#and i tried talking and participating and i think i was marginally successful lol

[vampirecatboy]

important library dnd update: Orryn can see ghosts now

[firedupreadytogousa-blog]

1/22 DAY 3: PLAN & ORGANIZE #KeepMarching

Today’s entry is a little long but it is the most important I will post because The Work Is just beginning and it’s going to be a LONG bumpy ride!

ACTION:

Attended the MoveOn.Org / The Indivisible/ Working Families Emergency Call To Action & Training on Grassroots/Local Activism For Change. The call had 40K participants RSVP. My notes on the training are below

Called my 2 state Senators Chuck Schumer D-NY and Kristen Gillibrand D-NY to encourage them to remain vigilant in opposing the cabinet and keeping the pressure on about the ACA. Find your Senators Here. You can call, write a letter, or go to their office!

Went on The Indivisible website to find a local group to join. I joined a group in NYC called Rise & Resist that meets weekly. First meetings: Tues 1/24 7pm- for all members & Weds 1/25 6pm- Rise & Resist POC Caucus

2018 MIDTERM ELECTIONS ARE COMING! Went on SwingLeft and signed up to help campaign in my local swing congressional district which is NY 3rd Congressional District. Please research the people in the district now and before supporting anyone in an election cycle be informed!

Confirmations to encourage your legislatures to Fight This Week:

Mike Pompeo- CIA

Rex “Exxon” Tillerson- Secretary of State (Support Rubio on this one if you are in his district)

These are my opinions, but I encourage you to judge for yourself. Here are some links with a schedule for watching upcoming hearings. Most of them you can livestream via C-Span’s Facebook page. Yes, take a break from playing “Bad & Boujee” on repeat and listen to these hearings instead. It will be very enlightening. Some past ones to review are:

Jeff “How Racist Do You have to Be to be considered too Racist for Alabama” Sessions- Attorney General

Betsy “Because Grizzlies” DeVos- Education Secretary

Steven “Tax Evader” Mnuchin- Treasury Secretary

Tom Price- Sec Health and human services (Labor) and it got heated

Rick Perry- Department of Energy

THE RESISTANCE

Lots going on today people! The most productive thing I did was join the emergency call to action call from Moveon.org and The Indivisible. It was a 2hr call with 10K people, 80% of whom were marching in the streets yesterday all over the world! (And they said this march wouldn’t do anything). They were training us on the guidebook that The Indivisible created which you can find here. Below are the main messages from the call.

Major Keys for The Resistance Movement to be successful:

We are acting on the principle that Trump’s Agenda is an abomination, racist, authoritarian and Un-American

Our resistance will be through LOCAL congressional advocacy

We are embracing/pushing progressive values that are meant to benefit ALL Americans, especially the ones that need it most, out of LOVE and KINDNESS. (aka Don’t be a Jerk)

Non-Violence is key. We are acting out of LOVE for our fellow Americans who are under-represented, marginalized, and being used as a political prop

De-escalation is key. Taking a page from the Dakota Pipeline on this one.

Again, come to everything out of a place of LOVE for one another, even those that mock and oppose you. When they go low, we go high.

 Best Practices From Past Successful grassroots movements:

Use Your Constituent Power: For now, focus on YOUR Senators and representatives. These folks care deeply about being re-elected and are paranoid about losing at home because something like the race in NC can happen to anyone with a movement this strong!

Also, it does no good to call members of Congress outside of your district because they frankly will not care and you will be wasting your time. Midterm elections are another story, but for now stay local!

There is power in both Responding to AND Defending members of congress on their approval of the Trump agenda

Red States: You make sure you let them know of your disapproval and have a reason why. If you have a compelling story, now is the time to tell it and let them know you will be active in swinging their district if they refuse to do so.

Blue States: Positive Reinforcement/ encouragement is key! Tell the Senators who are killing it to keep fighting with everything they have because you are with them (shout out to Chuck Schumer!), or give them a little push if you don’t think they are being bold enough

Trump’s agenda depends on members of Congress approving that agenda, and We The People CAN have a say in that. Look at what happened when the GOP tried to Jam through Trump’s cabinet picks without the proper paperwork or the attempts to dismantle the Ethics Office in Congress. Trump would make you think it was his tweet alone, but groups like the indivisible were alive and well in making that happen. Also, when.

Remember Visiting your Senator’s Office is > A Phone Call > Writing a Letter > Tweeting

 CALL TO ACTION #1: Attend a Stop Trump’s #SwampCabinet Rally on 1/24

Every Tuesday, beginning this Tuesday 1/24, the goal is to have as many people as possible join events designed to fight Trump’s crooked Agenda. You may have seen the hashtag #ResistTrumpTuesdays, this is what they are talking. This Tuesday, the call to action is to go to their Senator’s office and ask your Senators Oppose Trump’s #SwampCabinet.

Ok stop right there, I know what you are thinking… really… going to their office? I haven’t been to a senator’s office since that one field trip we took in High School that one time. This is way out of my comfort zone. But you don’t have to go at it alone! Go with a group who are also going and rally against these cabinet picks. You can go to Moveon.org/Jan24 to find groups that are planning to go to their senator’s office on 1/24. If you can’t find one, or it says its full or you can’t get off of work, or you’re reading this thinking, “I’m no Erin Brockovich here, I have to take care of my kids” no worries try to join next Tuesday or simply call! And remember to record everything good or bad with your experience and tag it #Indivisible or #ResistTrump or #ResistTrumpTuesdays.

 CALL TO ACTION #2: Get Connected and Recruit

There are numerous groups near you putting a full court press on Congress, in every state in America, no matter how Red that state might be. You can join one that interests you by going to The Indivisible website or act.moveon.org to find one near you. If you have a group and you want to recruit new members, register your group on both of these sites and include your contact info so others can join you.

As stated in my call to action, I joined Rise & Resist in NYC. I liked that they had a POC caucus and that they meet weekly for resistance planning. I will be attending group meetings this coming Tuesday and Wednesday after work this week. Excited to connect with people outside of the comments section of Facebook and on Twitter lol.

TRUMPLAND

So after tweeting/mocking the women’s march on Washington yesterday, The Donald then sent a tweet of praise of our “democracy in action,” which he definitely DID NOT write (it’s speculation, but complete sentences are just kind of not his thing). But ends up this was definitely supposed to be a distraction from the fact that Kelly Ann Conway and others confirmed that Donald Trump, yet again, reneged on his campaign promise to release his Tax Returns when they were done being audited.  They have stated in the past that the people have moved on and only the media wants to see his tax returns. Well Donald We Aren’t the Media, and I think there are about 2.9 million+ of us in the US that want to see those Tax Returns.

But we may get them… the ACLU has filed legal documents to demand access to key documents concerning his conflicts of interest via The Freedom of Information Act to untangle his conflicts of interest… so maybe we’ll see them after all. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. (Side note, how Woke are the people writing for TeenVogue right now? Shout out to the younger generation!)