Around the country, demands for Pepsi to cut Conflict Palm Oil have picked up. Using Twitter, activists and volunteers are hijacking Pepsi’s darkly ironic “#LiveForNow” marketing campaign. Now, they need you to amplify their voice — click on the photos below to retweet these activists and volunteers!

Whether it’s at your local store, like Monika tweeted, or at a big Pepsi sponsored event, like Mike’s, I can guarantee that this type of brandjamming is being heard loud and clear at PepsiCo HQ. Pepsi has spent millions of dollars on advertising this campaign. We don’t have millions of dollars, but millions of people care about protecting forests and are taking action.

We also created this graphic that you could tweet. As the demand for Conflict Palm Oil grows, more species are at threat. The extinction of unique species, like the Sumatran Tiger, is simply unacceptable.

Thanks for retweeting and amplifying Mike and Monika this week. And remember, there’s a couple things you can do to help the campaign. The first is to download your own sign and start tweeting at @PepsiCo with YOUR demands and the hashtag #LiveForNow. The second is to follow #LiveForNow on Twitter and continue to retweet more activists around the world. We’ll be in touch with more updates and training opportunities soon!

Thanks for all you do to help push huge corporations, like PepsiCo, to change.

Brad Schenck
Digital Engagement Director
Rainforest Action Network.

P.S. Not on Twitter yet? Don’t worry, it’s simple to get setup and tweeting in minutes.

5 Minute Guide to Twitter Activism:

Most people have heard about Twitter, but not everybody has an account. Here’s a quick and easy guide to getting setup to Tweet your outrage over Conflict Palm Oil in less than 5 minutes.

1. Signup for your account here.

2. Create a Tweet! (Be sure to upload your photo by clicking the Camera icon).

3. Post your feelings on PepsiCo’s Conflict Palm Oil use! Use the hashtag #LiveForNow in your Tweet so others can find it.

http://www.ran.org/

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The White House

08/16/2014 Nativegrl77

New Commitments to Improve College Opportunity

Following a meeting with community college leaders on Tuesday, the Administration announced several developments in our efforts to expand college opportunity for all.

Yesterday, White House Executive Chef Cris Comerford took Maker Camp campers on a virtual field trip of the White House Kitchen Garden, and answered questions about what it’s like to cook for the First Family and for special guests of the White House.

A new White House report released on Tuesday looks at the progress businesses and communities are making in raising the minimum wage for millions of workers. In fact, since the President first called for a minimum wage increase in 2013, 13 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to increase their minimum wage, which will benefit about 7 million workers.

READ MORE

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Chart of the Week: Job Openings Hit a 13-Year High This Summer

American business owners advertised 4.67 million jobs in June, the highest number of openings since February 2001 — a clear signal that the economy is strengthening.

On Friday, August 1, President Obama signed a bill into law that again made it legal for consumers to unlock their cell phones. It marked the very first time a We the People petition led to a legislative fix.

Yesterday, President Obama updated the nation on two issues that he’s been monitoring closely over the past several days — America’s military operations in Iraq, and the situation in Ferguson, Missouri.

Test you science smarts

08/15/2014 Nativegrl77

True or False:

There’s “no global warming in North America.”

Okay, maybe that’s an easy one—that was Fox News inaccurately reporting the very real impacts we’re already seeing from global warming.

But it’s not far off from the ridiculous things people say about science. It’s up to us to tell science fact from science fiction. Can you spot it? Choose your answer to get started.

“Wind is such an unreliable source of electricity that coal plants are required to operate around the clock as backup for wind power.” —fossil-fuel funded front group ALEC

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Everytown

08/15/2014 Nativegrl77

All it takes is one gun in the wrong hands to turn calm and quiet into catastrophe. That’s something I know all too well, having survived the shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle eight years ago.

Every day in Washington State, guns are being sold without background checks by unlicensed sellers at gun shows and online. That means criminals and other dangerous people, including the severely mentally ill, have easy access to firearms.

Take a look at this new ad about the dangerous loopholes in Washington’s laws — then share it with your friends and family.

In the 16 states that require background checks for all gun sales, 39 percent fewer law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty, and 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners.

Share this ad with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about the dangerous loopholes in Washington’s laws:

http://act.everytown.org/signup/washington-background-checks

Together, we can make Washington safer.

Thank you,

Cheryl Stumbo
Seattle, WA

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Victory! End female genital mutilation in the US … Jaha Dukureh via Change.org

08/14/2014 Nativegrl77

In June a petition was presented … If you click on the links you can read the complete article on how this petition helped make change in July. ~Nativegrl77

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Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is not a faraway practice — it happens even in the United States. Please join me in calling on President Obama to conduct a study on the state of FGM in America so that no other girls are subjected to this atrocity.

Sign Jaha’s Petition

Warning: This email is about Female Genital Mutilation and may be upsetting for some readers.

When I was a baby in Gambia, I was subjected to a practice known as Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM. My genitals were cut and sewn shut. The sutures had to be reopened when I was 15 and forced into an arranged marriage in America. I escaped that marriage, and now I’m fighting to make sure that no other little girl ever has to experience the horror of FGM.

FGM is a terrifyingly common practice — the World Health Organization estimates that more than 125 million women alive today have been cut. The experience is devastatingly painful, not just when it happens but for years afterward. The physical and emotional scars last for life.

The US has strong laws on the books to stop FGM, but those laws aren’t being enforced. We know that people are breaking the law to cut girls in America or illegally take them to be cut in other countries, but we don’t know how widespread the problem is or what concrete steps can be taken to solve it.

I started a petition on Change.org calling on President Obama and the Deparment of Health and Human Services to conduct a study about the current state of FGM in America so that steps can be taken to stop this atrocity. Please click here to sign my petition.

In some ways, I’m lucky that I was only a baby when I was cut. Some girls are much older. They’re told they’re going on vacation to visit relatives, but really, they’re being taken away to be attacked and mutilated by their own families.

I have an amazing daughter of my own, and I cannot stand by while this happens to beautiful little girls just like her. Just like it happened to me.

I know that public pressure from petitions works to highlight the issue of FGM — just recently, a petition in the United Kingdom prompted their Minister of Education to issue warnings about FGM to schools all over the country. I know that with similar pressure in the US, we can tackle this horrible problem here and make sure we’re protecting little girls across America.

Please sign my petition calling on President Obama and HHS to conduct a study about FGM in America so that the laws preventing it can actually be enforced.

Thank you for standing with women like me.

Jaha Dukureh
Atlanta, Georgia