a riff on what he promised in his proclamation declaring Indigenous People’s Day. Use what you want of it, or better yet, read the proclamation, and use your own voice.

Dear Joe,

In your proclamation, you wrote “…History demonstrates that Native American people — and our Nation as a whole — are best served when Tribal governments are empowered to lead their communities and when Federal officials listen to and work together with Tribal leaders when formulating Federal policy that affects Tribal Nations…The Federal Government has a solemn obligation to lift up and invest in the future of Indigenous people and empower Tribal Nations to govern their own communities and make their own decisions...”

I read it through several times and was struck by the evident respect and admiration for our nation’s Indigenous peoples. I’m writing to ask if you meant what you said. If your words were real. Actionable.

Continue reading →