Daily Archives: 02/03/2014

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

#RockEnrol​l


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#GetCovered, Flash Mob Edition

Here’s an upbeat story to get your weekend started.

Young people, as many know, are one of the groups that stand to benefit the most from getting health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Not only do they represent over 40 percent of all uninsured Americans, nearly two-thirds that qualify for the Obamacare exchanges would be able to get coverage for under $50 per month. And they are signing up: through December, roughly one in four of all enrollments have come from those aged 18 to 34. Despite the initial website troubles, young people may in fact be signing up at a faster rate than they did under Massachusetts’ health law during a comparable period.

But nobody who wants the law to succeed is resting on their laurels when it comes to educating young people about the law, especially not Generation Progress (the affiliate of the Center for American Progress focused on millenials). On January 29, in an event organized by the group, NFL player and Super Bowl veteran Donte Stallworth along with more than 50 dancers from Pace University gathered in Central Park for a flash mob designed to educate around the Affordable Care Act. Watch the video by clicking here (and if you don’t know what a flash mob is, then you better check it out–and send it your kids and grandkids!)

Here are some photos from the event (but seriously just go watch the video):

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BONUS:  Watch Donte Stallworth and CAP Action’s own Emily Tisch Sussman on MSNBC talking about the event, and the importance of getting young people to sign up for health insurance (and their Super Bowl predictions).

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

I jumped off a train bound for Auschwitz


The French rail company SNCF was paid by the Nazis to transport 76,000 people to their deaths. I survived by jumping off one of those trains. Sign my petition to stop SCNF from doing business in the US until it pays reparations to Holocaust survivors.

In 1942, after years of hiding from the Nazis because I am a Jew, I was put on a train bound for Auschwitz. There were 1,000 people on the train, crammed together, terrified. I did the only thing I could think to do: I found a way to jump off and escape. I later found out that of the thousand people on that train, only five survived the Holocaust.

That train was part of SNCF, the French railway company that transported 76,000 people — including 11,000 children and many American pilots shot down in France — toward Nazi death camps. SNCF was paid by the Nazis per person, and per kilometer. Sometimes I wonder whether SNCF was paid for my partial journey, or if they would have been paid more if I’d made it all the way to Auschwitz.

Unlike other companies that worked for the Nazis, SNCF has never paid a cent of reparations to Holocaust survivors. 

That’s why I started a petition on Change.org to demand that SNCF finally make reparations to Holocaust survivors. Please click here to sign.

SNCF and its American subsidiary Keolis are bidding to do business in America, the country where I finally found my freedom. Even as SNCF and Keolis compete for lucrative public contracts – many funded by my tax dollars and those of other survivors sent on SNCF trains toward their deaths – SNCF still adamantly refuses to pay any reparations.

It is simply unconscionable that SNCF’s American subsidiary is now competing to build and operate the light-rail Purple Line in my home state of Maryland – valued at more than $6 billion and one of the single biggest contracts in state history – while refusing to be held accountable.

Please sign my petition to hold SNCF accountable at last.

When I first came to America in 1947, I didn’t want to think about what happened to me. 15 years later, I got a letter from my cousin confirming that my mother and sisters had been killed in the camps. My wife said to me, “Now that you know what happened to your family, you have to start talking.”

So I did. I have spent decades telling the story of what happened to me. It’s emotionally upsetting, but this is the price I have to pay for being alive.

I am almost 93 years old now. If I hadn’t jumped off that train, I would have died when I was 21. In whatever time I have left, I will keep telling my story, and keep fighting for what is right. When I speak to young people about what happened to me, I tell them, each of you can make a little difference in the future. Each of you makes a little difference, but when you take it collectively, it becomes a big difference.

Please sign my petition demanding that SNCF finally pay reparations to Holocaust survivors and that it be held accountable for the active role it played in the Nazi genocide.

Thank you for standing with me and for demanding that SNCF finally be held accountable.

Leo Bretholz Baltimore, Maryland

Black History

the Senate ~~ CONGRESS 2/3 ~~ the House


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The Senate stands adjourned until 2:00pm on Monday, February 3, 2014.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. The time until 5:30pm will be equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees .

 As a reminder to all Senators, cloture was filed on the conference report to accompany H.R.2642 during Thursday’s session.

  At 5:30pm, there will be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the farm bill.

During his opening remarks today, Senator Reid moved to proceed to S.1950, Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014. The Senate is now considering the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, with the time until 5:30pm equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees.

At 5:30pm tonight, there will be a cloture vote on the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. Under the previous order, at approximately 2:35pm tomorrow, the Senate will proceed to vote on adoption of the conference report. Upon disposition of the Farm bill conference report, the pending business would be S.1845, Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act.

In addition to the conference report on the Farm bill and the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act, this week we hope to consider several nominations, including that of Senator Baucus to be Ambassador to China, the Veterans bill, and any other items on the Legislative or Executive Calendars cleared for action. The Senate is not expected to be in session on Wednesday, February 5 in order to accommodate the Democratic issues conference and the Republican retreat.5:30pm The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013;

Invoked: 72-22

Cloture was invoked on the conference report to accompany the Farm bill by a vote of 72-22. The Senate is now considering the conference report, post-cloture. There will be no further roll call votes tonight.

WRAP UP

Roll Call Votes

1)     Motion to invoke cloture on the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013; Invoked: 72-22

Legislative Items

Passed S.376, the Drought Information Act of 2013 with a committee-reported substitute amendment and a Pryor amendment.

Discharged the Judiciary committee and adopted S.Res.340, expressing the sense of the Senate that all necessary measures should be taken to protect children in the United States from human trafficking, especially during the upcoming Super Bowl, an event around which many children are trafficked for sex.

Discharged the Judiciary committee and adopted S.Res.341, observing the 100th birthday of civil rights leader Daisy Bates and honoring her legacy as an American heroine.

Began the Rule 14 process of S.1982, the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014. (Sanders)

Completed the Rule 14 process of S.1977, to repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, relating to an annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62, and to provide and offset (Ayotte and others) in order to place the bill on the Legislative Calendar.

No Executive Items

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Last Floor Action:1/31
3:05:00 P.M. – The Speaker announced that the House do now adjourn pursuant to a previous special order.

The next meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on February 3, 2014.

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