The deployment of radicalized, abusive and untrained paramilitary forces against American protesters is just the beginning of Trump’s nationalistic free-for-all. The administration has been consulting with John Yoo, the former government lawyer who wrote the legal justification for waterboarding, on how the president could rule our country by decree, completely skipping over Congress and those pesky checks-and-balances. In a Fox News Sunday interview, Trump declared that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on immigration allows him to issue decrees on healthcare, immigration and “various other plans” over the coming month. Yesterday morning, he issued a directive instructing the U.S. Census Bureau to not count undocumented immigrants for purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives, targeting states like California, Texas and New York with large communities of residents who lack a legal immigration status. His earlier efforts to add a citizenship question to the census was thrown out of court.
“We are one people; we are only family. And when we finally accept these truths, then we will be able to fulfill Dr. King’s dream to build a beloved community, a nation, and a world at peace with itself.” – John Lewis. Great photo essay her)
Action #1: Rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge after Rep. John Lewis.
Sign this petition to Governor Kay Ivey. Almost half a million have signed on by this morning.
“It’s far past time to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge after Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon that nearly gave his life on that bridge,” said Michael Starr Hopkins. “Edmund Pettus was a bitter racist, (Confederate general and leader in the Alabama Ku Klux Klan), undeserving of the honor bestowed upon him. As we wipe away this country’s long stain of bigotry, we must also wipe away the names of men like Edmund Pettus.”
The Edmund Pettus Bridge, now a National Historic Landmark, was the site of the brutal Bloody Sunday beatings of civil rights marchers during the first march for voting rights. The televised attacks were seen all over the nation, prompting public support for the civil rights activists in Selma and for the voting rights campaign. After Bloody Sunday, protestors were granted the right to continue marching, and two more marches for voting rights followed.”
Action #2: Senate – Pass H.R.4 – Voting Rights Advancement Act and rename it as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act!
Write a comment against Trump’s proposed human rights violating asylum changes. Deadline 7/15 (Wednesday) 11:59 pm EST.
Over the last three years, the Trump administration has drastically altered the U.S. asylum system. From attempts to ban asylum seekers who entered the United States between Ports of Entry, to forcing more than 60,000 to wait in squalor in Mexico while their cases wind their way through backlogged immigration courts, gaining access to the U.S. asylum system has become fraught with challenges. Continue reading “Tues. 7/14: Speak out against the Trump administration’s deadly new asylum proposal – deadline Wednesday – 7/15”→
Today! Join together with everyone else who’s been holding their breath and CELEBRATE!
12:30 pm – Join the car rally: “Please join us today at 12:30pm for a celebratory rally. Park at La Gloria infront of metrolink station. We will highlight the intersection of the BLM movement and immigrant rights, as well as LGBTQ.”
2:45pm in Camarillo: a social distancing rally at the ICE office, 321 Cortez Circle (the same place we stood with the Oxnard Pastors)
Action: Call your CA state senator and say you want them to vote “YES” on ACA 5.
25 years ago, CA voters approved Prop 209, which prevented our state, one of only eight, from taking active measures to prevent discrimination and ensure equality of opportunity. A pandemic has inadvertently exposed one result of that long-ago vote to light…African-Americans in California are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as whites.
Today is Loving Day – Celebrate by calling your senators to stop seating racist judges.
Justice and judges are not blind in America.Good judges remove barriers to equality. Bad ones make them. Good overview of history and laws leading up to Loving v. Virginia.
Action: Tell your senators that voting for Federalist Society judicial nominees is a racist action.
UPDATE 6/11: Justin Walker just got cloture. Up for vote Friday or Monday. We need 4 GOP senators to vote against him. Call your friends and family in RED states!
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pronounced himself “appalled” by the killing of George Floyd. and intends to hold hearings on policing, racial discrimination by police and police/community relations.Frankly, we don’t want to hear him prattle on about the causes of police officers casually administering capital punishment in our streets. We know what causes it – racism – embedded in every layer of our public life. Organizations such as the Marshall Project, Campaign Zero,Movement for Black Lives and the Sentencing Project have been analyzing this issue for years and the House has already put together a bill. The almost all-white, GOP-controlled Senate is hoping we’ll get too distracted by something else to notice that they won’t pass it.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 