Tag: Indivisible Ventura

11/23 – Continuing actions this week!

Update! We, along with 68 other CA groups, made the national news!

(theHill)“A coalition of nearly 70 California progressive grassroots groups urged Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) either to call for the “swift passage” of both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by the end of this month or to resign.“ (Letter attached at the bottom of this post.)

  • Action #1: Dear Senator Feinstein, it’s time to drop the filibuster for the “Freedom to Vote Act” and the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act.” And postpone your holiday until AFTER the BBB Act is passed.
  • Action #2: Dear Governor Newsom, We need you to step up for solar…
  • Action #3: Write a comment to protect DACA recipients – DEADLINE November 29 at 11:59 pm EST

We’ve just had another infuriating episode of #WhiteTearsWin. Kyle “Property over People” Rittenhouse walked away with 2 dead and one permanently damaged body in his wake, along with what Anthony Huber’s parents stated is “the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.” Hopefully his victims’ families will be able to sue him for damages in a civil trial, but that’s cold comfort. If an action comes from this, we will bring it forward.

Meanwhile, we need to take a moment to focus on some wins (see our header above), and the work we need to do next. Some of these you can do during business hours today or Monday, and all have an component you can do this weekend.

Action #1: Dear Senator Feinstein, it’s time to drop the filibuster for the “Freedom to Vote Act” and the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act.” And postpone your holiday until AFTER the BBB Act is passed.

We know from early on in our Indivisible movement that Feinstein will move if enough people flood her office with comments. (Yes, she was ready to rubber-stamp that horrid Jeff Sessions as Attorney General before we’all found out.) So make her phones ring in every office, it really only takes minutes to contact them all and say the short phone script. (Program your phone to save time! “MOC” = “Member of Congress”) Then fill up her email box over the weekend and make ourselves HEARD!

Continue reading “11/23 – Continuing actions this week!” →

Dear Senator Feinstein…

(Note: Thanks to all those who came out for the picture. Special callout to the awesome squad from Santa Barbara!)
  • Action #1: Write Feinstein an email/letter
  • Action #2: H.R.4064/S.2155 – Prevent Election Subversion Act – Protect Election Workers from harrassment and intimidation.
  • Action #3: Call your senators.
  • Action #4: Call the White House
  • Action #5: Email Joe.

Originally tweeted by Scott Dworkin (@funder) on November 16, 2021.

Action #1: Write Feinstein an email/letter

Sample email/letter: You are welcome to use as much or little as you want. Speak from your heart. There’s a lot of good material here too. (Other senators to worry about: Manchin (WV), Sinema (AZ), Jon Tester (MT), Coons (DE), Carper (DE), King (MN) Hassan (NH), Cardin (MD))

Dear Senator Feinstein,

[We gathered last Saturday at our county government center/I’ve called you/I’ve written you] to ask you to be brave. To publicly state that you’ll carve up the filibuster to enable the “Freedom to Vote Act.” To state that you’re willing to overthrow decorum of long practice for the far more urgent need of democracy itself.

Continue reading “Dear Senator Feinstein…” →

Three quick environmental actions you can do this weekend!

  • Action #1: California residents – Send in a comment to Newsom to tell him we agree with his draft resolution on drilling!
  • Action #2: Sign a petition/send an email to Gov. Newsom to protect rooftop solar.
  • Action #3: Comment on super-emitter SoCalGas facility near EP Foster Elementary in W. Ventura. DEADLINE: Monday, November 15

Action #1: California residents – Send in a comment to Newsom to tell him we agree with his draft resolution on drilling!

(vision-ca.org) Right now, more than 2 Million Californians are living and breathing the toxic health impacts of oil and gas drilling sites in their neighborhoods. An end to chronic asthma and cancer in our neighborhoods is in sight. Just last month, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a draft regulation to stop new drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, hospitals, schools, and other sensitive receptors.

Now, a 60 day comment period allows the public to raise our voices to to be heard over the thundering voice of Big Oil familiar to us in Ventura County!

Continue reading “Three quick environmental actions you can do this weekend!” →

Send Bannon to jail, Attorney General Garland. He’s not above the law.

The line of conspirators is backing up and we’re running out of time!

Action: Email Attorney General Merrick Garland – sample script provided.

Great video…

(This is an updated action of our earlier post asking the Jan. 6 Select Committee and the House to vote for criminal contempt charges.)

The Jan. 6 House select committee voted unanimously on criminal contempt charges for Trump White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon for ignoring their subpoena. The House then certified their vote, requiring Attorney General Merrick Garland to “bring the matter before the grand jury for its action,” 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.”

OK, then, get started! The House select committee just issued 16 new subpoenas over two days to possible insurrection co-conspirators eager to follow in Bannon’s obstructionist footsteps, since he appears to be unfettered by any actions from Garland for now. Light a fire under this man!

Email Attorney General Merrick Garland

Sample script to Attorney General Merrick Garland:

Sir, the facts are clear. Bannon was duly subpoenaed by Congress and refused to appear. Both the Jan. 6 Select Committee and the House voted to charge him with criminal contempt. To deny putting him in jail right now is sending a message to the long list of subpeonaed high-level co-conspirators that they too can refuse to cooperate, hoping to stall justice until an election might allow them to walk free, unlike us mere mortals, who’d face a minimum of 6 months for similar charges.

What happened on Jan. 6 was an organized crime against democracy, and Bannon’s public statements indicate that he was a witness to the planning of it, and possibly an active co-conspirator. By delaying your decision, you risk harming the work of the Jan 6 Select Committee and interfering with a basic function of Congress.

Continue reading “Send Bannon to jail, Attorney General Garland. He’s not above the law.” →

Gross-ar by the day – “Everybody needs to relax.”

Quote by Gosar staff member.

Stop the normalization of violence by radicalized legislators.

  • Update 11/11/21: 20 Democratic members of Congress introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Gosar. Not as good as expulsion but it could remove him from his committee seats. Added script!
  • Update 11/10/21: Rep. Gosar has removed his tweet! Taxpayer-funded snuff films are still NOT ACCEPTABLE, thanks to alert citizens like you! We have adjusted the scripts accordingly.
    • Action #1: Flood House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone lines
    • Action #2: Email Jack Dorsey of Twitter.
    • Action #3: Email Attorney General Merrick Garland.
    • NEW!!! Action #4: Call/Email your legislators to join censure action and add committee removal to the mix.

The GOP has a history of telling women to “relax” when violence is done to them. Back in 1990, Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams shared an analogy while preparing for a cattle roundup…”He compared the cold, foggy weather spoiling the event to a rape, telling ranch hands, campaign workers and reporters around a campfire, ”If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.” Meanwhile, AOC, the designated villain in a violent anime Gosar’s staff posted on Twitter and Instagram, is already working under near-constant death threats. Says Yale historian, Joanne Freeman, “Threats of violence lead to actual violence. They clear the ground. They cow opposition. They plant the idea. They normalize it. They encourage it. They maim democracy. And run the risk of killing it.”

Action #1: Flood House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone lines.

Minimal script: I’m calling as a voter of [California] to to tell Rep. McCarthy, in his role as House Minority Leader, that I do not want my taxpayer dollars used in the creation of violent materials threatening legislative opponents or the President. Not only was Rep. Gosar’s tweet a gross abuse of public funds, making a video depicting the killing of a coworker in any other job in America would result in firing and a call to the police. That the tweet is gone now makes zero difference. Tell Rep. McCarthy that he needs to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in calling for an both Ethics Committee and law enforcement investigations into Gosar’s actions. At minimum, he should be removed from his committee assignments, as Rep. Margerie Taylor Greene was, and officially censured. At best, he should be expelled.

More script if you want it: Rep. McCarthy seems unable or unwilling to control the increasingly unhinged behavior of GOP House members. Maybe, it’s time he steps aside for someone who can maintain some semblance of law and order.

Contact: Ring his phone off the hook at 202-225-2915

Action #2: Email Jack Dorsey of Twitter. Ask him to kick Gosar off Twitter

Jack, I understand that it is Twitter’s policy to remove accounts that promote or threaten violence against other people. However, because Rep. Gosar is a congressman, his violent fantasy of killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and threatening President Biden was allowed to stay up for “public interest,” or because it “directly contributes to understanding or discussion of a matter of public concern.”

Nothing showing a man killing a woman is in the “public interest.” Women already know they live surrounded by male violence – their lives are shaped by that reality 24/7. Additionally, prominent congresswomen like AOC have to somehow manage to live and work under the reality of multiple death threats, which now includes the possibility of violent films from fellow legislators, facilitated by platforms like yours. That Gosar’s tweet, which you admit violates your own rules on “hateful conduct” remained easily available for his followers because he is a powerful man, just made it worse for her.

I understand that after a flood of condemnation, Gosar took down his tweet. Apparently, America is not ready to “relax” over taxpayer-funded snuff films. However, I’m asking you to do better, since he is unable to. If you are truly interested in issues of “public concern,” you would permanently ban Rep. Gosar from your platform as the stochastic terrorist that he is.

Contact: jack@twitter.com

Action #3: Email Attorney General Merrick Garland

Continue reading “Gross-ar by the day – “Everybody needs to relax.”” →

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

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

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

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

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

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