This Memorial Day, remind your legislators of what’s important.

Action #1: Honor delayed too long. Medals for all the “Harlem Hellfighters!”
Action #2: No one left behind – paying off our war debt to living soldiers. Pay for their health care!
Action #3: What we can do now about the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Today we’re honoring two Memorial Days, one to honor soldiers who died in far-flung places defending our democracy, and one for the Black men, women and children of Tulsa, OK, who suffered a war at home, 100 years ago.

For both of them, let’s do a some quick actions in their honor. Fill up your legislators’ voicemail boxes and stack up messages in their email accounts.

Action #1: Honor delayed too long.

Minimal script for representatives: I’m [calling/emailing] from [zip code] to thank Rep. [___] for supporting H.R.3642 —To award a Congressional gold medal to the 369th Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters”, in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service during World War I.

Continue reading →

Friday, May 28, is the second act of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Senate GOP just used the filibuster to block a commission.

Action #1 – Tell your legislator we need a House select committee.
Action #2 – Write emails to President Biden and Attorney General (Sample included)
Action #3 – Send postcards/letters to Sens. Manchin and Sinema (Sample included)

With their Trump-centric re-election campaigns to plot, the GOP betrays the nation and their sworn oaths.

The GOP ignores both the pleas of the Capitol officers who protect them every day, and of a mother of Brian Sicknick, who died as a result of his injuries from the insurrection.

(The Hill) “This vote has made it official. Donald Trump’s big lie has now fully enveloped the Republican Party. Trump’s big lie is now the defining principle of what was once the party of Lincoln.” – Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer

(The Hill) “Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans’ denial of the truth of the January 6th insurrection brings shame to the Senate. Republicans’ cowardice in rejecting the truth of that dark day makes our Capitol and our country less safe.” – House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Action #1 – Tell your legislator we need a House select committee.

This can be created quickly by majority vote. Members and staff would need to be recruited, but they are already on hand in Congress. According to Just Security, a select committee could also be given subpoena power comparable to other House committees. But most importantly, “..congressional committees have special access privileges to Trump administration documents, including White House documents, that have been sent to the National Archives. Under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), most Trump White House documents are effectively under seal for several years. But Congress can break that seal right away based on a low showing of need. What happened in the White House during the insurrection remains one of the biggest gaps in our understanding.”

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep. [___] to encourage Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi to create a House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6th insurrection.

Continue reading →

Utility companies are using AB 1139 to kill CA’s rooftop solar industry. Our legislators are letting it happen!

We just called our assemblymember’s office and we’re told they are studying this NOW! Get on the phone. Email them too. Make sure they know that this is important to us.

Action #1: How many ways can we say “NO” to AB-1139?

This bad legislation just slid through the Assembly Appropriations Committee! Make sure your assemblymember AND YOUR STATE SENATOR are prepared to do the right thing and bring it down!

(from Indivisible CA Green Team) Consumers suffer when power is concentrated in the hands of a few. This was the lesson learned from the 2000 electricity crisis and out of that grew California’s commitment to consumer solar and localized energy. However, the potential for additional revenue is forcing us to repeat history as lobbyists for PG&E, SDG&E AND SoCal Edison are telling Sacto politicians that our solar is the reason why utility bills are skyrocketing. Investor-owned utilities like P,G&E are threatened by this people-centered movement cutting into their profits, so they’re making up lies to justify killing our solar, even though it is the solution to rising utility bills, power outages, and wildfires.

Continue reading →

Wed. 5/26 is “Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act” Call-In Day!

Please join us on Wednesday, 5/26/21 to flood Congress with calls from across the nation urging them to fight plastic pollution by co-sponsoring the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021.

Action #1: Tell your representatives: Support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act
Action #2: Tell Amazon shareholders to vote YES on reporting on single-use plastic pollution
Action #3: Tell Whole Foods: Take single-use plastic packaging off your shelves.

Plastic is toxic, and includes 144 chemicals or chemical groups known to be hazardous to human health. Microplastic particles are so pervasive in our food and water that the average person ingests a credit card’s worth of plastic (5g) every week. A recent study even documented microplastic particles in maternal human placentas. Breaking free from plastic would protect human health and improve fertility, helping ensure our survival as a species.

Action #1: Tell your representatives: Support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act

Continue reading →

Who owns American history? The GOP’s battle against Critical Race Theory and what we can do about it.

Action #1: Tell your legislators to vote against any legislation that suppresses accurate scholarship on America’s history and the effect of that history on Americans today.
Action #2: Ask college and university presidents to boycott students from states that outlaw or limit the teaching of Critical Race Theory and the accurate portrayal of America’s history.
Quick Definitions of Terms: History, Critical Race Theory, Historical Revisionism.

The GOP thinks they can still control the narrative…The nation’s revulsion at the daylight executions of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd demanded historical context of the violence done to Black citizens. Opened in 2018, our country finally possesses a museum and a memorial dedicated to the more than 4400 lynching victims who died between 1877 and 1950, opened with unflinching detail in Montgomery, Alabama. (Watch the dedication here.)

Continue reading →

“Low-income communities have borne the brunt of systemic racism in our financial institutions…”

A public bank can help change that. “YES” on AB 1177

This is a really interesting video.

Action #1 – Make the call.

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] to tell Asm./Sen. [___] to vote “YES” on AB 1177 when it comes before you.

More script if you want it: This bill is important to me.”Providing adequate banking services is a social responsibility of any decent, humane and economically efficient society — and AB1177 is a partial recognition of that fact.“

Continue reading →

GOP, your refusal to participate in a Jan. 6 commission is un-American, unpatriotic and a violation of your sworn oaths.

How would history treat legislators if they had blocked the 9/11 Commission or the Warren Commission looking into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination? The first question would be: What are they trying to hide? The next would be: How could someone who has taken an oath not put the Constitution above partisan defensiveness? Republicans, it seems, no longer care that they look like pawns or that they have violated their oaths. Americans must keep this in mind in 2022, 2024 and beyond.

Continue reading →

This woman is bragging about how easy it is to destroy democracy from the inside out.

Tell your senators to work harder on getting “S.1” passed and the filibuster eliminated.

The woman’s boss and Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich bluntly articulated his radical views on voting rights. “I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Democratic groups should be emulating Matt Sinovic, executive director of progressive lobbying group Progress Iowa, who plans to submit open records requests to determine if Iowa’s legislative leaders worked with Heritage.

“The governor and Republicans in the Legislature must release every bit of communication they’ve had with the Heritage Foundation, so we can know the truth about their work with this shadowy group.” (See their members here. Hi, Betsy!)

Continue reading →

Tues 5/18: It’s time to get serious about toxins in baby food.

Photo: Exposure to heavy metals arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury pose heightened health risks for babies, even at low levels. Credit: yalehealth via Pixabay

“YES” on S. 1019 – Baby Food Safety Act

Unless it’s punching down, like “gagging” health providers from sharing abortion and contraceptive options, or permitting discrimination against LGBTQ patients, today’s GOP despises regulations as supposed destroyers of personal freedom, jobs and economic growth. Never mind that their political forebear – President Nixon, created the Clean Water Act in response to a river CATCHING ON FIRE! Trump overturned over a 100 health and safety environmental protections and it’s no surprise that Caitlyn Jenner’s biggest plank in her campaign to unseat Governor is to strip out CA’s regulations, while simultaneously increasing them against trans girls and women who compete in sports.

Continue reading →

Other countries think U.S. health care is both expensive and barbaric. They are right.

Ask your legislators to support the State-Based Universal Health Care (SBUHC) Act of 2021

Action #1: Call your House Representative to be cosponsors. A call takes less than a minute.
Action #2: Email a letter your House representative and their aides to be cosponsors. (Sample letter included)

AB 1400-CalCare, CA’s latest single-payer proposal to fix for our bloated, yet cruelly inadequate health care system, has been temporarily placed on hold over the question of funding, including whether or not the federal government would grant us a waiver to obtain control over our Medicare and Medicaid costs. (Statement by Asm. Kalra)

Continue reading →