Tag: #CivilRights

Tell your legislators to vote “NO!” on the SAVE Act, a trojan horse for Christofascist voter suppression

What these patriarchal Christian Nationalist legislators want is a return to government run like it was by the signers of the Constitution – with only the richest White men being allowed to vote.

UPDATE: THE GREAT VOTER SUPPRESSION BILL has just passed through the House! Even more horrible, four Democratic-name-only legislators helped! Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii; Henry Cuellar of Texas; Jared Golden of Maine; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state.

How close can they get to their ideal before the midterms? A lot closer if they can pass the SAVE Act, a cynically named elitist bill that’s actually a form of voter suppression against women, poorer American citizens and minorities – all those whom the GOP suspects will vote for Democrats.

Continue reading “Tell your legislators to vote “NO!” on the SAVE Act, a trojan horse for Christofascist voter suppression” →

COUNTERPROGRAM THE INAUGURATION!

Don’t just ignore the inauguration of our future Felon-in-Chief! Actively commit to the legacy of our nation’s greatest civil rights leader!

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is an official day of service that honors his legacy and empowers the community to create a “just, humane, equitable and peaceful world.” However, for the first time ever, it coincides with a presidential inauguration.

Continue reading “COUNTERPROGRAM THE INAUGURATION!” →

Tell your senators to vote “NO!” on the GOP’s deceptively-named voter suppression legislation.

The GOP is genius at creating acronyms that imply the OPPOSITE of what their bills will actually do.

Continue reading “Tell your senators to vote “NO!” on the GOP’s deceptively-named voter suppression legislation.” →

He’s gone too far. Ask the DOJ to invoke the Ku Klux Klan Act against Texas AG Ken Paxton for his raids on Latino voters

On August 20th, “…the Republican attorney general of Texas sent armed police officers after Hispanic voters—some in their 80s—to intimidate, threaten, and destroy them financially by forcing them to hire lawyers to defend themselves, even though they are perfectly legal voters.

It’s a manifestation of the new unofficial Republican slogan: “If you can’t win on the issues, cheat. And if cheating doesn’t get you over the top, intimidate!”

Write an email to Attorney General Merrick Garland:

Contact Merrick Garland at the Department of Justice here: https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice

Continue reading “He’s gone too far. Ask the DOJ to invoke the Ku Klux Klan Act against Texas AG Ken Paxton for his raids on Latino voters” →

Thurs 11/14: GOP, OBEY YOUR MASTERS! Stop playing chicken with our economy by putting Dreamers at risk.

Action  – Call your senators! Push through the S.874 Dream Act to the president’s desk without another one of his poisonous deals.

We’re not going to talk about Judeo-Christian concepts of welcoming strangers. We’re not going to talk about the inherent cruelty of throwing people out of the only country they’ve ever known. Trump’s base remains immune to these arguments. Instead, we’re going to talk in language the GOP claims, against all evidence, to be proficient in, i.e.- the economy. While McConnell is distracted installing as many extremist judges in lifetime positions as he can, a factor of our future economy’s success is standing before a hostile SCOTUS.

The GOP’s donor class, major companies and conservative think tanks like the Cato Institute, are alarmed. Their pet legislators seems to have forgotten that rescinding DACA protections for almost 800,000 U.S.-educated, hardworking adults, will cause serious economic harm to America, including a loss of $460.3 billion from the nation GDP over the next decade. The 10 states that put DACA in court – Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, and West Virginia—stand to suffer a self-inflicted loss of more than $8 billion annually in state GDP. More immediate concerns for businesses are 1.1 million jobs already going begging, from high tech to unskilled labor. This number is going to get larger as boomers age out of the labor pool. A harsh retirement is in store if there are not enough workers to diagnose their illnesses, fix their cars or change out sheets in their future nursing homes. Continue reading “Thurs 11/14: GOP, OBEY YOUR MASTERS! Stop playing chicken with our economy by putting Dreamers at risk.” →

Mon. 7/22: Mark your calendars – You can’t phone this in. On July 29th – come out and show your support for SV Councilwoman Ruth Luevanos

On Mon. July 29th – Stand Indivisible with Simi Valley City Councilwoman Ruth Luevanos! 

(alert from Indivisible Conejo)” Simi Valley City Councilwoman Ruth Luevanos  – shown here (on the right) at last week’s Lights for Liberty protest — is under vicious attack from Trump Trolls in Simi after she posted an “explainer” video about immigration policy to her Facebook page last week.

Ruth is the first Latina to serve on the SV Council, an award-winning educator who mentors other teachers, and a volunteer for both the Girl and Boy Scouts as well as for at-risk youth. She is a terrific person and colleague in our activism, and the rare progressive to hold elective office in Simi Valley (which alone is reason enough to go to the barricades on her behalf!). But these extremists are demanding a recall election (or her arrest) and have even threatened her life … all based on pure “send her back” racism and their misunderstanding of the basic facts Ruth noted in her video.”

What does “law and order” really mean?: “Even as demographics in Simi have shifted, “(Luevanos) is going to find out pretty quickly that they haven’t changed that much. It’s still a law-and-order city,” fellow Council member Mike Judge said, representing those in a city who don’t want to follow SB 54, an actual California law. “Law-and-order” fans in Simi apparently also feel free to threaten their elected officials lives. (FYI: In CA, threats of death or physical harm that cause “sustained fear” can be prosecuted under Penal Code 422 PC, even if the threatener says they were just “letting off steam”.)

Continue reading “Mon. 7/22: Mark your calendars – You can’t phone this in. On July 29th – come out and show your support for SV Councilwoman Ruth Luevanos” →

Mon – 7/8: In this land of casual cruelty, the Department of Housing works to make American kids homeless. Your comment due tomorrow, 7/9.

Action – Write a comment telling HUD Sec. Ben Carson what you think of his plans. Deadline Tueday night (7/9) tomorrow at 11:59 EST.

The Trump Administration is doing what it does best… Just like the debacle of their health insurance reveal, the GOP is bankrupt of any good ideas to solve America’s affordable housing crisis. So they’re using their go-to distraction plan…inflaming the racists and xenophobes amongst us and pitting the poorest against each other, while stealing the homes and security from 55,000 American kids. All the trauma without making anything better for anybody.

Comment by Tuesday, July 9th, at 11:59 pm EST here!

  • The repetitive proposed rule is here.
    • Ben wants all non-eligible family members out. That includes DACA kids, work permit and U visa holders as well. Or the whole family.
    • He want to change the rule so that non-eligible adult can no longer be leaseholders for citizen minor children. The rule specifically says that the sole eligible member can be a minor.
    • We would like Ben to go back to buying overpriced dining tables and leave us alone. No one in the video wanted to go to the dark place of forcing ol’ Ben to explain why some kids are more American than others.
  • If you need inspiration, cruise the comment section here. However, NOTE! DO NOT COPY VERBATIM anybody else’s comment. COPIES AREN’T COUNTED.

We have two “Background” sections for you today. One is for Ben Carson’s cynical meat-toss to the administration’s base and one is why we haven’t cracked the affordable housing issue yet and a very good idea by the People’s Policy Project. Continue reading “Mon – 7/8: In this land of casual cruelty, the Department of Housing works to make American kids homeless. Your comment due tomorrow, 7/9.” →

Tues 6/4: H.R. 1/S.949 – “For the People Act” is a litmus test for corruption. Ask your senators to stand up and fight for a country to be proud of.

Video and top graphic from equalcitizens.us 

Today’s action on protecting our right to vote is to ask our Senators to push through H.R.1/ S.949,  historic bills to strengthen democracy. H.R.1 passed the House on March 8th, on a 234-193 vote. Now the Senate version – S.949, is in the Senate and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a shamelessly partisan operative, has vowed to stop it, calling it “radical” and “socialist“. This would be a surprise to the non-partisan League of Women Voters, who’ve endorsed H.R.1 as “an important step forward in repairing our broken political system and our destructive campaign finance system.”

These bills will:

  • Change the way campaigns get funded
  • End partisan gerrymandering
  • Establish automatic voter registration
  • Restore the Voting Rights Act
  • Impose strong new ethics rules on members of Congress.

Action – Call your senator and remind them that we want this brought to the Senate floor now.

All the Democratic senators have already signed on. Get your family and friends in red states to pick up their phones too. We need GOP senators to get this done.

Minimal Script for Democratic Senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Sen. [___]  for [his/her] support of S.949 and to tell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that his constituents aren’t accepting corruption-as-usual nonsense anymore and to bring S.949 – “For the People Act” to the floor for a vote.

Continue reading “Tues 6/4: H.R. 1/S.949 – “For the People Act” is a litmus test for corruption. Ask your senators to stand up and fight for a country to be proud of.” →

Fri 5/17: Thank our legislators for supporting H.R.5 – the Equality Act. They do George proud!

Action #1 – Thank our legislators for supporting HR. 5 – the Equality Act!

We are so lucky! Please take a moment to thank all of our elected officials (Brownly, Carbajal, Feinstein and Harris) for being cosponsors of the Equality Act [H.R. 5/S. 788], a bill that would clarify existing civil rights legislation to specifically ban discrimination against our LGBTQ citizens in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs, adoption programs and credit. It would also provide additional protection for women and POC from common forms of discrimination. This measure has unprecedented support from nearly 70 percent of Americans, more than 280 members of Congress, 165 major businesses and 288 statewide and national organizations. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has made passing the Equality Act a top priority for the new Congress, and it’s in the House today.

Minimal email script: I want to thank you for standing up for our LGBTQ friends, family and neighbors and supporting  [Rep. =  H.R. 5/Sen. = S. 788] the Equality Act.

Contact Information

Rep. Julia Brownley: email
or Rep. Salud Carbajal: email.
Senator Feinstein: email, 
and Senator Harris: email,
Who’s my representative/senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com

Action #2 – Petition for all people of faith to endorse equality for all.

Sign the Faith in Public Life “We are all Equal” Petition here. Continue reading “Fri 5/17: Thank our legislators for supporting H.R.5 – the Equality Act. They do George proud!” →

Fri-5/10: Stand Indivisible with the Mashpee Wampanoag. Support their reservation reaffirmation legislation.

(Update on our action from 11/26/18. Thought this would be an easy one…) 

Action  – Call your legislators to support H.R. 312 /H.R. 375 – the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act.

Short course: “This tribe held the first Thanksgiving,” – Rep. William Keating (D-MA)

 “I am asking people of good will and all those concerned with justice for the indigenous people of this land — the first Americans — to stand with us in calling on Congress to protect our reservation and ensure we are don’t become the first Tribe since the dark days of the Termination Era to lose its land.” – Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell.