100 DAYS OF AWESOME ACTIVISM (Weekly Roundup 4/22/17)

 

We have made it to 100 days without giving up, be proud of yourselves. Before I get to my list of what went right this week, let me say that Daily Kos did a wonderfully inspiring post of our accomplishments for the past 100 days, read it here!

  1. Bill O’Reilly out! Now who will give the trumpettes all their news? Chaffetz not running for re-election!!!!  Sorry Utah he’s all yours now. And the racial and sexist slur spouting Florida State Senator Frank Artiles resigned from the legislature after getting caught releasing a diatribe of insults against two lawmakers, so now we have another seat up for grabs for you dems in Florida looking for something to do.
  2. Another mega millionaire couldn’t buy his way into a position in the administration because of conflicts of interest. Ricketts, who donated a million dollars to Trump’s campaign, withdrew his nomination as deputy commerce secretary, because he couldn’t untangle his finances to the satisfaction of the Office of Government Ethics.
  3. Woman Power! Kathrine Switzer, who was a 20-year-old college student when she made history in 1967 by becoming the first woman to both officially enter and finish, the Boston Marathon even after officials tried to tackle her and rip off her number, crossed the Boston Marathon finish line again 50 years later.  Jeanette Vizguerra, an undocumented mother of four who has been living in a Denver church to avoid deportation and separation form her citizen children since February, was named one of 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, along with the organizers of the Women’s March on Washington, Samantha Bee, and many more.
  4. Democrat Jackie Smith pulled an upset in a largely republican area of Virginia and won for Prince William County Clerk even though her opponent out spent her by 7:1. I may sound like a broken record by now, but change starts at the local level. Tony Evers won the election for Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction, running as a pro-public education candidate against his opponent who ran as a pro-DeVos/voucher candidate.
  5. Two republicans in Colorado joined with democrats to defeat a bill that would have allowed businesses to deny services to customers based on personal beliefs. What were those other republicans smoking when they proposed it?
  6. The Supreme Court ruled that states have to give back criminal fines when people are exonerated and they can’t require them to prove their innocence again in civil court for criminal penalties to be returned. A federal judge ordered the Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to turn over a copy of a proposal he was photographed taking into a meeting with Trump before the inauguration to the ACLU. A photographer captured a partial view of the document, containing Trump’s immigration plan but also revealed the documents included a reference to voter rolls. The ACLU sought the documents as part of a lawsuit against a Kansas Voter-ID law.
  7. American Oversight, a group formed by liberal lawyers has filed two lawsuits. They sued the Justice Dept. and FBI over their refusal to comply with their freedom of information request seeking information regarding the allegation of wiretapping of Trump Tower by President Obama, alleging they are not classified as they have been referred to in public tweets and by Comey at public hearings. They also demanded records regarding Russian interference in the presidential campaign.  The SPLC sued Andrew Anglin, the man who runs the Daily Stormer, a well-known neo-Nazi website, on behalf of a Jewish family in Montana for harassment by inciting a “troll storm” against them and putting their lives at risk.
  8. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Ocwen Financial Corporation, one of the nation’s largest non-bank mortgage servicing companies, alleging that company mismanagement that lead to improper foreclosures and other serious problems for homeowners related to their mortgage services and the Treasury Dept. denied Exxon Mobil’s request to bypass U.S. sanctions against Russia to resume drilling for oil in a joint venture in Russia.
  9. The twittler-in-chief told the AP news in an interview, that “dreamers” should not be worried about deportation.
  10. Those of us who know better, continue to save this planet. Since the implementation of a plastic bag fee of 7 cents, plastic grocery bag usage is down 42% in Chicago. On April 21st the U.K. had its first full day without burning coal to make electricity since the Industrial Revolution in the 1880’s. Hundreds of thousands turned out around the country to stand up for science and the planet at the March for Science, with some of the most intelligent and inspiring signs.

My plugs for the week are that the organization Sister District has announced their partner districts so sign up now to volunteer to flip your nearest red district blue, and Run for Something is looking for volunteers to research school board elections across the country, it only takes an hour or two of your time and can be done without even leaving your couch. Come back soon for more updates on resistance resources.

Tax Marches Rocked and Inspired!

Since the flip flops and bombs coming out of the WH may have your head spinning, here are some concrete facts to keep you positive in this week’s edition of What Went Right (4/16/17)

  1. Change is happening from the ground up. The Anchorage Alaska Assembly got more progressive with the election of democrat Suzanne LaFrance, over a Trump supporter, replacing a retiring conservative, along with the election of the two first openly gay representatives to the Assembly. Democrats kicked but in Illinois. The city of Kankakee elected its first African-American, Democratic mayor. West Deerfield Township will be led entirely by Democrats for the first time. Elgin Township flipped to an all-Democratic board. Normal Township elected Democratic supervisors and trustees to run its board ― the first time in more than 100 years. Cummings and Hosea became the first black members of Normal Town Council and Normal Township Trustee, in a predominately white, Republican region of the state.
  2. Arizona enacted legislation to reform the state’s civil-asset forfeiture policies, increasing the burden of proof required for property seizure, which is a really good thing. Forfeiture laws lead to “policing for profit”, allowing for seizure of property based on just the suspicion of criminal activity, without a requirement of a conviction or even a charge. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to sign a bill that would toughen criminal penalties for harassment based on sexual orientation or disabilities, putting then on the same level as harassment based on color, religion, ancestry and national origin.
  3. Delaware is doing its part to help immigrants. The Christina School District is the first school district there to officially adopt a “safe haven” policy to safeguard undocumented students in their district, and the Delaware Dept. of Health and Social Services sent an email to employees stating the agency will “respect” immigrants’ privacy and will not share information about anyone’s immigration status without a court order.  Iranian immigrant, Askar Sahebjam, 73, traveling with an approved visa, who was held for questioning and deported back to Iran when he arrived in the US on the day of the first travel ban, has now been allowed back in the US after three months of advocacy on his behalf.
  4. A  Federal Judge again found that a Texas voter ID law was passed with the intention of discriminating against minority voters.  The judge had previously made a similar ruling, but was instructed to review the issue again after Texas appealed the decision,
  5. Republic Governor of Alabama resigned amid campaign finance fraud indictment and is replaced by a woman, Lt. Governor Kay Ivey (albeit another republican). The Governor is one of three top republican leaders in Alabama to be forced from power recently. The House Speaker was convicted of felony ethics violations and the head of the state’s judiciary was suspended after being convicted of violating judicial ethics with an order against same-sex marriage.
  6. The ACLU filed more than a dozen lawsuits nationwide seeking government documents related to the implementation of the travel ban after the Customs and Border Protection offices failed to substantively respond to Freedom of Information Act requests and they sued the Wisconsin state university system for refusal to provide health insurance coverage to trans state employees who are seeking to have gender confirmation surgery.
  7. The Gwinnett County Police Chief did the right thing by immediately firing two white police officers who were seen on video beating a handcuffed black man they’d pulled over for a traffic violation rather than defend and praise them or blame the victim.
  8. Virginia Senators raised the salary of the female clerk of the chamber to bring it in line with her male counterpart on the House side, who was earning $19,000 a year more, though she’s been on the job for 27 years to her counterparts only 5 years.
  9. The federal hiring freeze has been lifted.
  10. Bill O’Reilly is taking “a vacation” after his advertisers abandoned him in droves.
  11. And our fun facts for the week, Health Inspectors in Florida found 13 violations at the ‘Winter White House” kitchen, a record high, 3 of the violations were deemed “high priority,” meaning they could allow the presence of illness-causing bacteria on food served. I hope no one important that golfs there almost every weekend gets sick.  A Florida Court upheld a ruling against Trump National Doral’s who tried to stiff a local paint store, ordering them to pay a  Miami paint store over $315,000 in paint costs and $282,949 in attorney’s fees.   Paint Stop winning bigly.  And let’s not forget that Ben Carson got stuck in an elevator for 20 minutes while touring a Miami Housing Project.

I have to give out a shout out to the many resisters all over the country that turned out in YUGE numbers for tax day marches, indivisible groups attending Easter break town halls in droves, and a special nod to Rise and Resist New York for the civil disobedience they engaged in over the travel ban at Trump Tower in NYC. They Rock.

Let’s remember we have an important election next week in Georgia 4/18 and upcoming People’s Climate Change March 4/29 and March for Science 4/22.

Bannon Banned from National Security Council and more good stuff. Weekly Roundup 4/9/17

Since we could all probably do with hearing some good news this week, I bring you another edition of What Went Right

  1. In the war against sexual harassment and gender discrimination, women scored big as 60 companies pulled their ads from the Bill O’Reilly show after disclosure that Fox paid millions to settle sexual misconduct lawsuits against him. This adds to the win last week by Women’s Hockey who negotiated a landmark settlement with large pay raises, benefits on par with the men, better marketing and promotion, and support to help advance women’s hockey.
  2. The world just got a little bit safer with the removal of Steve Bannon from the National Security Council and maybe we will see some progress in the House’s investigation of Russia-Trump now that Senator Nunes resigned from the committee investigating it. Nunes stepped down because he is now under investigation for making unauthorized disclosures of classified information while overseeing his panel’s investigation.
  3. The LGBT community won a huge victory when a Federal Appeals Court ruled a 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT workers from job discrimination, expanding workplace protections in the landmark law to include sex discrimination in the workplace. The Chief Judge wrote “It is actually impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without discriminating on the basis of sex. It would require considerable calisthenics to remove the ‘sex’ from ‘sexual orientation.'” And in a similar decision, a U.S. District judge ruled that the Federal Fair Housing Act bars housing discrimination against LGBT people. Not to mention Dutch men walked hand-in-hand throughout the country in solidarity for a gay couple that had been attacked.
  4. There is one federal agency is still doing its job. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Car Wash Headquarters, a national car wash company for racial discrimination, alleging they favored less qualified white workers over African Americans for management positions.
  5. A coalition of officials from ten states and New York City sued the Dept. of Energy over its delay in the implementation of energy efficiency standards and the Pesticide Action Network and the NRDC sued the EPA to force it to take action on a pesticide linked to nervous system and brain disorders.
  6. Alabama politicians really do care about their constituents. Alabama didn’t take the Medicaid extension, but announced a new program to give away up to 60,000 “baby boxes” that serve as bassinets, in an effort to combat sudden infant mortality. The boxes come with a firm mattress and fitted sheet, diapers, baby wipes, educational materials, etc.
  7. NYS announced a budget plan that will make tuition free at public colleges in New York City and NY State for families with incomes under $125,000 and an additional $10 million dollars to provide immigrants facing deportation with free legal representation.
  8. There’s a new democratic sheriff in town, and he announced the closing of the notorious Tent City Jail in Arizona where prisoners are forced to live outside and wear pink underwear compliments of Joe Arpaio (R). Arpaio, is himself facing possible jail time as he goes on trial soon for criminal contempt in racial profiling cases after losing his re-election bid. Also in local news, a judge approved an agreement between Baltimore and the Justice Dept. to overhaul the Baltimore police department, denying requests from the Justice Dept. to delay it and the Cambridge City Council passed an increase in the required affordable housing contribution from large developers.
  9. The future of investigative journalism is bright. Kansas high school students working on their school newspaper did some old school, boots on the ground, investigation on their new principal uncovering a web of deceit and lies about her background leading to her resignation.
  10. Not to be outdone by the resistance at the Statue of Liberty or Greenpeace in DC, activist unfurled a large “Impeach Trump” banner on opening day for the Washington National’s baseball team at Nationals Park in D.C.

We have big special Congressional elections coming up in Georgia (4/18) and Kansas (4/11). Call, text, and email your friends and family there and remind them to get out and vote, canvass, and phone bank for John Ossoff and James Thompson. If you don’t live in Kansas sign up to phonebank from the comfort of your own home at www/votejamesthompson.com/phonebank

No Baby Giraffe Yet, but Prairie Dogs were Saved. The Weekly Roundup For 4/1/17

While we wait for April the Giraffe to give birth, let me tell you again about a lot of the good that happened this week (4/1/17).

  1. The Judge in Hawaii extended the order to stop the travel ban, and issued a preliminary injunction against the implementation.
  2. Protests against fascism and dictators spread to Russia. In a rare show of force, thousands of Russians took to the streets of Moscow and other cities in the biggest anti-government protests in years risking arrest and imprisonment.
  3. Daniel Ramirez Medina, who spent more than six weeks in immigration detention despite his DACA status was released from custody pending deportation proceedings.
  4. The Maryland legislature voted to ban fracking and sent it to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who publicly supports the ban. A number of horrible bills in Tennessee failed to pass at the end of this legislative session. This included a measure that would have dramatically relaxed Tennessee’s gun laws, a bill legally recognizing only marriages between one man and one woman, and this year’s version of the bathroom bill.
  5. The Spokane Valley and Spokane City Councils in Washington state approved anti-discrimination resolutions. Columbus City Council in Ohio voted to ban conversion therapy for minors. Columbus follows other cities like Cincinnati and Toledo that have passed similar ordinances. A reminder that a lot of good can be accomplished at your local level.
  6. The Supreme Court continued a trend toward limiting capital punishment, rejecting Texas’ approach to deciding which intellectually disabled people must be spared the death penalty. Justice RBG said Texas had failed to keep up with current medical consensus, relied too heavily on I.Q. scores and took account of factors rooted in stereotypes.
  7. Prairie dogs won bigly this week (along with other endangered animals). The 10th Circuit held that the ban on the unauthorized destruction endangered wildlife is a “cornerstone” of the Endangered Species Act and that “Congress had a rational basis to believe that regulation of the killing of the Utah prairie dog on non federal land is an essential part of the ESA’s broader regulatory scheme, which, in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce.” A coalition of environmental groups, including the NRDC and the Sierra Club challenged the federal permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, arguing that additional environmental scrutiny is needed because the initial environmental review is inadequate and outdated. Your donations hard at work.
  8. A federal judge in Kentucky ruled that a suit against the creepy tweeter for inciting the use of violence against protesters when he told supporters at a campaign rally a year ago to “get ’em out of here” can proceed. The Judge wrote that because violence had broken out at a prior Trump rally and that known hate group members were in the Louisville crowd, Trump’s ordering the removal of an African-American woman was “particularly reckless.”  Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute sued the Dept. of Homeland Security over their delay in responding to their Freedom of Information request regarding data on how often electronic devices were searched at border crossings, complaints about the practice, and government training materials.
  9. Jan Rader was appointed the Chief of the Huntington Fire Department becoming the first female fire chief in the state of West Virginia. Meanwhile, a Michigan lawyer, Andrew Shirvell was disbarred in a misconduct case related to his public hostility for a gay student leader at the University of Michigan.
  10. The PAC “Run For Something” founded by former Clinton Campaign staffers post-election announced that 8,000 people have contacted them since they formed expressing an interest in running for office and Emily’s List announced that 10,000 women have reached out to them for information on seeking office. Now that is something that gives me great hope for our future. Check out Sister District which can help you connect to those in nearby red districts that need help.

My one and only plea for this week, work hard and email, call, fax, and protest to stop the upcoming appointment of Gorsuch. We stopped Trumpcare, we can stop this too. Resistbot is a great FREE and easy to use fax tool. Just Text “Resist” to 50409 and see how effective it is. Brought to you by Jodi Harawitz. Feel free to share.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week for the Creepy Tweeter. The Weekly Roundup for 3/25/17

A lot went right this week,so with much joy in my heart I bring you another edition of What Went Right.
1. The creepy tweeter had a terrible, no good, very bad week. Comney, testified before Congress that there was no evidence to support the tweet that Trump Tower was “wire tapped” and that there is evidence of Trump/Russian collusion in the election and the FBI is investigating. His former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, is wanted for questioning for crimes in the Ukraine. He fell 220 places on the Forbes list of the richest people. His approval rating sank to a new low of 37%, according to the latest Gallup Poll (the lowest in polling history of any president this early in their presidency). Oh, and just in case you missed it, his Trumpcare plan to repeal and replace Obamacare failed because the republicans didn’t have enough votes and withdrew it. Our voices were heard – activism works.
2. Even red states can do the right thing. Charlottesville’s City Council approved a resolution calling on Congress to reject the military-heavy federal budget proposed by the White House. Arkansas passed a law ending the state’s celebrating of Gen. Robert E. Lee on the same holiday as Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrating General Lee has been downgraded from a state holiday to a day with a state proclamation. The law also requires schools to expand what’s taught to include more emphasis on civil rights leaders such as King.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court expanded the scope of students’ special education rights, ruling unanimously that schools must do more than provide a “merely more than de minimis” education program to a student with a disability. Chief Justice Roberts wrote “When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing ‘merely more than de minimis’ progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all.”
4. The Justice Department entered into a settlement with a large pizza chain that violated immigration law by demanding foreign-born legal resident workers produce green cards as proof of employment eligibility, but did not require similar document from U.S. citizen workers. The pizza chain will pay a civil penalty of $140,000 and face monitoring.
5. Google has made it easier for advertisers to limit their ad placements from appearing on hate sites and expanded their definition of hate speech after large brands halted advertising on Google and YouTube over concerns about offensive content.
6. Ivanka Trump’s company was hit with a class-action lawsuit by a California-based retailer claiming her company gets an unfair advantage over other retailers because of its association with the president and are seeking a restraining order preventing her line from being sold in California. The NCAA gave NC an ultimatum to repeal the anti-LGBTQ bathroom bill HB2 by next week or face being blackballed from hosting collegiate athletic championships until 2022.
7. The assistant U.S. Attorney who led public-corruption prosecutions under Preet Bharara was hired by the NY state Attorney General as a senior enforcement counsel, focusing on issues relating to the White House and public corruption in general.
8. Fox News has benched legal analyst Andrew Napolitano because of his unfounded (ie. fake) claims on TV that President Barack Obama used British intelligence officials to spy on Trump Tower.
9. Democrat contender Kim Weaver, in Iowa raised $100,000 in 4 days to unseat republican Congressman Steve King (r) after he made racist tweets giving her a jumpstart in her second bid for the seat. Consider supporting her on ActBlue.com. Beth Fukumoto, who was ousted last month as the Republican leader of Hawaii’s House of Representatives after publicly criticizing the tweeter-in-chief, resigned from the party and is seeking membership as a Democrat. She says a poll of her constituents shows 75% support her decision.
10. I missed this story last week, but felt it important to include even if older. Without the fear of guns being taken away since the election, people aren’t stockpiling guns, so gun sellers aren’t selling as many, which has resulted in gun makers in the US laying off workers at US gun factories (including Colt and Remington), and the stock value of the companies has dropped significantly. Fewer gun makers is always a good thing.

If you feel inspired after reading this, post a comment with one action, big or small, you will try to do this week to help bring about progressive change to your local community, state, or country. One easy step is to sign up for www.dailyaction.org.

A Big Travel Ban Win, A Peek at Taxes and so much more. The Weekly Roundup – 3/18/17

I am excited to bring you this week’s edition of What Went Right so let’s get right to it my favorites.

  1. Two Federal Judges have blocked the new travel ban, preventing it from going into effect. One of the judges wrote, a “reasonable, objective observer” would view even the new order as “issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose.”
  2. A Federal District Court permanently blocked Mississippi’s Texas-style clinic shutdown, ensuring the last abortion clinic in the state will remain open. The court refused to hear an appeal of the ban on the law, which required any physician associated with an abortion facility to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
  3. Rachel Maddow teased us with a release of the first two pages of the twittler-in-chief’s 2005 Federal tax return on prime time TV in a scathing take down. We can only hope that the full read comes soon.
  4. The Mississippi House defeated a bill requiring state universities to fly the state flag. Why do I include this? Well the Mississippi state flag has the Confederate emblem on it and some are trying to find a way to make the schools fly it since they can’t force the full confederate flag anymore. Gov. Matt Mead in Wyoming vetoed a bill that would have allowed people to carry guns at state and local government meetings.
  5. In more legal wins; a Federal Judge held the U.S. Border Control in civil contempt for failing to maintain surveillance tapes in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and others, claiming the agency detains migrants in inhumane conditions. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s minimum-wage law, rejecting a challenge by business groups to the Prop. 206 law. The law raises Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 and requires employers to offer mandatory paid sick leave as of July 1.
  6. Alexander City, Alabama will pay $680,000 in damages for the 190 low-income people who were unconstitutionally jailed for not paying tickets in a settlement agreement with the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of a lawsuit challenging the cities operation of a modern-day debtors’ prison in which people were jailed for being too poor to pay fines. The New York City Police Dept. agreed to install a civilian watchdog on a surveillance panel as part of a settlement to strengthen oversight of the NYPD surveillance tactics as a result of a class action brought by NY’s Muslim community.
  7. A Charleston jury awarded a black couple $1.3 million in damages for being arrested after they accused a white state trooper of racial profiling during a traffic stop. Neither victims were permanently injured, but the jury was asked to send a message with a large award, and they did after seeing the dash-cam footage.
  8. In deep red Alabama, Walt Maddoxx, a democrat, won re-election as the Mayor of Tuscaloosa with 90 percent of the vote. Democratic candidate for City Council in North Phoenix Arizona, Debra Stark, won over her Republican opponent. Stark will be the first Democrat in about three decades to win that seat. Change starts at the local level.
  9. Dutch voters rejected hate. Prime Minister Rutte and his conservative party won over the xenophobic, far-right-wing Freedom Party. Rutte said “This is a night when the Netherlands, after Brexit, after the American elections, has said ‘stop’ to the wrong kind of populism.” The Dutch left party, GreenLeft, also won big, increasing its seats in parliament from four to 14.
  10. In minor, yet entertaining news; McDonald’s calls Donald Trump ‘a disgusting excuse of a President’ with ‘tiny hands’ in a tweet. They later announced the account had been hacked, but was it really? I like to think not, and sadly Ivanka Trump has discontinued her high-end fine jewelry line because enough rich people didn’t listen to Kellyann Conway and buy her $10,000 baubles.

So keep on participating in town halls, help organize your community, make use of Emily’s List and Crowdpac.com if you want to consider running for office, and remember it takes lots of advance planning, so now is a good time to get started.

Lots of Women’s Rights for International Women’s Day. The Weekly Roundup – 3/11/17

What Went Right back by popular demand for this week. I couldn’t narrow down my favorites this week, so the list is long.

1.   All 100 Senators, in a rare show of unity, sent a letter to Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the FBI urging them to assist in protecting Jewish institutions and help prosecute those who threaten them in response to a rise in anti-Semitism

2.The Supreme Court ruled that when a juror makes a clear statement indicating that they relied on racial stereotypes or animus to convict, jury secrecy rules give way to allow a review of the jury deliberations to determine if the defendant was denied a fair trial. Justice Kennedy wrote “An effort to address the most grave… racial bias is… an effort… to ensure that our legal system remains capable of coming ever closer to the promise of equal treatment under the law that is so central to a functioning democracy.

3. In a roundup up of state actions; Maryland passed an extension of a successful state program aimed at reducing per-capita energy use, reminding us that environmental protections also happen at the local and state level. The Republican Governor of Massachusetts broke with the usual Republican position and pledged to replace any lost federal Planned Parenthood funds with state funds. Two New Mexico bills that would have placed restrictions on abortions were killed by a NM House Committee. And going big out there in Texas, democratic State Rep. Jessica Farrar, filed a bill that would penalize men for “unregulated masturbatory emissions” and regulate Viagra use.

4. The fight against TrumpCare gained powerful supporters when the AARP, the American Medical Association, and the largest Health Insurance trade association, announced that they didn’t support it as drafted because of the expected decline in health insurance coverage and the potential harm it would cause to vulnerable patient populations.

5. Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, and Oregon filed lawsuits against the revised travel ban, arguing the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.

6. The SPLC secured the release of Daniela Vargas, a 22-year-old DREAMER, from ICE custody after 10 days in detention after she was detained moments after speaking publicly about immigrants’ rights. Her arrest was a transparent attempt to chill free speech and intimidate immigrants who speak up. These are your donations at work.

7. Just to prove to you that Canada isn’t the only cool place to live, Iceland announced it will soon require all employers with more than 25 employees to certify they give equal pay for work of equal value. While other countries, and Minnesota, have equal-salary policies, Iceland is the first to make it mandatory for both private and public firms. If they can do it there, we can do it here.

8. Two democratic candidates in very conservative districts are raising large amounts of money in their bids to give republican candidates a run for their money. Jon Ossoff, is running for Congress in a special election in April to fill Tom Price’s seat and has raised almost 3 million. Kathryn Allen, a democrat and doctor, in Utah was so outraged by Jason Chaffetz’s infamous i-phone/healthcare comment that she decided to run against him after her exploratory steps raised over $350,000 in just days.

9. International Women’s Day brought out thousands of people in many cities across the country for demonstrations, while a call for pro-trump rallies brought out only a tiny handful of people at a few locations with headlines like “tens of people showed up”.

10. I try not to make this post controversial and would not usually consider death good news and I have no doubt I will face many unpleasant comments over this, but nevertheless I will persist on behalf of all the people who have been saved from future harm. Joseph Nicolosi, a co-founder and acting practitioner of gay conversion therapy died and will no longer be able to inflict untold suffering on those facing his extremely damaging brand of torture.

Keep those donations flowing, those protests loud, those phone calls, emails, letters and postcards rolling out, and consider running for office no matter where you live.

Weekly Roundup – Week Ending (3/4/17)

Welcome back to this week’s edition of What Went Right.  I may have missed some things while I was spending a few days in the land of healthcare for all, Canada, so feel free to chime in with your additions.
1. The Speaker of the Arizona House said he won’t hear a bill passed by the Senate last week that makes participating in, or helping organize a protest, that turns into a riot, an offense that could lead to criminal racketeering charges. The move was prompted by protests and criticism that the legislation sought to limit First Amendment rights. Reported by FOX news so we know it’s not FAKE
2. Three special election races took place in CT. Democrats Borer won the State House and McCroy the State Senate (both replacing Democrats). In the 3rd race, even though the Republican candidate defeated Democrat Cava for State Senate, I call this a positive. Why? Because republicans have held the seat for a century, but Cava received the highest percentage of votes of any Democrat in decades, losing by only 10 percent, and turnout was much higher than anticipated, some towns ran out of ballots and had to tabulate by hand.
3. The Supreme Court remanded a case back to a lower court to reexamine the redistricting efforts of Virginia’s Republican-led legislature for signs of racial bias and whether some legislative districts were gerrymandered to dilute the impact of African American voters after Democrats challenged the redistricting,
4. The centuries old Harvard Law Review elected its first ever black woman as President.
5. A long list of law professors filed an ethics complaint with the DC Bar against Kellyann Conway for violations based on her misrepresentation of facts etc (but not for sitting in the Oval Office couch with her feet on the couch, her shoes off, and her legs spread in a very unprofessional manner while hosting presidents of HBCU.
6. Some may question my inclusion of this on the political list, but you will just have to humor me. Waking up to find Moonlight (a low budget movie about the coming of age of a young gay black man living in a tough Miami neighborhood) had really won over the favorite to win La La Land (a big hollywood production about a love story/struggle between two privileged white people in Hollywood) after I saw the award go to La La Land (at which I time I promptly turned off the TV), is the stuff of my dreams every day.
7. The landlord for Marco Rubio’s Tampa Bay Office notified him that it will not renew his lease because the weekly protests are too disruptive to the other tenants and are costly for the company. This makes me want to protest every single day.
8. Six of the 12 sponsors of Celebrity Apprentice pulled their endorsements for next season, as did Arnold Schwarzenegger, boycotts are working!
I hope you feel inspired by this list to keep on fighting and protesting until all the healthcare, environment, civil rights, economic justice, and ethics hating politicians are run out out of office.

Weekly Roundup – Week ending (2/25/17)

We all know what went wrong this week, so now it is time again for what went right. Not every win is directly twittler-in-chief related, but many will help us as a country stay on the right track.

1.   Democratic candidate for State Senate in Delaware, Stephanie Hansen won by 58% of the vote, enabling the Democrats to retain a majority in the State Senate. Hundreds of in-state and out-of-state volunteers campaigned and donated close to a million dollars to keep Delaware blue.
2.   The Vice Chair of the Wasatch County Republican Party, James Green, was forced to resign after backlash from his letter to the editor supporting a gender pay gap as way to keep mothers from entering the workforce.
3.  Virginia Democrats announced plans to challenge 45 GOP incumbents in the republican controlled House of Delegates this November. If successful, it would be an increase over 2015, when only 21 Democrats ran against GOP lawmakers.
4.   The Arizona Senate rejected a bill that would have prevented cities from creating ID cards available to all residents, regardless of their immigration status.
5.   A U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Maryland’s ban on assault rifles by a 10-4 vote. The Court ruled gun owners are not protected under the second amendment off the U.S. Constitution to possess “weapons of war.”
6.   The largest coal-fired generating plant west of the Mississippi announced they would close in 2019, decades earlier than expected. The plant was third on the EPA list of major carbon-emitting facilities.
7.   Betsy DeVos actually came out as against repealing bathroom protects for transgender students, who would have thought?
8.   Outdoor Retailer, a major industry trade show that brings in millions of dollars in revenue announced Utah could no longer host the trade show starting in 2018. This was in response to a boycott of the show by Patagonia, REI, North Face, and others after the Republican Governor refused to rescind his call for the reversal of a new national monument designation for Bear Ears Monument. (a bit late on this one as it was 10 days ago).
9.   Activists hung an enormous 20 foot “Refugees Welcome” banner at the base of the Statute of Liberty. Beautiful photos of the banner appeared all over the news.

Weekly Roundup – Week Ending 2/18/17

It’s time for another weekly round-up of the good. Yes, he should not be named is still president. However, not everything went well on his side of the wall this week.
1.    Michael Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor when White House leaks revealed that he lied to the VP about pre-inauguration conversations with Russia.
2.   Andy Puzder withdrew his nomination as Labor Secretary after he admitted to hiring an undocumented worker and not paying taxes on her salary. It also became clear a dozen Republicans were threatening to break with party and reject his nomination, significantly more than the two that voted against Devos last week.
3.   Kellyann Conway was blacklisted from a number of mainstream news shows for her fake news and habitual lying.
4.   Extreme gerrymandering in Wisconsin to create a disproportionate balance of Republican districts was struck down by a Federal Court.
5.   Six staffers at the White House were fired and escorted out because they failed background checks.
6.   Under Armour CEO publicly backed away from his support of presidential positions and took out a full page ad in the Baltimore Sun praising immigrants for their contributions.
7.   Immigrants around the country caused the shut-down of businesses and supportive protests brought out thousands in “A Day without Immigrants.”

Don’t stop your calls, protests, emails, volunteer work, and donations. Try not to get discouraged in this barrage of horrors, and if you do, shake it off, and get back up.