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fatehbaz · 5 years ago

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“Pacific Northwest communities VS. Northern Rockies fossil fuel corporations” action. The Washington State Department of Ecology, in several decisions in 2018 and 2019, blocked construction of what would be the largest coal export terminal on the North American continent, to be located on the lower Columbia River near Longview, which will require the dredging of 41.5 acres of the Columbia River’s riverbed; the installation of 537 pilings in the Columbia River to service docks and trestles; and the draining of 24 acres of wetland prairie-oak landscape. The Department of Ecology, in denying the permits, mentioned that the terminal would lead to a 33% increase in vessel transits on the Columbia River; “unavoidable” increased cancer rates in Longview; and would cause loss of access to salmon-fishing sites for local Native tribes.

And on 21 January 2020, the Wyoming governor’s office and Montana’s attorney general made an unusually dramatic announcement: They’re asking the US Supreme Court to side with their lawsuits and overturn Washington’s decision so that they can ignore local activists, Indigenous organizers, and Washington State agencies in order to get some money from coal mining corporations.

It gets worse.

Washington State has denied permits for expansion and construction of a coal export terminal (Millennium corporation’s Millennium Bulk project) on the lower Columbia River near Longview, where the terminal will disrupt rare lowland wetland ecosystems and lead to increased diesel emissions and carinogenic pollution. Both Washington Army Corps of Engineers and Washington State’s Attorney General office have repeatedly sided against terminal construction. And now Montana’s attorney general has stated that the Seattle-Portland area’s repeated refusal in recent years to expand coal industry infrastructure is simply because local PNW residents and Washington State have been seduced by “the latest political fads on the West Coast” [verbatim quote].

The terminal would export coal from the Powder River basin, in badlands and prairie near Billings and Gilette, in a rural region with little adequate infrastructure and prominent Native communities. This basin is already the subject of heavy criticism because of the relatively short lifespan of local mines; how coal trains heading towards the Pacific Northwest coast leave a trail of pollutants along their path; how the Montana state legislature has ignored vocal criticism from Northern Cheyenne, Crow, and other Native community members and activists; and given how resource extraction companies abuse small communities in this very rural region. But since so many local state legislators and big names in politics have close connections with local natural gas and coal companies, Montana and Wyoming are now Big Mad. Montana and Wyoming are claiming that Washington is “unconstitutionally” disrupting “interstate commerce” by not allowing the construction of the coal terminal.

But wait, there’s more.

You might argue that this is, in a way, the continuation of an ongoing grudge that Montana- and Wyoming-based resource extraction corporations have against Seattle- and Portland-area Indigenous people, activists, the local Army Corps of Engineers, and Washington State generally.

Before being appointed as Trump’s now-disgraced former Secretary of the Interior, R/yan Z/inke had been Montana’s sole congressional representative in federal US Congress. Between 2014 and 2016, a separate company (SSA Marine) was trying to build a separate coal export terminal (Gateway Pacific Terminal) in Bellingham (also in western Washington) which would service coal from Powder River basin. And both Z/inke and the coal terminal companies were Extremely Angry with the Bellingham-area Lummi Nation, who refused to allow construction.

At the time, the Washington Army Corps of Engineers were called in to do an environmental assessment, and the Corps actually sided with Lummi Nation and also rejected that terminal construction permit on “environmental” grounds. Z/inke is an “entrepreneur” with ties to fossil fuels [also calls himself “Commander Z/inke” because he likes to invoke his career in the Marine Corps. The company building the terminal contributed thousands to Z/inke’s re-election campaign, so then Z/inke used his position as a US Congressperson to ask Congress to launch an ethics complaint investigation against Washington Army Corps of Engineers and the head of the Corps who made the decision in favor of Lummi Nation.

This story was not widely reported. After the incident, the US president appointed Z/inke to lead the Department of the Interior, with control over national parks and land management.

Some statements from January 2020:

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced on Tuesday, 21 January 2020: “The Washington Department of Ecology’s decision to deny construction permits is "unconstitutional discrimination [...] I did not come to this decision lightly, but Wyoming's ability to export one of our greatest natural resources is being blocked unlawfully. [...] It is critical that Section 401 of the Clean Water Act not be used to interfere with lawful interstate commerce. It is not a tool to erect a trade barrier based on a fashionable political agenda. [...] Washington's decision to deny this permit was heavily skewed on non-water quality-based adverse impacts. [...] This was an unconstitutional, protectionist maneuver based on alleged effects that are outside the scope of Section 401."

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, on 21 January 2020: "Montana's access to growing overseas markets shouldn't be dictated by the latest political fads on the West Coast. As we are telling the court, the framers of the United States Constitution wrote the Commerce Clause to prevent the very harms that Washington state is inflicting upon Montana and Wyoming today."

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losangelesleftygayvoters · 5 years ago

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March 3, 2020 Primary

Hi there. We didn’t write this. But a very smart and interesting dude named Kris Rehl did. As we were about to sit down and prepare ours - we read his and thought well, we’re not going to do a lot better than this.

LOS ANGELES AREA PROGRESSIVE VOTER GUIDE

The following are recommendations for the most effective, progressive candidates in each race based on reviewing the resources listed at the bottom of this guide, news articles, and candidates’ statements. I encourage you to do your own research on each candidate as well!

CALIFORNIA STATE PROPOSITION

Prop 13: YES - This is a $15 billion bond to invest in crumbling school infrastructure, including the removal of toxic mold and asbestos from aging classrooms, to provide cleaner drinking water, and make upgrades for fire and earthquake safety. The proposition would also increase the size of bonds that school districts can place on future ballots.

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE

21st District: Kipp Mueller - Mueller’s progressive platform focuses on homelessness, wage inequality, and the environment, calling out Big Oil in the Antelope Valley swing district.

23rd District: Abigail Medina - The daughter of immigrant parents, Medina has been in the foster care system, worked as a tomato picker, and served on the San Bernardino City Unified School board. She is the candidate with the boldest environmental platform in her district.

27th District: Henry Stern - A strong advocate for closing the Aliso Canyon gas facility and a fairly progressive candidate in a purple district. In addition to fighting big oil, he’s running on creating incentives for companies to switch to clean transportation and renewable energy infrastructure, improving the economy with small businesses and job training, supporting education by securing funding, and creating safer communities by providing funding to local governments. (Fun fact: His dad played Marv in the Home Alone movies.)

29th District: Josh Newman - Newman won his Fullerton district in 2016, focusing on 100% renewable energy by 2045, affordable education, and homelessness and mental health services. He was recalled by voters in a low turnout midterm primary, after being targeted by a Republican effort to break the Democrats’ supermajority. Despite the partisan recall over his vote to increase the state gas tax by 12 cents per gallon to fund $5.4 billion in annual road improvement and transit projects, Newman will again face the Republican he beat in 2016.

35th District: Steven Bradford - A leader on police reform and accountability, including passing AB391, a law reducing when police can use deadly force. Bradford is focused on lowering homelessness through affordable housing, enhancing access to healthcare, and increasing access to mass transit.

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY

36th District: Eric Andrew Ohlsen - Endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, Ohlsen has excellent positions on environmental issues, immigration, eliminating student debt, and criminal justice reform. Ohlsen wants to eliminate costly and unjust private prison contracts and help people already in the system with policies targeting recidivism.

38th District: Dina Cervantes - A child of immigrants, community activist, small business owner, and former preschool teacher with a strong record on education and environmental issues. (This district’s incumbent is retiring.)

39th District: Luz Maria Rivas - The incumbent, Rivas has a solid record on immigration and housing. She also founded a non-profit in Pacoima to encourage school-aged girls to pursue careers in STEM.

41st District: Chris Holden - The incumbent, Holden has fought to expand funding for disability programs, expand lead-level testing in drinking water at child care centers, and passed legislation to improve safety on electricity systems that caused the 2017 wildfires. His only opponents are Republicans, so vote for Chris!

43rd District: Laura Friedman - Friedman is the incumbent and has a progressive voting record, including supporting the end of Section 8 discrimination and authoring several environmental and sustainability bills.

44th District: Jacqui Irwin - The incumbent, facing a Republican challenger, Irwin has focused heavily on gun violence prevention legislation and strengthened gun violence restraining orders since the 2018 Thousand Oaks shooting.

45th District: Jesse Gabriel - A progressive incumbent, Gabriel has enacted more than a dozen new gun safety measures, championed efforts to address California’s housing and homelessness crisis, and strengthened public education.

46th District: Adrin Nazarian - A strong charter school opponent, who has fought to increase public school aid by $23 billion over the past five years, with a mostly progressive record across the board.

49th District: Edwin Chau - Born in Hong Kong and raised in L.A., incumbent assemblymember Chau is facing a Republican challenger. He’s focused on legislation to prevent elder abuse and authored bills to address the affordable housing crisis as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act, enhancing protections for internet users’ personal data.

50th District: Richard Bloom - Authored some strong housing bills with a heavy focus on environmental legislation, helping establish the most stringent protections in the country against the dangers of hydraulic fracking.

53rd District: Godfrey Plata - Plata is a progressive challenger to an establishment Democratic incumbent, who has a disappointing record on housing policy. Plata is a gay Filipino immigrant, who if elected will become the first person in the California Assembly's 140-year history to be an out LGBTQIA+ immigrant. Plata’s campaign is focused on affordable housing, strengthening public schools, and universal healthcare.

54th District: Tracy B. Jones - A special education teacher, Jones is a strong advocate for increasing public school funding and improvements. He supports Medicare for All and the banning of fracking.

57th District: Vanessa Tyson - Tyson is an advocate for increasing the accessibility and affordability of college, expanding affordable housing, and investing in permanent housing solutions to address homelessness.

58th District: Margaret Villa - A Green Party candidate, Villa supports rent control, Medicare for All, and getting money out of politics. The incumbent Democrat she’s challenging (Cristina Garcia) previously made false claims about earning a graduate degree, has several sexual harassment accusations against her from her own staff, and was investigated for her rampant use of racist and homophobic language in the workplace. Vote for Margaret Villa instead!

59th District: Reggie Jones-Sawyer - A strong progressive incumbent, Reggie comes from a family of pioneers in the civil rights movement, is the nephew of one of the Little Rock Nine, and a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus. He’s co-authored legislation to provide re-entry assistance like housing and job training for persons that have been wrongfully convicted and consequently released from state prison. He also led an effort to secure nearly $100 million for recidivism reduction grants.

63rd District: Maria Estrada - Endorsed by Democratic Socialists of America, Estrada is a community activist, challenging an incumbent establishment Democratic leader, who stopped the passage of single-payer healthcare in the California legislature. Maria is running “to end the culture of policies that are deferential to industrial polluters that continue to poison our communities.”

64th District: Fatima Iqbal-Zubair - A high school teacher from Watts, Fatima is challenging Democratic incumbent Mike Gipson, who takes money from Chevron, Valero, Pfizer, and Juul. She is campaigning to end environmental racism in her district, fight for affordable housing and rehabilitation services for the homeless, better funding for public schools, and making college accessible to everyone.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

District Attorney: Rachel Rossi - Rossi’s experience as a public defender and aggressive platform make her the most progressive option to unseat incumbent Jackie Lacey, who Black Lives Matter and the ACLU criticized for refusing to prosecute violent cops. Rossi will pursue “data-driven crime prevention” over ineffective mass incarceration, focusing on serious, violent cases and ending the revolving door of low-level offenses that waste taxpayer dollars.

County Measure R: YES - An important step toward L.A. County jail reform that helps decriminalize mental illness and build community-based care centers where people can get the qualified help they need. Measure R also provides crucial tools for LA’s Civilian Oversight Board to check a corrupt Sheriff’s department.

L.A. County Measure FD: YES - Provides firefighters with the resources they require.

COUNTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE, 43rd Assembly District (*Vote for no more than 7)

Luke H. Klipp - A progressive, who is disenchanted with the establishment, Klipp has been a housing and HIV/AIDS policy advocate and transportation analyst. He hopes to create a more walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly LA, centering equity and climate change in all policy.

Jennifer “Jenni” Chang - A universal healthcare advocate and community activist, Jenni wants to make politics more people-centric, shun corporate influence, and hold party leaders accountable to progressive values. She supports green transportation, more public education funding, affordable housing, closing corporate loopholes, and prison reform.

Linda Perez - Linda is an immigrant and retired labor advocate, who is prioritizing immigrant protections, LGBTQ rights, education, housing, workers’ rights, and student homelessness.

Ingrid Gunnell - A teacher focused on public school funding and accountability for charter schools, Ingrid plans to fight homelessness with affordable housing, mental healthcare, and job training.

Nicholas James Billing - A Sunrise Movement member, Nicholas is fighting for renewable energy infrastructure, supports public school, prison reform, and affordable housing.

Angel Izard - A community activist, Angel supports public schools, quality healthcare for all Californians, investing in renewable energy, affordable housing, and prison reform.

Paul Neuman - An incumbent, Paul wants to empower people and make government more accessible, transparent, responsive and accountable. He has a long history of activism and volunteer work, advocating for many marginalized groups. He’s written resolutions for emergency funding for homelessness, arts education, campaign reform, and more.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT

Office No. 42: Linda Sun - Sun is an experienced prosecutor focused on corruption from professionals and businesses rather than crimes of poverty. She describes her judicial approach as embodying empathy and dignity.

Office No. 72: Myanna Dellinger - Dellinger is passionate about gender-related employment discrimination, harassment, and violence cases. She believes “people of color and lower incomes are disproportionately affected by environmental problems such as air and water pollution...The law should help remedy that.” Dellinger also advocates for gender-affirming treatment of everyone in and out of the courtroom.

Office No. 76: Emily Cole - As a judge, Cole is dedicated to helping the victims of crime but also helping the defendants that are in a system that they can’t get out of. She was also endorsed over her opponent by the LA County Bar Association.

Office No. 80: Klint James McKay - McKay is an administrative law judge with social services and has a history in the Public Defender Union. He has focused on an empathetic approach and understanding for all people, who pass through the court. His opponent David Berger is endorsed by the problematic current DA Jackie Lacey but was also chosen for the District Attorney's Office Alternative Sentencing Designee, where he’s worked within the criminal justice system to find alternatives for non-violent candidates.

Office No. 97: Sherry L. Powell - Powell has dedicated much of her legal career to serving and advocating for families, who lost loved ones to murder, and victims of violent crimes such as child molestation, rape, human trafficking, and domestic violence. She is running against Timothy Reuben, a real estate law firm founder, who ran as a conservative in 2018.

Office No. 129: Kenneth Fuller - As a District Attorney, Fuller has prosecuted environmental and sex crimes, but has also worked on the defense side as a military judge advocate.

Office No. 145: Troy Slaten - Slaten strongly supports criminal justice reform with efforts such as Collaborative Courts, designed to provide treatment instead of incarceration to the most vulnerable populations in the criminal justice system.

Office No. 150: Tom Parsekian - Parsekian is a civil litigation attorney, who is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Office No. 162: Caree Annette Harper - Harper is a former police officer, turned civil rights attorney, who has dedicated massive amounts of her time to pro bono work. In 2018, Caree obtained $1.5 million for the family of Reginald Thomas, who was beaten and tased to death by Pasadena Police Department.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERVISOR

2nd District: Holly Mitchell - A champion for progressive causes in the State Legislature, Mitchell has called for 20% affordable housing in every new development and a compassionate, non-criminalization approach to the homelessness crisis. Holly introduced the recently enacted CROWN Act, the first state law to ban discrimination based on natural hair or styles like locs, braids, and twists in workplaces and public schools.

4th District: Janice Hahn - Hanh has been solid on housing and labor issues. It should be noted that in 2015, she voted with 242 Republicans and 46 Democrats to pass a bill that proposed instituting a much more intensive screening for refugees from Iraq and Syria, who applied for admission to the U.S. It does not appear Hahn has any serious challengers.

5th District: Darrell Park - Park proposed an ambitious Green New Deal for LA County, signed the homes guarantee, and endorsed the Services Not Sweeps campaign to end the criminalization and ease the suffering of unhoused people. The current Supervisor for this district, Kathryn Barger, is the only Republican on the County Board of Supervisors.

LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT - BOARD OF EDUCATION

The following are the endorsements of the Los Angeles teachers union:

District 1: George McKenna

District 3: Scott Schmerlson

District 5: Jackie Goldberg

District 7: Patricia Castellanos

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL

***The corruption in City Hall has led to inaction, worsened the housing crisis, and wasted millions in taxpayer dollars. I urge you to vote out all incumbents.

2nd District: Ayinde Jones - Wants to expand affordable public transportation and beds in homeless shelters. (The incumbent, Paul Krekorian, did not meet the new bed goal that the city council set for itself. Krekorian did turn his own budget’s $400 million surplus into a $200 million deficit with little transparency or public oversight though.) For more info on this race, check out this community activist’s thread from the candidates’ forum.

4th District: Nithya Raman - Nithya is an MIT-trained urban planner, who founded SELAH, a local homeless service organization, and served as executive director of anti-sexual harassment group Times Up. She plans to end homelessness by providing services and housing to those in need, stop evictions, and freeze rents. She is also focused on fighting the climate crisis and improving our city’s air quality.

6th District: Bill Haller - A member of his neighborhood council and experienced with environmental advocacy, Haller is running because he is disgusted by the corruption in L.A. City Hall. Haller wants to reduce city council pay from $207,000 to $93,500 (or 85% of an elected state assemblymember’s salary) and double the number of city districts to allow for more diverse, grassroots candidates, who better understand and represent their communities.

8th District: Denise Woods - A write-in candidate who has fought against housing discrimination, Denise has plans to address public safety, prevent gang violence, and expand education and job training in South L.A.

10th District: Aura Vasquez - Aura was born and raised in Colombia. In 1996, her family came to America to escape the bloodshed and violence caused by drug cartels and the War on Drugs. As an undocumented student, Aura worked nights and weekends to put herself through college. Aura has become a dedicated community organizer, environmental advocate, and was the driving force in banning single-use plastic bags in L.A. She is focused on making city services more responsive, creating affordable housing and homeless services, ensuring police treat all residents with respect and dignity, keeping immigrant and refugee families together, and supporting local schools, teachers, and after-school programs.

12th District: Dr. Loraine Lundquist - An educator and astrophysicist, Loraine is an expert on clean energy and helped organize community opposition to the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility when it posed a massive danger to the Valley in 2015. She is refusing donations from corporate special interests and wants to challenge corruption in the LADWP to create lower utility bills for residents. Loraine also wants to use humane, data-proven solutions to end the homelessness crisis, putting an end to tax dollars being wasted on inaction.

14th District: Cyndi Otteson - Cyndi served on her neighborhood council and leads a nonprofit that helped over 320 refugee families resettle in the U.S. Cyndi rejects developer, charter school, and special interest money and wants to make housing more affordable for rent-burdened Angelenos with financial reforms and protections for renters. She proposes using the $355 million annually generated by Measure H to build on or adapt commercial property that is undeveloped or abandoned for affordable housing and homeless shelters.

GLENDALE CITY COUNCIL

Dan Brotman - Dan is an advocate for a sustainable Glendale and has been endorsed by the Sunrise Movement for fighting fossil fuel infrastructure and advocating for affordable housing.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

8th District: Chris Bubser - Bubser has been endorsed by several labor and environmental groups, and she is the only chance to avoid two Republicans on the November general election ballot in this red district.

23rd District: Kim Mangone - Kim is a veteran, running against Kevin McCarthy, one of the most far-right Republicans in Congress and the GOP’s current House Minority Leader. Vote for Kim and get McCarthy the hell out of Washington!

26th District: Julia Brownley - The incumbent, Julia passed her Female Veterans Suicide Prevention Act in 2016, which requires the VA to collect data on women veterans to identify best practices and services to end female veteran suicide. She passed a surface transportation bill to increase funds to invest in our crumbling infrastructure. Julia has been an advocate for women and working families, fighting to close the wage gap, raise the minimum wage, and expand job training and education assistance.

27th District: Judy Chu - The incumbent, Chu is chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and has a strong record on immigration rights and reform. She has also become a strong advocate for ending military hazing since her 21-year-old nephew shot and killed himself after enduring three and a half hours of discrimination-motivated assault and torture from his fellow marines in Afghanistan.

28th District: G. “Maebe A. Girl” Puldo - Maebe (she/her) is the first drag queen elected to public office in U.S. history! She is genderfluid/trans and hosts, produces, and performs in drag shows around Los Angeles in addition to her Silver Lake Neighborhood Council duties. Maebe supports Medicare for All, has experience with homelessness advocacy, and is running on a broad, progressive platform. If your knee jerk reaction is to dismiss Maebe because she’s a drag queen, kindly check your queerphobia at the door.

(Second Choice: Adam Schiff - Despite his impressive contribution to the president’s impeachment, incumbent Adam Schiff has shown himself to be a hawk, defined by donations made to his campaign by the defense industry. Even if you plan to vote for Schiff during the general election this November, I encourage you to vote for Maebe in the primary.)

29th District: Angélica María Dueñas - A member of her neighborhood council, Dueñas supports unions, Medicare For All, achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030, eliminating pharmaceutical subsidies, increasing taxes on the rich, and a humane path to citizenship.

30th District: CJ Berina - CJ is challenging an establishment Democratic incumbent, who has worked against many progressive causes. CJ supports the Green New Deal, Medicare For All, the cancellation of medical and student debt, abolishing ICE and the death penalty, and ending for-profit healthcare.

32nd District: Emanuel Gonzales - Growing up, Emanuel and his family became homeless twice: after his father was diagnosed with End-Stage Renal Disease and during the recession. Since his father died from a failed kidney transplant, Emanuel has become an advocate for expanding Medicare coverage to everyone in the U.S. and reforming the current organ transplantation system so that no organ goes to waste. Personally knowing the pain of losing a home, Emanuel will fight for affordable interest rates for first-time buyers, extending tax benefits for working families who own homes, and increasing federal grants, so people can own homes in the communities they work and serve in.

33rd District: Ted Lieu - Ted has been an outspoken critic of the current administration, bringing special attention to the treatment of migrant children in detention, separated from their families. Ted previously authored a bill banning conversion therapy and was a co-sponsor of the 2019 Medicare For All Act.

34th District: Frances Yasmeen Motiwalla - Frances supports Medicare for All, the Rent Relief Act, the Green New Deal, and urgently wants to end the war in Yemen. The incumbent Jimmy Gomez has moved to the left since facing a Green Party candidate last election cycle. If nothing else, let’s push him even more left.

37th District: Karen Bass - Leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, Karen has focused on issues such as criminal justice reform, a national minimum wage increase, and foster care. She supports Medicare For All, tuition-free community college, and capping the interest rate for federal student loans at 3.4 percent.

38th District: Michael Tolar - Supports Medicare for All, The Green New Deal, closing private prisons, getting money out of politics, and banning military-style weapons.

39th District: Gil Cisneros - A solid Orange County Democrat facing a tough reelection against a Republican this fall. Cisneros was a $266 million Mega Millions winner and became a philanthropist before deciding to run for Congress in 2018. Gil is a veteran and education advocate, who has stood up to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to lower healthcare costs, protected education funding, and worked to create good-paying local jobs.

40th District: Dr. Rodolfo Cortes Barragan - Taking on a more conservative Democrat incumbent, Rodolfo is a first-generation American, who came from Mexico at a young age and earned degrees from UC Berkeley and Stanford. He is a Green Party candidate, running on a platform of Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE, repealing the Patriot Act, and a homes guarantee with funding for universal public housing.

43rd District: Maxine Waters - Maxine has been an outspoken advocate for women, children, people of color, and the poor. She has strongly condemned the actions of the current administration and is facing a Republican challenger this fall.

44th District: Nanette Diaz Barragán - Elected in 2016, Nanette became the first Latina to represent her Congressional district. She is a strong advocate for immigration and supports Medicare for All.

45th District: Katie Porter - Katie is a survivor of domestic abuse and a former consumer protection attorney. She impressively won a swing district while still supporting Medicare for All, gun safety reform, and legislation to reduce the influence of dark money in politics.

47th District: Peter Matthews - Peter refuses donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists, supports tuition-free college, canceling student debt, Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal child care, public banks, taxing income brackets over $10 million at 70%, and believes housing is a human right.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

Elizabeth Warren - Elizabeth doesn’t just have some of the most comprehensive, progressive plans of any candidate, she has figured out and proposed some brilliant strategies to actually move them through the gridlock in Washington. She engages with stakeholders in every community, listens, and incorporates their feedback to be sure she is addressing the needs of all Americans. I trust Elizabeth to take on corruption and create a better, fairer country by removing monied corruption in politics, implementing a wealth tax on the ultra rich, creating free universal healthcare, reforming our criminal justice system, fighting predatory debt, expanding educational and economic opportunities, and creating new clean energy jobs to swiftly combat climate change.

(2nd Choice: Bernie Sanders - Bernie is a truly inspiring candidate, and I agree with almost all of his policies. I would be thrilled to vote and volunteer for him if he becomes the nominee, but he is my second choice because I believe Warren has more effective strategies to implement an extremely similar platform, ranging from the removal of the filibuster to finding solutions that won’t raise middle-class taxes to fund for Medicare For All.)

RESOURCES

https://lavote.net/Apps/CandidateList/Index?id=3793

https://laist.com/elections/

https://knock-la.com/the-knock-la-los-angeles-progressive-voter-guide-for-the-march-2020-primary-7f2c3efc13cc

https://www.dsa-la.org/2020_primary_voter_guide

https://votersedge.org/en/ca

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/9/1917945/-LA-Progressive-Majority-Voter-Guide-to-Judges-Candidates-for-March-2020-Los-Angeles-CA

https://progressivevotersguide.com/california/

https://app.kpcc.civicengine.com/v/choose_party

http://www.easyvoterguide.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/EVG-march2020-Eng.pdf

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phaylenfairchild · 6 years ago

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The Future Of Trans Americans Still Hangs In The Balance

It’s easy to get excited about the House Of Representatives becoming majority Democrat, but what does that really mean?

For transgender people, the last two years have exposed us to a steady onslaught of relentless attacks. From fear-mongering televised advertisements that posture us as inevitable sex predators to rile of the evangelical voters, to the attempted ban on transgender people serving in the military, the ban of the word “Transgender” or “Vulnerable people” in any missives between the CDC and the White House, the redactions of protections for transgender students in public schools and college campuses. Then came the establishment of the United States Department of Health and Human Services founding a new branch called The New Conscience and Religious Freedom Division intended to allow medical caregivers the right to refuse treatment to LGBT individuals citing their religious convictions.

Most recently, we’ve seen the proposal to remove us of from inclusions beneath the 1964 Civil Rights Act which will, consequentially, expose to to further acts of violence, discrimination and harassment. In a memo that was leaked to the Washington Post which had been drafted and amended by four judicial branches, the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor since early 2018, it stated that the Obama Administration, by force “…wrongfully extend(ed) civil rights to people who should not have had them.”

Within days, Trump appointed renowned anti-LGBT attorney Eric Dreiband to the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division who immediately sent a directive to the United States Supreme Court saying trans identifying people can now be fired without legal recourse.

The latest series of attacks came from all sides, fast and furious. In true Trump fashion, so many other stories dominated the headlines that the conversation, the outrage, the backlash disappeared within days, buried. This is truly the era where it seems impossible to keep up or even stay proactive when something new arises every day, provoking more shock, more fear and more cultural division.

But, transgender Americans were watching this election from the edge of their seats. We knew that the unfolding results had direct implications on our lives, our safety, our security and our future ability to thrive in this nation as an equal. There were throngs of cheers as Democrats swept the House of Representatives, but that alone cannot protect us from the political missiles ready to launch in our direction.

The House of Representatives has several powers assigned to it, including financial oversight, introducing or reforming revenue bills and even the ability to impeach a federal official- yes, they can move to impeach the President. However, what passes through the House must also pass through Senate… and if you, like millions of others, watched the election results come in on November 6th, you know that Republicans not only maintained control of the Senate, but picked up two seats.

The Senate can block every effort that the House of Representatives makes. This is the dark reality of having two branches each run by opposing factions. They don’t care about the issues as much as they care about keeping score. They vote with each other, not against each other. They are more like National Sports teams than a body intended to represent everyday folks like you and me. We must accept there is no bipartisan effort in government.

Even before all the votes had been counted, the future for transgender Americans began to look more bleak when Trump demanded the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions– who was, himself, notoriously anti-LGBT- and appointed a younger, more bigoted version of Sessions in the form of Matt Whitaker. A Man who has historically weaponized his political power against LGBT people. A man who insists that Federal Judges must rule by Biblical Law.

We trans folks and our allies can fight these immeasurably damaging lawmakers all the way to the Supreme Court, but Trump has been ahead of the ball, stacking the bench with Conservative Judges- and one specifically, Justice Kavanaugh, is very eager to please the President who defended him against multiple sexual assault claims to ensure his confirmation- a decision made by Senators who, unsurprisingly, voted along party lines to put him there for the duration of his lifetime despite evidence he may have perjured himself during his testimony.

It’s been hard for the nation to stay on course, however, with so many minorities coming under fire by Trump Administration and the venomous candidates he has devoted the last two years campaigning across the country for. Amidst blatant voter suppression, bombs sent to leaders of the Democratic Party by a Trump loyalist, more devastating gun violence, the latest at a Country and Western Bar in Thousand Oaks, California marking the 307th mass shooting since the beginning of the year, it’s easy for us to get lost in the chaos.

And it is chaos. The entire Nation is reeling.

As a Transgender person, I get a lot of critical feedback. Some are polite and some are violent threats. The argument most often posed to me is this:

Many people say; “There are just too few of you to matter.”

They can’t even agree on how many of us there are. All our detractors care about is there being more of “Them” than there are of “Us.” Those are the politics this administration relies on. Them vs. Us.

Trumpists vs. Immigrants.

Trumpists vs. Muslims

Trumpists vs. Transgender people

Trumpists vs. Women

Trumpists vs. People of Color

Everywhere you look, the Trump administration is starting a war on people. Their goal is to keep everyone scattered. Like a pride of Lions attacking a herd of wild buffalo, they keep the attacks coming with a rapid intensity, thus there is no time to organize against or even react to the last. They go for who they perceives as the weakest first. It is not unnatural, if you are a member of any of the disenfranchised communities that have suffered as a result of this cancerous presidency, to be concerned for your own fate or be hyper-focused on issues that explicitly target you. It’s hard to be angry with others for having already moved on from the discussion of my civil rights. That only happened two weeks ago, although it feels like years by now. As a social activist, or, more accurately, a humanist, it’s a challenge to determine where my own efforts are best served. Every day it feels like a new crisis and another marginalized community in need of our collective acknowledgment and more importantly, our compassion as acts of hate are emboldened and then escalated by Presidential rhetoric. He winds up his base with lies and fuels their white, cisgender, heterosexual anxieties over sharing spaces with people unlike themselves. He gives them a show, they give him unwavering loyalty. It isn’t entirely dissimilar to the time he was a mainstay on the World Wrestling Entertainment Stage. That was a gig Trump maintained for awhile, appealing mostly to those who enjoy watching others being kicked, punched and body slammed, but in a ring rather than at a rally. Although not a wrestler, he was combative sidebar; A character of antagonism and the audience loved him… and he loved the attention. Great entertainment for denizens of a sports bar, a tragedy for a country under his unqualified leadership.

For several years there has been talk about developing an Equalities Act, one akin to that already adopted by the United Kingdom in 2010. Again, for that to ever see the light of day, it would have to pass Senate. It does not, sadly, rely solely on the House of Representatives. In Senate, transgender Americans have absolutely no representation. While several trans candidates were elected to local and state offices, Vermont’s Christine Hallquist is the first trans person to win a Gubernatorial primary, but lost in the race Tuesday night. She immediately expressed her concerns for the future of transgender Americans and their potential loss of more rights.

The Department of Health and Human Services has already moved to replace references to “Gender” with “Sex” as they have decided- behind closed doors as the world spun off its axis and we were all distracted- that sex is binary and gender identity that contradicts genital does not exist, nor will it be acknowledged by government agencies despite scientific evidence that anatomy does not determine gender. This reformation of policies, not just from the Obama era, but as far back as 1964, will have far reaching implications, including limiting or removing our right to vote given that some are arguing the constitution directly references sex, not gender, and some have had their government documents amended to reflect their gender identity, not their birth assigned gender. If Republicans succeed in their efforts to remove insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, that will undoubtedly include those diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Suddenly, transgender people could find themselves without affordable access to medications vital to their health and emotional well being. Those in the House of Representatives claim they will prevent this when they assume office in January, 2019.

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