Thurs 4/11: This is our kids’ brains on chlorpyrifos. New Senate action! Update on CA action! Learning to pronounce it -ongoing…

The colored parts of the image above, prepared by Columbia University scientists, indicate where a child’s brain is physically altered after exposure to this pesticide.

Announcement: The guy who protected chlorpyrifos is now Secretary of the Interior…

bernhardt2
David Bernhardt, the man who intervened to suppress the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) report on the lethal effects of chlorpyrifos on endangered species, was confirmed today (Thursday) as Secretary of the Interior (and boss of the FWS) in a 56-41 vote with three Democrats and one Independent voting for him. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.(?)), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.(?)) and Angus King (I-Maine) voted in favor of his confirmation. (Note: Both Maine Sens. Susan Collins (R) and King voted for Bernhardt because he promised that their state would not be open to his evil offshore drilling plan – apparently Maine’s ocean is separated by an invisible force field from the ocean off other northeastern states!)

Action #1 – CA isn’t waiting for the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos.

Continue reading “Thurs 4/11: This is our kids’ brains on chlorpyrifos. New Senate action! Update on CA action! Learning to pronounce it -ongoing…” →

Wed 4/10: Medicare-For-All is now in the Senate! Remind your legislators to sign on to the House version, & that “Medicare Advantage” is an HMO, not a safety net!

Action #1: Call your senators if they aren’t a “YES”. Thank them if they are.

“At least in my view, the current debate over Medicare for All really has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with greed and profiteering,” he told a room full of supporters in a Senate office building. – Bernie Sanders

Bernie has finally introduced S.1129 the reworking of his 2017 bill, with improvements in long-term care and disabilities that mirror Pramila Jayapal’s H.R 1384. The bill is still unnumbered.

Explainer: Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan, explained. (vox)

Minimal script for senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Senator [____] to know that I voted for [him/her] to put “Medicare For All” on the map, just like Social Security in 1935, and Medicare in 1965.

Minimal script for supporting senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Senator [____] for supporting “Medicare For All”.

Sen-check here. (Harris is a cosponsor, Feinstein is not! CALL her!)

Continue reading “Wed 4/10: Medicare-For-All is now in the Senate! Remind your legislators to sign on to the House version, & that “Medicare Advantage” is an HMO, not a safety net!” →

Tues 4/9: Food Stamp-SNAP Chat is back until Wed, 4/10. Tell our Ministry of Misery what you think.

Graphic depiction of the percentage of all food stamp costs (not just workers without children) compared to our entire federal budget.

Tell Trump, Ben Carson, Seema Verma, Mick Mulvaney, Sonny Perdue and all of the other millionaire profiteers in his administration that we are watching them, not the $150 to $192/month in food aid a person needs for basic health.

Action – Stop this back-door attack of the 2018 Farm bill. Comments due by 4/10 Wednesday night, 11:59 pm EST.

We asked our legislators to pass the 2018 Farm Bill with the food stamp aid for millions of SNAP/CalFresh recipients intact. They did! But, now the Administration of Millionaires is using the Dept. of Agriculture to use a back door regulation process to impose work requirements on unemployed and underemployed people without dependent children, limiting their food aid benefits to three months. The proposal takes away states’ ability to waive SNAP’s time limits in areas that don’t have enough jobs and it could potentially disqualify 755,000 beneficiaries. There are a lot of reasons that people can’t get work that satisfies the government’s requirements, but there is one clear result of removing people from a cost-effective food supplement program – increased health care costs in our nation’s clinics and emergency rooms, costs that will dwarf any possible SNAP savings.

So tell the USDA to butt out. There were almost 50,000 comments on the Federal Register website in opposition to the proposed ~~cruelty~~ rules on work requirements (original set) (new set) the first time out. Already, another 4,000 new comments have been made on this extension. Let’s get this to 100,000, people!

For the first time, or for the tenth, comment here

Deadline now due Wed., April 10th (WED.), 11:59 pm. EST.

Talking points for SNAP

Continue reading “Tues 4/9: Food Stamp-SNAP Chat is back until Wed, 4/10. Tell our Ministry of Misery what you think.” →

Mon 4/8: Free the Internet! Call your legislators.

Action – Call your legislators TUESDAY MORNING and make sure they’re voting “YES” on HR 1644 and S.682 – the “Save the Internet Act”.

Despite more than 20 million public comments against the rollback, Trump’s FCC chair and misguided youtuber, Ajit Pai, a former Verizon attorney, rammed a repeal of the 2015 Open Internet Order through the FCC in December 2017. He lied that net-neutrality rules discouraged investment, leaving consumers with fewer options. Hahahaha! At the time of the FCC repeal, 83% of Americans including 75% of Republicans supported net neutrality rules. On Tuesday, April 9th, the US House of Representatives will vote on HR 1644 – “the Save the Internet Act” and then the Senate needs to pass S.682. If passed, this bill will enshrine net neutrality into law and we can see a lot less of Pai. First, do your part.

Minimal script for us lucky 4-for-4 people: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Rep./Sen. [___] for his/her support of HR 1644 (Rep)/ S.682 (Sen) “Save the Internet” Act, and please reject any amendments or motions to recommit that would weaken it!

Rep-check here. (Carbajal and Brownley are on board!)
Sen-check here. (Feinstein and Harris are cosponsors too!)

Here’s what you can do to make sure Congress knows everyone is watching:

Battleforthe net.com is making it easy for the whole Internet to watch the vote and hold our government accountable.

Continue reading “Mon 4/8: Free the Internet! Call your legislators.” →

CFROG ALERT! This Tuesday, 4/9, stand up for our right to clean water in Ventura.

County planning is currently processing a zoning clearance application for 79 new wells on the Oxnard Plain taking farmland to make new drill pads for wells that will extract dirty tar sands using cyclic steam.

CFROG Needs everyone who cares about clean water in Ventura to gather at the Country Government Center (800 S. Victoria) on Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm in the Board of Supervisors room to support an EMERGENCY BAN on TAR SAND WELLS until the source of current water contamination is explained.

Supervisor Steve Bennet will offer a motion for a temporary ban on new well or re-drilling existing wells that use an extreme steam injection process called “cyclic steam” near potable water. This is based on the discovery by the USGS that thermogenic gases have been detected in 3 water wells in the Fox Canyon aquifer in concentrations slightly below the flammable/explosive level.

“The…wells with the strongest signals lie above the cyclic steam activity and they are associated with that and not with the deep injection wells with high volumes at the deeper depths.”

The oil companies quickly tried to smear CFROG for publicizing the findings of USGS scientist Celia Rosecrans, claiming we “didn’t understand” the research, but obviously we do. And so does Supervisor Bennett, who prepared this motion independently.

(You can watch Rosecrans’ presentation here at 1:23 minute in.)

Continue reading “CFROG ALERT! This Tuesday, 4/9, stand up for our right to clean water in Ventura.” →

Sat. 4/6: Three activities to share! Recycling for animals! Art contest for EJS! Postcard design contest for Virginia!

Action #1 – Recycle your used mascara wands! Really!

Please do NOT throw away your mascara wands. These little wands are able to be upcycled to clean away oil, larvae, fly eggs, mites, infections, mud and other contaminants from wildlife and they work great for medical care and wound treatment. Instead, clean JUST THE WAND with soap (don’t send the other half!), place them in a ziploc bag, pick your wildlife refuge to mail to, fill out this donation form, and mail from your local post office so it’ll have the right postage:

Appalachian Wild, P.O. Box 1211. Skyland NC 28776 OR
Wildlife Wands, P.O. Box 1586 Southwick, MA 01077

(Please do not purchase new wands – the program is for recycling old ones. Instead, please donate food or supplies from the Wishlist or make a donation.)

They also have a great site for what to do if you find a wild animal (bird, mammal or reptile) that you think might need assistance. Find a wildlife rehabilitator here.

Action #2 – The Equal Justice Society is hosting the “Remembering 1619 – 400 years of Slavery” art competition. All CA art makers welcome. Deadline July 25th.

Continue reading “Sat. 4/6: Three activities to share! Recycling for animals! Art contest for EJS! Postcard design contest for Virginia!” →

Fri 4/5: “He’s got a little list…” Stop Bernhardt, because we have a sick desire to see who could possibly be worse.

This is the notecard Bernhardt had to carry around to remind him of all his ethics recusals, and their expiry dates. (Western Values Project). These companies assuredly had a similar one. The picture of him is from memory and may not be accurate.

Action – Flood your senators’ office with calls to investigate oil lobbyist David Bernhardt’s BEFORE he becomes Secretary of the Interior.

David Bernhardt, a walking monument to conflict of interest, passed Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is awaiting a confirmation vote by the Senate. As deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior under Zinke, he helped open our public lands and coastlines to mining and drilling, and his corruption machine is just getting warmed up. Already, Bernhardt’s calendar as deputy Secretary includes more than 150 entries over the course of a year that failed to mention either a description of the meeting topic or who attended, against reporting regulations, similar to his former boss Zinke.

But wait…! There’s more!

Continue reading “Fri 4/5: “He’s got a little list…” Stop Bernhardt, because we have a sick desire to see who could possibly be worse.” →

Thurs 4/4: We are Immigrant America too. Help support these local, state and federal actions. (4 actions!)

A ship headed for Ellis Island in 1906. THE GRANGER COLLECTION / CORDON PRESS

LOCAL Action #1 – A Santa Paula Family needs our help.

The Santa Barbara County Immigrant Legal Defense Center is reaching out for donors to help a local family whose main breadwinner is currently detained in ICE custody. This Santa Paula family needs help with rent, food, etc. The Immigrant Legal Defense Center is representing the individual but he will remained detained for a minimum of one more month. Donate here online or send a check made out to Santa Barbara Count Immigrant Legal Defense Center and mail it to: ILDS, 120 E. Jones St. Suite 117, Santa Maria, CA 93454. #VenturaCountyStrong is filled with kind and generous people. Let’s help a neighbor’s family.

STATE Action #2 – Ask Assemblymember Limón to vote YES on AB-4

indivisibles

Continue reading “Thurs 4/4: We are Immigrant America too. Help support these local, state and federal actions. (4 actions!)” →

Thurs 4/4: Join us and the League of Women Voters TODAY at 11:30 am for H.S. voter- registration training!

Action: Come to Santino’s Pizza at 11:30 and get trained!

What: Join the League of Women Voters as they train us for participating in voter registration at our local high schools. – Today! Thursday April 4^th, from 11:30-1 PM.

Let’s up our game with younger voters!

Where: Santino’s Pizza at 4231 Telegraph Road in Ventura. Pizza will be provided for lunch!

Wed 4/3: Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, and House GOP are playing games. Call now!

Quote from Washington Post article here. CNN here. BBC here.

Action – Ask our legislators to vote “NO” against any “motion to recommit” and vote “YES” on a clean H.R.Res.37.

1. Has Trump turned America into one never-ending civics class? Answer: “Yes.”

2. What the heck is a “motion to recommit” (MTR)? Short answer: It’s a last chance for the minority party, in this case, the GOP, to stop or amend a bill before it’s voted on. Longer answer here.

3. Why the heck are we STILL IN YEMEN?

First, the House voted “YES” on H.J.Res.37 but the House GOP’s (“We be all about the babies!) thought it would be fun to add an MTR with completely unrelated anti-Semitism language to the bill, hoping to split up Democratic votes and possibly kill the resolution, along with more Yemeni babies. The Dems should have voted together to reject the GOP’s bad faith MTR, but instead, they mostly stuck together and voted the whole thing through.
However, the MTR was a problem for the Senate to pass without getting McConnell’s approval, so they stripped it out. Then, miracle of miracles, the Senate voted “YES” on a clean S.J.Res.7!
So now the House and Senate versions don’t match, thanks to the malicious GOP members who deliberately tried to kill this bill, so the House needs to re-vote on the clean version they should have had in the first place. Thanks, GOP, for playing games with kids’ lives!

Minimal Script for representatives: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep. [___] to vote in favor of the bipartisan resolution H.J.Res.37 to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led Yemen war, and to REJECT any “motion to recommit” when this bill moves to the floor.

Continue reading “Wed 4/3: Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, and House GOP are playing games. Call now!” →