Weekly Actions: Week 13

General Information

• Petition – urge the King County Council to pass legislation for police oversight:
  • https://ssl.capwiz.com/aclu/wa/issues/alert/

Vashon-Activism (get local – join a team)

• Thursday, May 4, Vashon Activism – Now More Than Ever!  Open Space for Arts & Community, 18870 SW 103rd Ave, Vashon, 6 – 9PM
  • If you have not yet found your favorite action oriented group, and feel it’s time to raise your voice, then join us for Vashon Activism – Now More Than Ever!
  • Over fifteen Vashon groups have been invited to this Find Your Lane style event.  From Legislative Action to Building a Progressive Majority to Showing Up for Racial Justice to Climate Change, hear their 90 second statements of what these groups are doing to create positive change.  Then, for the next hour, circulate in the Open Space Community Hall to meet and mingle with these group leaders, get to know what they are accomplishing and how you can participate.
  • Hosted by Indivisible Backbone and open to the entire Vashon-Maury Island community.  Doors open at 6PM to socialize and enjoy light snacks.  Invited group leaders will take the stage at 6:30. Meet and mingle from 7 to 8.  Like what you see?  Stay another hour as group leaders gather their teams and plan their next actions.  
  • Lend your ideas, creativity and support.  Let’s activate Vashon and resist the current administration!  Sign up here:  http://www.backbonecampaign.org/ibb_meet_5_4_2017.

• None this week

View this weeks events!

Electoral College Repeal

• No actions this week

Instant Runoff  Voting

• No actions this week

Return US House and Senate to Democratic Control

• No actions this week

The Environment

• Petition – EPA, don’t remove pollution controls:
  • https://secure2.edf.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=00000000.app312b

Climate Change

• Walk for the Salish Sea – Oppose Kinder-Morgan and more oil tankers in the Salish Sea! – Victoria to Burnaby, BC – Sounds inspiring! – May 25 – 28.
  • It’s Time to Walk the Talk on Climate Change, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Local Democracy. Join us May 25-28th to march against fossil fuel development and tanker traffic on unceded Indigenous lands and waters.
  • Vashon will participate.  Want to connect with the leader?  Send a request to me at kevinjonvash@gmail.com .
  • Details:  http://walk4salishsea.ca/
• Petition – tell the EPA and Trump:  US needs to stay in the Paris Climate Change Agreement:
  • https://secure3.convio.net/lcv/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=00000000.app313b
  • Add these words to the letter if you like:
    • Climate change poses a fundamental threat to our health, our fiscal prosperity and our species.  Departure from this global agreement, and subsequent disregard of the other 195 nations who signed the Agreement, could pose the risk of global financial sanctions on our economy to force compliance.  Let’s not choose a path that alienates us from the rest of the world.  Instead, let U.S. renewable power technology contribute to our improved global economic prosperity, and domestic job growth, by investing in climate change solutions.
• One more:  http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/
• Petition – Don’t let Trump’s budget delete funding for science:
  • https://www.change.org/p/cutting-scientific-research-funding-puts-america-last-don-t-support-it

Anti-Hate Actions

• Petition – calling for a Presidential Anti-Hate Task Force (long overdue):
  • http://www.cantwell.com/action/demand-an-anti-hate-task-force

Criminal Justice Reform

• No actions this week

Immigrations/Citizenship

• The hunger strike by the detainees at the NW Detention Center is having a positive impact, but they could use your continued influence to make their voices heard.  Three specific actions:
  • Nightly rallies through Sunday, 4/23 – 6PM:
  • If you can get out for one of them, today, tomorrow or over the weekend — our louder voices will be heard by the inmates within the confines of the prison.  Backbone has some visuals that folks can take along to make an even stronger statement.  Let Bill Moyer know if you are going (bill@backbonecampaign.org) and he can make suggestions.
  • Want to attend the rallies?  Contact Mike Magrath:  mmagrath@gmail.com
• Call the City of Tacoma Finance Department and urge them to revoke GEO’s Business License. 
  • In a March 2017 letter to GEO, Mayor Strickland noted that the City of Tacoma can revoke GEO’s business license if it is a “danger to the public health, safety and welfare of the individuals [detained] as well as the community as a whole.”  Tell them you are concerned about family separations, one dollar a day wages for detainees while commissary prices doubled and unsanitary conditions.
• Call:  Finance Department, Andrew Cherullo, Finance Director, 253-591-5800
• Call ICE and demand that:
  1. They meet the Hunger Strikers Demands and 
  2. GEO not retaliate against hunger strikers. We have reports that strikers have been threatened with transfer to facilities away from their loved ones as punishment for engaging in protest.
     • Call:  Assistant Field Director (Detention): William Penaloza: (253) 779.6000, dial extension 1, wait for message, then dial extension 4
• Call:  Dept of Homeland Security Public Relations Officer:  206-835-0094
• Stay informed: https://www.facebook.com/pg/NWDCResistance/events/
• Petition – despite statements to the contrary, the Trump administration has deported a person granted legal residency through the DACA program.  Tell Secretary Kelly to reverse this action:
  • https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/tell-secretary-kelly

Preserving Democracy & Justice

• Petition – stop the US Homeland Security Department from implementing a rule to disclose social media passwords as a condition to enter the country:
  • Imagine visiting a country – to see family or take a vacation or do business – and being forced to hand over your Facebook username and password. That country’s agents would be able to read your private messages, see everything you’ve posted or shared for the benefit of your friends, what you like, what you’ve searched. What conclusions could they draw? Would they be accurate?
  • https://action.aclu.org/secure/FlyDontSpy

Racial Justice & Black Lives Matter

• No actions this week

Women’s Rights

• No actions this week

LGBTQ Rights

• No actions this week

• Petition – Congress:  Fund the ACA healthcare subsidy recipients, don’t defund the ACA:
  • https://secure.pfaw.org/site/SPageNavigator/action.html;jsessionid=00000000.app337b  
• And this one:  https://petitions.peoplesaction.org/sign/TrumpSabotage

Economy/Income Inequality

• Editorial, plus action steps, Tax Reform and Trump’s Tax Returns:
  It looks like Trump’s “no tax return disclosure” policy may indeed be important to others besides the media, and may play a crippling role in his tax system overhaul campaign promise.
  Even if the failure of the ACA Repeal and Replace initiative had not happened, and Trump was able to strip health care from millions, thus developing a budget saving that he could apply to reduced taxes, his lack of transparency over his tax returns is still a significant issue.
  Stalling the current administration is important.  Supporters who expected to “become very, very rich” and “would get tired of winning again” will only experience increased buyer’s remorse when promises are not kept (or result in significant take-aways, like the ACA Repeal and Replace plan).
• What can we do?   A couple of things:
  1. Keep signing petitions and writing letters demanding Trump release his tax returns, and
  2. Thank those Republican Members of Congress who are now asking him to do just that.
     1. Better yet:  If you have friends in these states, ask them to do likewise
     2. Note:  Indivisible does say don’t waste your time reaching out to Members of Congress outside your state or district, but this issue has so much potential to hobble the Trump agenda & raise buyer’s remorse that I plan to write some letters.

• Here is the list, according to this article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/us/politics/tax-code-overhaul-trump.html?emc=edit_nn_20170418&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=78184317&te=1&_r=0
  • Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA):  111 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, Phone: (202) 224-3254
  • Representative Mark Sanford (R-SC):  2211 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515-4001, Phone:  202-225-3176
  • Representatives David Young (R-IA):  240 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC, 20515, Phone: (202) 225-5476
  • Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL):  507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, Phone: 202-225-4136
  • Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC):  2333 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515, Phone: 202-225-3415
  • Representative Ted Yoho (R-FL):  511 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, Phone: 202-225-5744
  • Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ):  2306 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515-3011, (202) 225-5034
  • Representative Justin Amash (R-MI):   114 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC 20515, Phone: (202) 225-3831
• Here are some talking points for your calls and letters, from the same article:
  • Polls show that a majority of Americans, including most Republicans, would like Mr. Trump to release his tax returns. The president has significant conflicts of interest on issues such as taxation of the real estate industry and elimination of the estate tax. Without Mr. Trump divesting his business interests, he has a significant opportunity to enrich himself and his children through tax reform. This violation of the fairness doctrine is not acceptable, and you are right to oppose moving forward on tax reform with these uncertainties unresolved. Now join over a million people who have signed the We The People petition, on the White House website, to demand Trump release his tax returns:
    • https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-release-donald-trumps-full-tax-returns-all-information-needed-verify-emoluments-clause-compliance
• And this one:  https://www.signherenow.org/petition/wyden-tax-letter/e/
• One more:  http://www.cantwell.com/action/demand-tax-transparency
• And this related petition, signed by over 349,000, to divest his companies, on the same website:
  • https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/divest-or-put-blind-trust-all-presidents-business-and-financial-assets

Get Big Money Out of Politics

• No actions this week

• No actions this week

• No actions this week

• No actions this week

• No actions this week