Daily Archives: 01/11/2018

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

congress voted to allow trump to spy on us


 So, congress just voted against POC and the organizations they represent?
We have the chance to reform an abusive surveillance program.

 Tell Democrats to vote to shutdown Trump’s surveillance machine.

 

Silencing Black voices through surveillance has been a blatant government tactic for decades — but tomorrow, the House of Representatives will hold a vote to massively expand Trump’s power to silence Black voices. And some Democrats are thinking of voting to give Trump this power.

There’s not a lot of time to fight back. We need to use our voices now and tell Democratic leadership not to turn the internet into a giant spy tool for a white supremacist Trump administration.

Democratic leadership, Rep. Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer, need to get turncoat Democrats in line and close the legal loopholes in the Section 702 surveillance authority. With full Democratic support for the USA Rights Act, we can shutdown Trump’s and the FBI’s power to spy on us without a warrant.

Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions justify their surveillance efforts under the cloak of “protecting Americans from terrorists” and now, they’re using the newly made-up ‘Black Identity Extremists’ classification to treat Black activists and organizers like threats. They have deemed Black activists criminals for having the audacity to protest police violence and demanding an end to the deaths of Black lives at the hands of the police. With the power of an unchecked Section 702 and the ‘Black Identity Extremism’ classification, the FBI and Trump will have unprecedented ability to monitor and harass Black communities that oppose them.

But if Democrats get behind the USA Rights Act tomorrow – we can cut off a powerful surveillance tool that allows Trump and the FBI to treat our communities like criminals and threats.

The USA Rights Act, a bi-partisan bill introduced to rein in the runaway surveillance of Section 702 would defend our rights by:

  • End​ing ​back​ ​door​ ​searches:​ Under current law, the government can conduct unlimited, warrantless searches through the vast data collected under Section 702 for private communications to, from and about Americans. The bill requires a warrant for those searches.
  • Ending​ ​reverse​ ​targeting:​ ​With no limits to the warrantless backdoor searches of Americans or the amount of information on Americans that gets reported around the government, there are no checks in place to prevent “reverse targeting” of Americans communicating with foreign targets. The bill requires a warrant when a significant purpose of targeting foreigners is to collect the communications of Americans.
  • Preventing the​ ​misuse​ ​of​ ​information​ ​on​ ​Americans:​ The bill prohibits the use of information on Americans collected under Section 702, except for foreign intelligence and crimes directly related to national security, such as terrorism and espionage.

Being Black and exercising our right to protest are not crimes, let alone activities that justify being monitored or repressed by counterterrorism spy programs. Rep. Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer need to step up and defend our communities by getting all Democrats to stop Trump’s reauthorization of Section 702 and pass the USA RIGHTS Act

Until justice is real,

–Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, Johnny, Jade, Future, Corina, Chad, Mary, Saréya, Eesha, and the rest of the Color Of Change team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

tom steyer ~ Major announcement for 2018


So much of what we value is on the line in 2018. 

That’s why today, I am announcing NextGen America’s plan for 2018 to fight Trump’s dangerous agenda, win elections nationwide, and build a grassroots movement to forge progressive victories for years to come.

This year, NextGen America will register, educate, mobilize, and turn out young voters in 10 key states to support progressive candidates up and down the ticket.

WATCH & SHARE if you’re ready to win in 2018.

Watch our announcement for 2018

At $30 million, the NextGen Rising program for 2018 will be the largest youth vote organizing effort in American history. And on November 6, we aim to make history at the ballot box as well — by taking back Congress.

Watch our announcement for 2018.

Thank you,

Tom Steyer
President
NextGen America

P.S. Text RISING to 82623 and join the fight.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Dr. Kim Schrier


CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Plan, has broad bipartisan support but is still being held in limbo as a political bargaining chip.

This leaves families all over the 8th District and all over this country uncertain about when their healthcare coverage may run out.

Patients and their families are anxious, especially those families with children who have chronic diseases.

The millions of families that rely on CHIP can’t wait any longer. Add your name to mine right now to call on Congress to reinstate CHIP immediately.

One of those victims is my patient Megan, who gives herself insulin shots and checks her blood sugar six times per day just like I did as a teen with type 1 diabetes. Without CHIP, her parents will need to pay $380 per month on supplies and insulin. They work hard for a living, but that type of extra expense is not affordable.

Medical expenses are the number one cause of bankruptcy in this country. The failure to fund CHIP puts more working families at risk. This is unacceptable.

CHIP passed with strong bipartisan support and should not be subject to political gamesmanship. The problem is that the Republicans want to fund CHIP, a $15 billion program, by pulling funds away from existing public health and medical care programs. That just doesn’t make sense at a time when they’ve just passed a tax bill with a gigantic $1.5 trillion “welfare check” to the wealthy and corporations.

Working families need help, not the 1%. It is time to fund CHIP.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

No offshore drilling …


Friends,Whitehouse for Senate

New year, new horrifying anti-environment policy: Donald Trump just announced that his administration will allow offshore drilling in huge swaths of previously protected areas – including more than 1 billion acres in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans that have been off limits for decades.

This decision is a gift-wrapped handout to the fossil fuel industry, but it comes at the expense of basically everyone and everything else: coastal residents, the fishing industry and anyone else whose livelihood relies on healthy oceans and strong coastal communities, particularly in states like Rhode Island.

Speak out against Trump's offshore drilling. ADD YOUR NAME

 

Working families all over the country will pay the price, but Donald Trump doesn’t care. He doesn’t care if fish stocks are decimated. He doesn’t care if pollution from oil rigs renders the beaches that so many communities rely on unusable. That’s why we have to speak out. That’s why I’m saying, “Not on my watch.”

Add your name now to tell Donald Trump: No new offshore drilling!Whitehouse for Senate

Thanks,

Sheldon