Today, the White House will host its final National Disability Employment Awareness Month event and celebrate the strides we have made to create a more inclusive federal workforce. Ahead of this event, I’m proud to announce important progress toward that effort.

In 2010, President Obama challenged the federal government to hire 100,000 people with disabilities within five years. Not only did we reach the goal between 2011 and 2015, we surpassed it. Since then, the federal government has hired more than 154,000 permanent and temporary employees with disabilities, more than 109,000 of whom are permanent hires.

Tune in here to follow along today’s event.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of leadership, managers, and staff in agencies big and small to commit to inclusive recruitment, hiring, and retention practices, there are now more people with disabilities in the federal workforce than at any time in the past 35 years. This shows what government can do when agencies come together to make sure that everyone in our country has a fair shot – not only to achieve their dreams, but to serve the country we all love.

Everyone benefits when our government reflects the full talents and diversity of the American people, so the fulfillment of the President’s goals marks an important step forward.

With that said, it is just one step toward creating a truly inclusive workforce that represents the American people.

We must all continue to work together — the federal government, and state and local governments, together with the private and not for profit sectors — to ensure that the only limits to people’s success are the limits they place on themselves — not an inaccessible job posting, discriminatory hiring practices, or a lack of workplace accommodations. We have a lot more work to do, so I challenge you to take a fresh look at all of your workplace’s practices and procedures and make sure they are inclusive of working families, people with criminal records who have earned second chances, and others who experience barriers to employment.

The kind of progress we want to see starts with us.

Thanks for all you do,

Valerie

Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor
The White House
@VJ44

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Kicks baby out of rally … trump

11/02/2016 Nativegrl77

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Ricken Patel – Avaaz – 4 huge wins in the past few weeks!

11/02/2016 Nativegrl77

Amidst all the darknesses of our world, Avaaz’s light is shining brightly — we’ve had 4 huge wins in the past few weeks!

– We WON governments agreeing to protect 30% of our oceans!!
– We ENDED the career of Brazil’s corruption king!!
– We helped CREATE the world’s largest marine reserve in the Pacific!!
– We finally STOPPED Monsanto’s mega-plant in Argentina for good!!

In just a few weeks, while we’ve also been flat out on stopping Trump! This movement is getting out of control — in a good way. Let’s keep it up! Here’s more on each win:

A global goal to protect 30% of our oceans!

Everyone thought our demand of 30% was crazy, except the scientists. But armed with the voices of a million Avaazers, our community stepped into the negotiations and out-maneuvered major blockers like Japan. By standing with Palau, meeting directly with key swing countries, and winning press to our side WE WON big … with 89% of the vote!

The Head of the Palau delegation said – “We were heartened to have 1 million Avaaz members from around the world stand with us.”

Taking down Brazil’s corruption king

Insiders and even journalists warned us that Congress President Eduardo Cunha was too powerful to oust. But we refused to be cowed — over 1.3 million of us demanded a national Ethics Committee vote to fire Cunha. And when his allies rallied to block the vote we hit back — delivering our petition directly to Congress, flooding key swing voters with phone calls, direct messages and on social media, including focusing on officials shielding Cunha. He was forced to resign and then barred from running for office for eight years! And just today, he was arrested!!

Anti-corruption champion MP Chico Alencar told us: “If it hadn’t been for public pressure, we wouldn’t have won. I want to thank and congratulate you.”

Creating the largest protected area on earth, ever

Our oceans are in serious trouble, so when we heard that President Obama was weighing whether to create a *giant* marine reserve in Hawaii, a million of us signed a petition and thousands wrote messages. To further tip Obama’s decision we delivered our messages to key meetings, organised colourful protests with kids that helped win over the press, and worked to remove other blockers from Obama’s path. In days the President signed the reserve into law.

The Director of the Global Ocean Legacy project, Matt Rand, said the “1.3 million people who signed and the tens of thousands that sent messages had their voices heard at the White House, and were a big part of getting this done.”

Adios, Monsanto!

Chemical Giant Monsanto had locked in a high-level deal to build a mega factory in Argentina – but local communities decided to fight it, so we joined forces. Together we went door-to-door, ran polls showing massive local opposition, helped elect a city council opposed to the deal, met Monsanto in court, and amplified the local movement with a million voices worldwide. Monsanto was forced to abandon the project.

Local Malvinas organizer Celina Molina said: “Today we celebrate the victory of our long battle we shared with the global movement Avaaz…. Monsanto has only one option: to go back home.”

If you can’t get enough of this stuff, check out our top ten all time wins, and 100 favorite highlights of Avaaz campaigning. It’s a smorgasborg of people-powered achievement.

Together, we’re not just standing up to forces of hate and division in our world, we’re also driving forward a beautiful vision of hope, step by step building the world most people everywhere want. Because in the end, only love and hope can defeat hate.

With loads of love and appreciation for this amazing movement,
Ricken, with Alice, Ben, Emma, Pascal, Mais, Camille, Dan, Mike and the whole Avaaz team

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TRUMP EXCORIATED FOR “SECOND AMENDMENT” THREAT

11/01/2016 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Trump’s faces massive backlash after “Second Amendment” remarks. NYT:“…Trump’s remark quickly elicited a wave of condemnation from Democrats, gun control advocates and others, who accused him of suggesting violence … [Speaker Paul Ryan said,] “You should never joke about that. I hope he clears it up quickly.” Mr. Trump and his campaign did not treat his remark as a joke; instead, they insisted he was merely urging gun rights supporters to vote as a bloc against Mrs. Clinton.”

Trump’s remarks recall “how Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin got assassinated”says NYT’s Thomas Friedman.

Former Secret Service agent says Trump is “pretty close to the edge” of breaking the law reports Time.

Jacob Swenson-Lengyel

Whatever Happens to Trump in November, Populism is Here to Stay

Whatever happens with Donald Trump this November, right-wing populism is most likely here to stay. The neoliberal consensus that has dominated the globe for nearly 40 years is collapsing. As the old dies and the new has yet to be born, two populisms are rising in its wake, struggling to define the future.