Wed – 5/8: Call today, the House votes tomorrow. HR 986 – Protecting Americans with pre-existing Conditions Act

Yeah, guys, we get it. You can’t have babies, so why should your insurance plan include pregnancy coverage? Well, women are never going to need a prostate exam. Or Viagra. Adults don’t need childhood vaccinations and kids don’t need mammograms or colonoscopies. However, we need to stick together, like one big patient union, to make sure insurance covers everyone.

Remember the bad old days? When our profit-centric insurance industry wouldn’t cover people with existing (and common) conditions or a job they thought was dangerous? When they refused to cover long lists of common medications? When they capped yearly or lifetime coverage? When they “rescissioned” people off plans for a missed notation in their file? The insurance industry can hardly wait to get back to business as usual. Until we can get rid of them entirely, let’s make them wait.

Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced the Protecting Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act (H.R.986/S.466) to prohibit the use of ACA subsidies to pay for junk plans that don’t include the 10 essential benefits of the ACA. These plans put patients at huge financial risk. Urge your representatives to support this legislation and protect the ACA—and consumers—from the Trump administrations ongoing attempts at ACA sabotage.

Minimal script for Reps/ Senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep./Sen. [___] to support (Rep.) H.R.986/(Sen.) S.466 – Protecting Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act

More script if you want it: Permitting the use of ACA subsidies to purchase short-term insurance plans puts consumers at risk for medical bankruptcy and weakens protections for the thousands of people with preexisting health conditions.

Rep-check here. (Neither Brownley nor Carbajal are cosponsors. CALL TODAY!)
Sen-check here. (Neither Feinstein nor Harris are cosponsors. CALL TODAY!)
Check out the top 20 congressional recipients of health insurance money here.

Continue reading “Wed – 5/8: Call today, the House votes tomorrow. HR 986 – Protecting Americans with pre-existing Conditions Act” →

Tues 5/7: Wolf Protection – Part 2. Your taxes fund the slaughter of millions of wild animals a year…

Deadline for Wolf comments is coming up – 5/14!

In Part 1 on Friday, 4/26, we asked you to write a comment to prevent the Trump Administration from removing Endangered Species Act protections from wolves and declaring open season of an animal that is still functionally extinct in much of its former range. (Why? See Part 2, below) Please join in and share! There are currently only 55,000 comments.

In Part 2, below, we ask our own government to stop killing them, along with millions of other animals, with our tax dollars.

Part 2 – How much of your tax money goes to snuffing wildlife? Or “How much does a burger cost, really?”

The USDA Wildlife Services spends over $100 million a year to exterminate over 2.3 million native and wild animals a year at the request of ranchers who bring us “cheap” hamburgers. Their targets are usually predators like wolves, coyotes, bobcats, bears, and mountains lions, but the collateral damage includes thousands of non-target animals and birds, including endangered species and household pets, who are trapped or poisoned by mistake. Even people have been injured when they’ve accidently triggered spring-loaded M-44 cyanide cartridges meant to kill coyotes.

A growing body of research has found the agency’s war to protect livestock against predators is altering ecosystems in ways that diminish biodiversity, degrade habitat and invite disease. The public’s attitude towards wild animals has also evolved. “People want to see bears. They want to see wolves. They want to see mountain lions. It’s part of the natural heritage of the United States. We should be stewards of the system, not wiping out species and damaging ecosystems.” – Michael Mares, president of the American Society of Mammalogists.

Action #1 – Vote “YES” on HR 2471/S 1301 – Ban sodium cyanide and Compound 1080 poisons for predator control.

Continue reading “Tues 5/7: Wolf Protection – Part 2. Your taxes fund the slaughter of millions of wild animals a year…” →

Mon 5/6: Join in to stop the reopening of three oil platforms off Santa Barbara and 24/7 trucking of crude oil on Hwy. #101!

On January 28, 2019, protesters from all our coastal communities, including Santa Barbara, gathered together in Camarillo to protest against offshore oil leases at the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Our protests have an effect. Time for us to stand indivisible again in SB!

Action – Attend the Santa Barbara Planning Commission hearing Monday May 6th

Date: Monday, May 6th
Time: Gather at 5:00 pm for pre-meeting rally.
Where: Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, Fourth Floor, Santa Barbara County Administration Building, 105 E. Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Sign on to this action letter here.
Thank our federal legislators for bills to stop all west coast offshore drilling here.
Go to this meeting. Facebook event listing here, RSVP: here.

What’s happening: The Santa Barbara Planning Commission will consider ExxonMobil’s “Interim Trucking” proposal to restart three oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, all of which have been shut-down since the disastrous 2015 Plains Pipeline oil spill, and to transport crude oil to their refinery with a continuous stream of tanker trucks on local highways, including Hwy. 101. The project page on County’s website is here. The draft supplimental Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is here. Exxon’s project description here.

Continue reading “Mon 5/6: Join in to stop the reopening of three oil platforms off Santa Barbara and 24/7 trucking of crude oil on Hwy. #101!” →

Mon 5/6: Moving beyond oil – “YES” on the West Coast Ocean Protection Act.

Action – Thank Senator Feinstein for introducing this bill.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced S.1318 – West Coast Ocean Protection Act to permanently ban offshore drilling in federal waters off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. Companion legislation H.R.310 was introduced by Congressman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) in the House of Representatives.

Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Rep./ Sen. [____] for their support of (Rep.) H.R.310 /(Sen.) S.1318 – West Coast Ocean Protection Act.

H.R.310: Rep-check here. (Brownley is a cosponsor, Carbajal is missing!)
S.1318: Rep-check here. (Both Feinstein and Harris are all over this.

Continue reading “Mon 5/6: Moving beyond oil – “YES” on the West Coast Ocean Protection Act.” →

Fri- 5/3: If gun violence were a disease, this whole country would be in quarantine. – Part 2

Statistics from Gun Violence Archive. See chart at bottom.

(Time) “If Jaron had died from a disease, one that kills approximately 33,000 people every year, (almost 40,000 last year) our family would rest assured that massive efforts were underway to counteract such a devastating threat to public health.”

Action #1 – Sign the “Stop gun shows at our Fairgrounds” petition.

First, sign this petition here.
Send a message to Governor Newsom. Talking points from the Brady Campaign and link here.

Action #2 – Join in the Gun show protest this Saturday (May 4th) 1 – 3pm at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

gun show

“In these times of horrific gun violence, no state agency should be promoting and profiting from the proliferation of firearms and ammunition in our community,”- Ruth Borenstein, a leader of the San Francisco chapter of Brady United Against Gun Violence.

Continue reading “Fri- 5/3: If gun violence were a disease, this whole country would be in quarantine. – Part 2” →

Thurs – 5/2: If gun violence were a disease, this whole country would be in quarantine. – Part 1

Statistics from Gun Violence Archive.

Oh wait! It is!
(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)”Gun violence is a complex biopsychosocial disease and as such, requires a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and treatment. Framing gun violence as a disease places it firmly within medical and public health practice. By applying the disease model to gun violence, it is possible to explore the host, agent, and environment in which gun violence occurs, and to identify risk factors to target for prevention.”

2 actions!

Action #1 – Tonight, May 2nd – Oxnard Planning Commission – Help them identify some “risk factors”!

Council Chambers, 305 West Third Street, Oxnard, CA 93030
Thursday, May 2, 2019, 07:00 P.M.

Item #2 on the agenda is a resolution recommending that the City council approve Planning and Zoning Permit No. 19-580-02 establishing regulations to address firearm ranges and the sale of firearms and ammunition.

Continue reading “Thurs – 5/2: If gun violence were a disease, this whole country would be in quarantine. – Part 1” →

Wed. – 5/1: Taking back the real May Day! Not just one day off in September, but justice 24/7. Come join in!

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Ventura event details here. Oxnard event details here.

Today, almost every major industrial nation is celebrating International Workers’ Day, a holiday based on the 1886 Haymarket Riot by immigrant workers in Chicago. It was a major historical event which involved freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to free assembly, the right to a fair trial by a jury of peers and the right of workers to organize and fight for things like the eight-hour day. It should be a huge celebration here too.

Continue reading “Wed. – 5/1: Taking back the real May Day! Not just one day off in September, but justice 24/7. Come join in!” →

Tues 4/30: Spread a little love. It’s good for the recipient. It’s good for you.

Cards filled out by Indivisible Ventura members and friends...

UPDATE! Ocasio-Cortez and Omar cards added!

Action – Send out some love…

This project was started to give our support to two new congresswomen, Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Omar, who’d been getting an inordinate amount of hate mail and serious death threats. Whether or not we agree with every policy or word they’ve ever spoken, we stand indivisible in their defense and wanted them to know that we respect and support them.

In the course of making the cards, we met Onjena Yo, an amazing artist from Brooklyn who makes multinational patriotic graphic designs melding our flag with those of the original countries of immigrant families. She volunteered her designs for Puerto Rico (Ocasio-Cortez) and Somalia (Omar) and suddenly, our project became bi-coastal.

You never know what can happen, so write.

Print out our “heart” postcards on cardstock or use your own. Write “Dear_______” and let your words fill in behind it. It doesn’t have to be eloquent or poetic, grammatically correct or even spelled perfectly. Crossouts and white-out – completely OK. Pictures, stickers, crayon. All good.

Continue reading “Tues 4/30: Spread a little love. It’s good for the recipient. It’s good for you.” →

Tues 4/30: Californians! Protect our landmark climate change bill! “NO” on SB-386

Graphics: Jessica Craven – Chop Wood, Carry Water

Action – Stop the shenanigans going on in Sacramento!

Some legislators are trying a sneaky workaround to gut SB 100, – “CA Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (RPS): emissions of greenhouse gases“, the landmark climate bill signed into law last year. More information on SB 100 here. and this memory refresher video …

SB 386, which passed through the Senate Energy Committee last week, would effectively gut and undermine SB 100 by allowing electricity generated from EXISTING LARGE HYDRO DAMS to count towards the 60% renewable energy standard established under SB 100. Since the irrigation districts are already fully sourced, this means they can take credit for their hydro, and then sell off their existing “Renewable Portfolio Standards” (RPS) compliant resources, which effectively guts SB 350 and SB 100. If they can count existing large hydro, there are no new renewable resources needed.

Continue reading “Tues 4/30: Californians! Protect our landmark climate change bill! “NO” on SB-386″ →

Tues – 4/30: #WeAreIndivisible. Take the 2020 pledge.

We must defeat Donald Trump.

The first step is a primary contest that produces a strong Democratic nominee.
The second step is winning the general election. We will not accept anything less.

To ensure this outcome, I pledge to:

Make the primary constructive.

We’ll make the primary election about our hopes for the future, and a robust debate of values, vision and the contest of ideas. We’ll remain grounded in our shared values, even if we support different candidates.