[mpen-dayton] Happy New Year!

Please click this link to play the Greetings:

http://www.icq.com/img/friendship/static/card_16961_rs.swf

Wishing you a Happy New Year,

From Munsup Seoh, Ph. D., who retired in April from his professor position at Wright State University!

Reminder of your subscription to mpen-dayton

Your are subscriber of list mpen-dayton@sympa.dkumc.net with email quigle.minogue@blogger.com

Everything about this list: http://sympa.dkumc.net/wws/info/mpen-dayton

Unsubscription:
mailto:sympa@sympa.dkumc.net?subject=sig%20mpen-dayton%20quigle.minogue%40blogger.com

[mpen-dayton] FW: "Gov. Kasich signs gun legislation" & "Fight Trump’s Muslim registry" & "Bankrupt DAPL" & "Are Younger Whites Less Racist?" and more

FYI.   Best, Munsup

P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' added to the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons to protect my email servers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

·         FW: Gov. Kasich signs gun legislation

·         FW: Get reintroduced to Rosa Parks, thanks to a new archive

·         FW: Harper's January cover

·         FW: Case Studies and 'Unpresidented': Donald Trump invents the Guardian's word of the year

·         FW: Sign the petition: Fight Trump's Muslim registry

·         FW: The Pen: "All The Inoffensive 'Advocacy' Groups Out There Will Never Change A Thing"

·         FW: We built JVP for moments like this

·         FW: Bankrupt DAPL

·         FW: Are Younger Whites Less Racist?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: AAUP - Ohio Conference
Subject: Gov. Kasich signs gun legislation

Gov. Kasich Opens Door to "Campus Carry"

Thanks to each of you who took the time to call and e-mail Gov. Kasich to encourage him to veto House Bill 48. In the late moments of the General Assembly's lame duck session, the major components of HB 48 were folded into another gun bill -- SB 199 -- and that bill was signed today by the governor.

Once enacted, SB 199 will reduce the offense for unauthorized carrying of a concealed handgun on the premises of an institution of higher education from a felony to a minor misdemeanor, if the offender produces a valid conceal/carry license within ten days of arrest.

In addition, boards of trustees of Ohio colleges and universities will be able to develop their own "campus carry" policies, and will be granted immunity from liability caused by a conceal/carry licensee bringing a gun on to campus.

The Ohio Conference AAUP already has begun working with our chapters to encourage boards of trustees to keep campuses weapon-free. We encourage you to work with and support your chapters in these efforts.

Given that this likely is the last communication from us for the year, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season.

 

 

From: Sang Kang
Subject: Get reintroduced to Rosa Parks, thanks to a new archive

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/reintroduced-rosa-parks-new-archive-reveals-woman-behind-boycott-180957200/#2HhaVqzQWFXumDuw.14

 

 

From: Andrew Tierman
Subject: Harper's January cover

Dear Munsup,
A small fraction of one percent of Americans subscribe to Harper's, one of the oldest 'small magazines' in American, published since 1850. Nor is Harper's sold in supermarkets (at least not in "the heartland" where I live.) For the ensuing Trump years, America needs periodicals like Harper's, and needs more people to read such periodicals. Partly for that reason - that even many literate Americans never or rarely get near an issue of Harper's, and partly for the understandably ephemeral, while monumental character of the January 2017 cover - and with respect to intellectual property rights, hoping that this fair use will induce some to go out and look for, or go online for Harper's - aside from enjoying this cover of bold dissent, I am attaching a pdf, for you to distribute at your discretion.

(Munsup's Note: The attachment is too big to be forwarded. I am copying it below.)

 

 

From: Ambrose Ng
Subject: Case Studies and 'Unpresidented': Donald Trump invents the Guardian's word of the year | US news | The Guardian

Case Studies: 2 Years After Raising Taxes on the Rich... 
https://m.mic.com/articles/111424/2-years-after-raising-taxes-on-the-rich-here-s-what-happened-to-minnesota-s-economy

Guardian Article: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/19/unpresidented-trump-word-definition

 

 

From: Heidi Hess; Senior Campaign Manager, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: Sign the petition: Fight Trump's Muslim registry

 

Companies must refuse to build Trump's Muslim registry The petition to technology companies reads: "Refuse to sell any goods, services, information or consulting of any kind to help build or facilitate a Muslim registry." Add your name:   The threat Donald Trump's presidency poses to Muslims give technology companies a powerful choice to make: will they stand against Trump's hate or provide the technology and data to enable it? In November, "The Intercept" asked nine major technology companies if they would help Trump build a Muslim registry.1 After two weeks, only Twitter had responded with an unequivocal no. That's when CREDO partnered with our friends at Muslim Advocates, Color Of Change, MPower Change, Courage Campaign, Democracy for America and more than a dozen other progressive and civil rights groups representing more than 35 million people to demand that Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Booz Allen Hamilton, SRA International and CGI do better.2 As a result of this public pressure, Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM and Microsoft have all now publicly stated they will not collaborate with Trump's hate, and pressure is mounting on other companies like Oracle and Amazon to do the same. Now is the time to build on this amazing momentum and pressure other companies to join the public resistance to Trump. Tell technology companies: Refuse to participate in the creation of a Muslim registry. Click here to sign the petition. Donald Trump's toxic campaign threatened Muslims, immigrants, people of color, women and LGBTQ people. His staffing decisions to date show that he wants to build an administration that will use the power of the federal government to deliver on those threats. The creation of a registry of all Muslims in the United States is one of Trump's most chilling proposals. It harkens back to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and to the Bush-era National Security Entrance-Exit Registration System. Both programs used racist notions of who was a threat to national security in order to racially profile entire groups of people and subject them to government monitoring, surveillance and detention. With millions of people in this country threatened by Trump, we can't let corporations that could enable and facilitate Trump's oppression play the middle. Though many technology companies publicly criticized Trump when he was a candidate, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, IBM and other tech companies' leaders met with him last week.3 In advance of the meeting, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, who has also joined Trump's transition team, was quoted saying "I plan to tell the president-elect that we are with him and are here to help in any way we can."4 After the meeting, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it was "very productive."5 These leaders' presence at Trump Tower, which was clearly meant to advance their corporate agendas, provided powerful legitimacy to Trump's presidency and his hateful agenda. Defending our safety and our core values as a country means disrupting and resisting Trump on every front. Technology firms have not only extraordinary power, but extraordinary reach into our personal lives. Twitter, Apple, Google, Facebook and others have promised not to collaborate with Trump's Muslim registry. Oracle, Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton and others now have a clear choice: to stand against Trump or to stand with him. Can you join us in demanding they do the right thing? Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no_muslim_registry?t=6&akid=20960.10312106.Zcgjyx Add your name: Sam Biddle, "Of Nine Tech Companies, Only Twitter Says It Would Refuse to Help Trump Build a Muslim Registry," The Intercept, Dec. 2, 2016. Sam Biddle, "Following Intercept Report, 22 Organizations Urge Tech Firms to Reject Muslim Registry," The Intercept, Dec. 12, 2016. David Streitfeld, "'I'm Here to Help,' Trump Tells Tech Executives at Meeting," New York Times, Dec. 14, 2016. David Streitfeld, "When Trump Meets Tech Leaders, Jobs Will Be on the Agenda," New York Times, Dec. 13, 2016. David Streitfeld, "'I'm Here to Help,' Trump Tells Tech Executives at Meeting," New York Times, Dec. 14, 2016.

 

 

From: Judy Burnette
Subject: FW: The Pen: "All The Inoffensive 'Advocacy' Groups Out There Will Never Change A Thing"

Dear Friends and Activists,

We get two kinds of incoming email from our own participants.

A considerable number of people comment how remarkable it is to find anyone actually speaking the truth. "Wow," they say, "this is just what I've been thinking, but you were able to put it into words."

Others take umbrage at something or other we have said and declare they are taking all their marbles and stomping off into the sunset, sometimes even noting that they have always agreed with us in the past but today they are going off the deep end forever, apparently to try to get us to CHANGE our view by contemptuously blowing us off.

We ourselves get innumerable solicitations for contributions from other advocacy groups. And they invariably bend over backwards not to offend anyone. God forbid they should lose a potential donor by challenging them in any way.

With this in mind we share with you another of Pen's eternal truths.

"There is nothing a loser will fight harder for than to keep from being changed into a winner."

If you try to get a loser to change their losing ways they will scream and curse at you, attack you in the most abusive manner, call you derogatory names, and literally hate you for the rest of their lives.

That is why they are losers.

Recently we have referenced our reliable track record of making political predictions over many years. We do this for one reason only, to help you persuade yourself that what we have to say now is equally as valid.

The winner will respond by saying, "This is great! Finally somebody who actually knows what they are talking about, and has a track record of evidence to demonstrate it."

Losers react by chastising that nobody likes a know it all I told you so, and accusing us of having an "arrogant" tone. What do losers prefer better to listen to, know nothing always get it wrongs?

That is why they are losers.

When we told you in 2010 that the so-called Affordable Care Act (ACA) would doom the Democratic party this was not just some revelation pulled out of the sky. At the time, we were doing action pages in support of single payer, Medicare For All, which is what should have been done instead, which is what the people really wanted.

The personal added comments, which anyone can read from the live stream of any of our action pages, were truly heartrending. People were expressing angry betrayal in the most blunt terms, because Obama had led people to believe he would support single payer. People were swearing that they would not only never vote for a Democrat again, but that they would never vote again at all. It was that bad.

Yet and still we were unable to get enough peole to speak out overall to make the difference. Too many told us, "This is the best we can do, don't push for more.

Based on that it should have been easy to predict, and it was, that there would be a landslide against the Democrats in 2010, remember they had already lost the Senate seat in MA, as if that was not stunning enough, because of their corporate fooling around in the first year of the Obama presidency. And extrapolating from that it was clear to us that the ACA was a recurrent liability, a bad idea, a corrupt corporate sham that would over a series of successive elections wipe out the Democratic party.

People at the time told us we were stupid. People told us we were crazy. Some even called us racists for challenging our first black president in any way. We dropped participants like flies.

That is why they are losers.

When we predicted that Trump would be the Republican presidential nominee, at a time when the entire main stream media was casually laughing him off, the primary thing we recognized was that he had more on camera public figure experience than all the other candidates in both parties combined.

When we predicted that the selection of Kaine for VP would make the general election a chancy toss up, we simply took the temperature of the anger of our our participants against the Democratic party, noting that in the year of the outsider they ended up with the most corporate establishment ticket possible.

Folks, we want to win. We want you to win. Either you will listen to good counsel or you will listen to bad counsel. We are sincerely trying to give you good counsel.

We have had wins, including recently. We got the Overturn Citizens United Act passed in CA. Anyone on the ground will tell you our dedicate fax server resource delivering action page submissions was instrumental in that victory.

In our last message we gave you our systematic rationalization of why the optimum path back to political power is to throw everything we have behind single payer, Medicare For All.

Some say they support the idea but it will never happen.

Saying something like that is NOT supporting the idea. It is the voice of the loser. Recognize it for what it is and CHANGE the way you think.

Supporting the idea is requesting your free "Medicare For All NOW" bumper sticker, and social media sharing the link as much as possible.

Medicare For All Now bumper stickers:
     http://www.peaceteam.net/medicare_for_all_stickers.php

Supporting the idea is submitting the action page, for no cost either, to replace the ACA with Medicare For All, and social media sharing the link as much as possible.

Medicare For All NOW action page:
     https://www.utalk.us/?a=medicare_for_all_now

And for the McAfee challenged, you can always submit our classic action page at
     http://www.peaceteam.net/medicare_for_all_now.php

Let us first build the base, the majority consensus, and everything else will take care of itself.

Or if you just feel inspired to support our messages of political truth and reality, why not make a valiant contribution, and you can even make it recurrent by check the box for that.

Donations: https://www.utalk.us/?p=donate

We don't constantly beg for money here, like so many others. Our messages are not designed for the primary, let alone exclusive, purpose of maximizing contributions. We operate frugally and maximize what we DO with whatever contributions people make.

We will continue to speak the best truth we know, plainly with no punches pulled, regardless of who might take offense at it. If you respect and appreciate that, we will be friends always.

You may forward this message to any friends who would find it important.
Contributions to The People's Email Network or ActBlue are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes.
If you would like to be added to our distribution list, go to http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm

 

 

From: Rebecca Vilkomerson; Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Subject: We built JVP for moments like this

The month since Donald Trump was elected has not been an easy one. But I am beginning to feel ready to face what's to come. I want to share one example of a critical (and successful) organizing fight that Jewish Voice for Peace spearheaded in the last couple of weeks. It serves as an example of what we can achieve, together.

And I want to be as transparent as possible: We will need your help to meet the challenges we are sure to face in 2017. Can you help out with a gift of $50?

No one knows what is going to happen in 2017. But we are definitely going to face challenges like the one this story illustrates:

Two weeks ago we found out that a bill called the "Antisemitism Awareness Act" was going to be introduced in the Senate the following day. This bill was conceived as another tool for pro-Israel activists to suppress the fight for Palestinian rights on campus. Beating it back is a victory for free speech rights everywhere in service of justice.

It sounds uncontroversial enough. But it was anything but -- it was a cynical move by organizations like AIPAC and the ADL, exploiting a spike in antisemitism since the election to push its own agenda. Instead of focusing on the far-right, the bill creates an official government definition of antisemitism that explicitly includes criticism of Israel on college campuses.

So what did we do? Our members made over 1,000 calls and sent 5,000 emails to Senators in less than 24 hours. After the bill passed the Senate, we pivoted to the House. We held a webinar for our members with our partners from Palestine Legal. We helped shape press coverage in outlets as diverse as the Forward, the Washington Post, and the Intercept. We met with staffers on the Hill. The JVP Student Network gathered over 300 signatures on an open letter from Jewish students protesting the bill, and our Academic Council collected signatures of over 70 Professors of Jewish Studies who strongly objected to it.

So when the bill was introduced in the House, that pressure we brought helped stop the bill in its tracks. And the Congressional session has ended without it being brought to a vote.

We're going to have to wage these kinds of turn-on-a-dime, nimble organizing campaigns over and over again in 2017. Renew your support for JVP - right now every dollar is matched, but only until December 31!

What struck me about this effort is how powerful JVP can be when all the different parts of our organization work together seamlessly. Our student network, our academic advisory council, our DC staff, our online organizing infrastructure, our media relationships and our chapter leaders all played a critical role.

And in 2017 I am so ready to put all those skills, networks and experience on the line to fight for our basic values: justice, equality, and dignity, even when we're forced to fighting defensive battles for our basic rights.

And your gift is part of what could help us transform these defensive sprints into pro-active, visionary campaigns.

I can't tell you exactly what the next fight will be: David Friedman, the ultra-right wing Ambassador-designate, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem? Trump following through on his horrific promise of a ban on immigration to the U.S. by Muslims?

But you've made it possible for us to gather over 10,000 dues-paying members, over 65 chapters, and half a million online followers and supporters. Together, we've built the creative, disciplined and strong force that this moment demands. And grassroots fundraising is vital to our work.

With your help at the $50 level, we can be even more ready. Or any level. Every dollar you give will be doubled but you have to give by the end of the year.

 

 

From: John Sellers, Other98
Subject: Bankrupt DAPL

The now-infamous Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was almost another done deal for Big Oil. But months of incredible Indigenous-led resistance changed the game, and halted construction of the DAPL. Now with Trump appointing Big Oil's dream team to his Cabinet, the DAPL could come back again next year.

We have a plan to kill the DAPL before Trump takes office. On January 1, the DAPL will be in breach of contract to its oil company clients and the Big Banks who are financing its construction.

We can starve the DAPL of the dirty money it needs to survive. Join us in demanding three of DAPL's most critical funders -- TD Bank, Citibank, and Wells Fargo -- pull funding from the project now and kill the Dakota Access Pipeline for good.

Out of the 17 banks directly funding the pipeline, we've identified Citi, TD, and Wells Fargo as the most vulnerable. Citibank has the largest stake in the project, with the most to lose if it decides to stay aboard this sinking ship. TD Bank is a Canadian bank that consistently paints itself as especially devoted to Indigenous people. Wells Fargo is still raw from the discovery of a massive fraudulent account scheme, which earned them over $190 million in fines in September; plus, cities like Seattle are introducing legislation to divest from Wells Fargo over their DAPL financing, which would cost the bank BILLIONS.

Laws and leaders can change at any moment. Only one thing is certain: no money, no DAPL. Send a message straight to the Investor Relations teams at these banks: divest from DAPL immediately.

Thanks for believing that Big Oil isn't too big to fight.

 

 

From: Thomas Scott
Subject: Are Younger Whites Less Racist?

Are Younger Whites Less Racist? New Research Into Racial Attitudes Suggests Demographics Alone Won't Save America
    

Are Younger Whites Less Racist? New Research Into Racial Attitudes Suggests... Yes, young people are more liberal—but new data on white racism suggests Democrats shouldn't be too confident.

 

End of MPEN e-Newsletter

[mpen-dayton] Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year!

Click here for your Xmas card

Wishing you a Happy New Year,

Munsup Seoh

[mpen-dayton] FW: "Call on Governor Kasich to veto SB 199" & "Help pass National Popular Vote for President" & "Congress must investigate Trump’s ties with Russia now" and more

FYI.   Best, Munsup

P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' added to the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons to protect my email servers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

·         FW: Call on Governor Kasich to veto SB 199 today

·         FW: WWII internment of Japanese Americans - Lange photos

·         FW: This Chanukah, Fight Islamophobia

·         FW: 'I'm Prejudiced,' He Said. Then We Kept Talking – NYT

·         FW: Help pass National Popular Vote for President

·         FW: [To President Obama] SAVE THE COURT! (please read this!!)

·         FW: Signature needed: Congress must investigate Trump's ties with Russia now

·         FW: Sign if you agree: Russia meddled in this election. We deserve to know how much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Pabitra Benjamin, Field Director at Amnesty International USA
Subject: Call on Governor Kasich to veto SB 199 today

Call on Governor Kasich to veto SB 199 today

Your voice is needed to stop concealed, loaded guns in places they don't belong, like childcare centers, airport terminals, unattended vehicles in school safety zones and campuses.

In the final act of the Ohio Lame Duck Session, the Ohio Legislature combined two gun lobby bills:.
   

• The Guns Everywhere bill (HB 48), rolled into SB 199, would do nothing to make Ohioans safer. HB 48 would put hidden, loaded guns in places they don't belong — like child care centers, airport terminals, public areas of police stations, private aircraft — and open the door to campus carry and guns in local government buildings.
• SB 199 was originally a bill to grant active duty military automatic authority to carry concealed, loaded weapons in the state, and this remains in the final version.

Call Governor Kasich and ask him to veto SB 199 today. The United States' level of gun violence sets it apart on the global stage, and international pressure is mounting for the U.S. to address and end the problem. In Ohio, someone is killed with a gun every eight hours. The OSU attack should not be used to push forward political agendas. Every person, everywhere, has a right to be safe from gun violence and enjoy the rights to life and security of person.

Call Governor Kasich to veto SB 199 today.

 

 

From: Andrew J. Tierman
Subject: WWII internment of Japanese Americans - Lange photos

released previously censored photography by Dorothy Lange - internment.
see https://anchoreditions.com/blog/dorothea-lange-censored-photographs

 

 

From: Rabbi Alissa Wise; Deputy Directo, Jewish Voice for Peace
Subject: This Chanukah, Fight Islamophobia

The crisis of Islamophobia in America is nothing new. For years, Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have faced oppression, hatred, and violence, from instruments of state and from individual bigots alike.

But now, our work fighting Islamophobia is more urgent than ever before. Trump's victory has legitimated and encouraged the open hatred that our Muslim neighbors are facing everyday. But this isn't just about individual hatemongers. Trump's threats of registries and immigration bans are all too real -- as though our current Islamophobic surveillance state wasn't enough.

So with renewed resolve and commitment, we are taking to the streets. As we celebrate Chanukah, the festival of lights, JVP chapters across the country will be taking a powerful and visible stand against Islamophobia.

But this work costs money, and with so many threats on the horizon, we're stretched thin. Between now and December 31st, we need to raise $739,000 from 4,877 donors to keep our organizing against Islamophobia moving forward.

Can you chip in $36 right now?

As we come together to be visible, to take action, and to hold each other close in these desperate times, we'll reaffirm our commitment to fighting Islamophobia, and take this pledge:
    

• We will not be silent about anti-Muslim and racist hate speech and hate crimes
• We condemn state surveillance of the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities.
• We challenge, through our words and actions, institutionalized racism and state-sanctioned anti-Black violence.
• We fight anti-Muslim profiling and racial profiling in all their forms.
• We protest the use of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism to justify Israel's repressive policies against Palestinians.
• We stand against U.S. policies driven by the "war on terror" that demonize Islam and devalue, target, and kill Muslims.
• We welcome Syrian refugees and stand strong for immigrants' rights and refugee rights.
• We honor and support indigenous rights and the resistance led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect their land and water.

If you agree with these pledges, chip in $36 now to JVP to support our fight against Islamophobia.

This is what it means to show up. This is what it means to take Trump at his word.

As Jews and partners, we have a responsibility to stand with and for the Muslim community. We can show that Islamophobia will not go unchallenged, in our streets or in our political system. We can show that our towns and cities will be safe spaces for all those who are marginalised.

And we can show that Jews and Muslim stand together, whether fighting Islamophobia, fighting antisemitism, or fighting for Palestinian human rights.

So this Chanukah, we'll be standing strong against Islamophobia and racism at vigils and actions across the country. I hope you'll attend one of these rallies, or chip in to support them -- there's never been a more important time to show up.

P.S. 23 JVP chapters are organizing Chanukah actions this year. We'll be distributing at least 5,000 anti-Islamophobia posters, sharing our message with tens of thousands of people, and even have a surprise or two up our sleeves. Can you chip in $36 to help fund our fight?

Jewish Voice for Peace is a national membership organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all the people of Israel and Palestine. Become a JVP Member today.

 

 

From: Thomas Scott
Subject: 'I'm Prejudiced,' He Said. Then We Kept Talking - NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/opinion/sunday/im-prejudiced-he-said-then-we-kept-talking.html?_r=0

'I'm Prejudiced,' He Said. Then We Kept Talking

By HEATHER C. McGHEEDEC. 10, 2016


Credit Lilli Carré

One morning in August, when I was a guest on C-Span, I got a phone call that took my breath away.

"I'm a white male," said the caller, who identified himself as Garry from North Carolina. "And I'm prejudiced."

As a black leader often in the media, I have withstood my share of racist rants, so I braced myself. But what I heard was fear — of black people and the crime he sees on the news — not anger.

"What can I do to change?" he asked. "To be a better American?"

I thanked him for admitting his prejudice, and gave him some ideas — get to know black families, recognize the bias in news coverage of crime, join an interracial church, read black history. In a professional capacity, I typically speak about race in terms of law and policy. But with this man on the phone it felt right to speak to the basic human need I heard in his voice: to connect.

The video of us went viral, surpassing eight million views. After a racially charged summer, a lot of people saw something they hungered for in our exchange. To white viewers, here was a black woman who was morally clear but not angry. To people of color, here was a white man admitting his racism — finally.

"What can I do to change? You know? To be a better American?"  Video by Demos

Garry found me on Twitter after our televised call, and shortly before the election, I visited him near his hometown in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina. We met on a patio amid the changing fall colors as his dog kept a watchful eye nearby. There we were: two products of this country who couldn't be more different, having the oft-invoked but seldom practiced "conversation about race."

I was surprised when he said that he had followed my suggestions and was dedicated to "getting right about this before I die." He talked about the fear he carried toward people of color, and how it had become a physical weight. "It's killing me on the inside," he said. "If I don't change things, I could have a stroke."

Although Garry didn't vote for Donald J. Trump, he is the media's image of a Trump voter: a rural, middle-aged white male from a working-class background. "We're a troubled group right now," he said to me when we met. "We're not a growing part of the population, we're diminishing. I think our culture is mixing real fast. Instead of the usual 20 years it takes to change society, it's happening in five years. It feels like an overwhelming wave is rushing over us."

Research shows that when white people become attuned to demographic change, they become more conservative. The right-wing narrative is that such change is the unmaking of America. I told Garry I believed it was the fulfillment of our country.

We talked about what it would mean to be the "better American" he invoked on our call. I said that person would be able to find common cause with people of all backgrounds. Garry's eyes brightened, but he said that it would take time.

"I speak for a lot of unspoken people," he told me. "Maybe millions of white people who are afraid to admit" their racial fears and prejudices. "They're not bad people. They just don't know how to behave and how to interact" with people of different races.

Garry had some advice for me, too. "Talk to white people," he said. "We need a little bit of guidance. We're not really getting it from our politicians. They want to play one side against the other for votes."

We steered clear of politics in our first few conversations, but after the election, he was eager to talk. Garry saw Mr. Trump as the peddler of all the toxic ideas about people of color that he now avoids on television. (He said "watching too much TV" is something he has in common with both Mr. Trump and his voters; we did meet, after all, through a C-Span call.) He thinks many Trump voters could benefit from the journey he's taken.

With Mr. Trump headed to the White House, my now-friendship with the "racist caller" on C-Span seems like a glimpse of a path not taken. Garry makes me believe that even though a man endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan won the majority of white support, people can change. He told me he now notices his own stereotypes and is eager to replace them with something more generous and true about his fellow Americans.

We need conversations like mine and Garry's to happen across the country, outside of politics. Societies that have been through traumas have embarked on racial reconciliation processes; South Africa's is the most famous, but there are dozens more. There's no reason we can't do that here.


"What can I do to change?" Garry asked when he called in this summer.Demos, the think tank I run, is working with a variety of other groups on such an effort in 10 communities next year. I spent the past week meeting with hundreds of people — librarians and teachers, community organizers and police officers — who are preparing for conversations in their communities.

I was able to answer him because he had first acknowledged what so many people deny: the persistence of prejudice. That's the first step for all of us to become better Americans.

Heather C. McGhee is the president of Demos, a public policy organization.

 

 

From: Dr. John R. Koza, Chair; National Popular Vote
Subject: Help pass National Popular Vote for President

Thank you for emailing your state legislators asking them to pass the National Popular Vote bill.  Here are some other things you might do to help make sure that the President elected in 2020 is the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
   

• Please share the National Popular Vote home page (www.NationalPopularVote.com) with your friends on Facebook.  Please ask your friends to tell their state legislators to support the National Popular Vote bill in their state.  Your friends can do this conveniently using our email system. 
• Visit your state legislator at their local office or state capitol office to emphasize your support. Or, phone them. You can look up their office address, phone, and web address by entering your zip code and address at www.NationalPopularVote.com/write and then clicking on "contact info for my legislators and officials."
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Write a letter-to-the-editor to newspapers.
• Show your friends the videos about National Popular Vote found on YouTube (also found on our home page).
• Get a local group to make the method of electing the President the topic of a guest speaker, panel discussion, or debate.
• Add your "two cents" to published items on the web by agreeing with favorable items, or stating your opinion about opposing items.  You can follow developments by signing up for free Google alerts  for "electoral college" or "national popular vote"
• Learn more about National Popular Vote from chapter 9 of our book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote.  The entire book is free to read or download.
• Send us your ideas for other ways to help by replying to this email.
• Contribute to National Popular Vote

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  It would make every vote equal throughout the United States.  It would ensure that every vote, in every state, will matter in every presidential election.

 

 

From: Signature Required, The Progressive Turnout Project
Subject: [To President Obama] SAVE THE COURT! (please read this!!)

URGENT PETITION: Urge President Obama to appoint
a Supreme Court Justice during the Senate recess →

For nearly a year, we've watched Senate Republicans REFUSE to hold hearings on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

This is not only unprecedented, it's just wrong. And it's crippling our entire country.

President Obama has one last chance to fight back. The Constitution gives him the power to fill a Supreme Court vacancy during a recess of the Senate. And the Senate is about to go into recess until next year.

Munsup, we need you to sign our petition right away and urge President Obama to appoint a Supreme Court Justice during the Senate recess →

Already, President-Elect Trump is floating around a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. And to no one's great surprise, each of Trump's choices would set us back by decades.

We can't let that happen. That's why we're counting on President Obama to take action during the Senate recess and appoint a Supreme Court Justice who will protect our shared values.

If you're a progressive who cares about protecting women's rights, LGBT rights and voting rights, we need you to sign our petition today:

http://go.turnoutpac.org/Obama-Supreme-Court

 

 

From: Tessa Levine, Campaign Manager, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: Signature needed: Congress must investigate Trump's ties with Russia now

 

Tell Congress: Immediately investigate Trump's ties to Russia Tell Republican Congressional leaders: "Launch an immediate and public investigation into all of Donald Trump and his cabinet's inappropriate financial ties to the Russian government." Add your name:   News broke late Friday night that a secret CIA assessment has determined that Russia intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump win.1 To make things worse, within days of the news breaking, this morning Trump nominated Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson – who has a close relationship with Vladimir Putin and has negotiated oil deals with Russia worth hundreds of billions of dollars – as the next Secretary of State.2 The evidence is too serious to ignore. There is a very real possibility that Russia helped Trump steal this election from the American people. Some members of the Electoral College are already demanding a briefing on Trump's ties to Russia before being called to vote on Dec. 19, and Republican politicians like Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan have now indicated that they will support an investigation and congressional probe into Russian interference in the U.S. election.3 While that's important, we also need a much broader, immediate and public congressional investigation into the Trump administration's troubling and inappropriate financial ties to the Russian government. Tell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: Launch an immediate and public investigation into the relationship between Donald Trump and the Russian government. Click here to sign the petition. When Trump encouraged the Russian government to spy on the United States in July,4 members of the intelligence community – and more than 170,000 CREDO activists – called for him to be denied access to classified national security briefings. The people in power didn't listen. Republicans in Congress have been relentless in using their power to call sham committee hearings and squander millions of dollars in taxpayer money to set up and run special investigative committees to pursue their extreme right-wing agenda against Planned Parenthood, American Muslims and Hillary Clinton, among others. Now, it is time for them to address an actual controversy. Given the recent revelations about Russia's interference in the U.S. election and the deep concern of the intelligence community and the American public about Trump's ties to Russia, there is no excuse for not launching an investigation now. Tell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: Launch an immediate and public investigation into the relationship between Donald Trump and the Russian government. Click here to sign the petition. Republican leaders in Congress must investigate any and all potential Trump connections with Russia to try and recapture the integrity of our elections.Congress can't wait any longer. They must investigate all outstanding concerns related to Trump conspiring with Russia, including: ·         The reported Russian cyberattacks on Democratic party infrastructure: Congress must look into the extent of Russian intelligence's cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign and inquire whether those attacks seemed designed to influence the presidential election. ·         The reported financial connections between Trump and Russia. Trump's debt load has increased from $350 million to $630 million in just the last year at a time when American banks are reluctant to extend Trump credit.5 In 2008, Trump's son is claimed to have said, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."6 Congress must look into the extent to which Trump's current debt, or his previous business partnerships, obligate him financially to Russian oligarchs aligned with Putin. ·         Trump advisors' history of working with Putin-aligned politicians. Congress must investigate to what degree Trump's current and past senior advisers, including Paul Manafort and Carter Page – who both have long histories of advising, and collecting enormous profit from, Putin-aligned politicians and oligarchs in Russia and Ukraine – had obligations or ties that might have posed a conflict of interest when they were advising Trump during his presidential campaign .7 ·         Trump's tax returns. Trump refuses to release his tax returns.8 Congress must investigate if there is any information in Trump's tax returns that would indicate previously undisclosed financial ties to Russian interests in close alignment with Putin's dictatorship. ·         Trump's crony cabinet. Multiple members of or leading candidates for key positions in Trump's crony cabinet have very disturbing ties to Russia. Most notable is Tillerson, who has a strong and intimate history of business dealings with Putin and other Russian government officials. ·         The Trump campaign's reported meddling with the Republican platform on Ukraine. Congress should look into why – when Trump stayed away from most every aspect of the Republican Party platform – his campaign worked behind the scenes to make sure the party backed away from supporting Ukraine and putting the "official Republican party position on arms for Ukraine … at odds with almost all the party's national security leaders."9 Republican leaders in Congress are relentless in trying to designate themselves the guardians of our national security, even when their political gamesmanship demonizes and endangers Americans at home and abroad. It would be the height of hypocrisy for them to refuse to investigate the reported CIA intelligence that Russian government interfered with the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. The more of us who add our voices, the harder it will be for McConnell, Ryan and the other leaders in the Republican Party to sweep these reports under the rug and go on with politics as usual. Click the link below to demand they launch an immediate and public investigation into Trump's ties to Russia. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Investigate_Trump_Russia?t=7&akid=20855.10312106.1Y9HMR Add your name: References Mark Mazzetti and Eric Lichtblau, "C.I.A. Judgment on Russia Built on Swell of Evidence," The New York Times, Dec. 11, 2016. Thomas Grove, "Russia Welcomes Idea of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State," The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 12, 2016. Jennifer Steinhauer, "Senate and House Leaders Call for Inquiry of Russian Hacking in Election," The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2016. Peter Stone, David Smith, Ben Jacobs, Alec Luhn and Rupert Neate, "Donald Trump and Russia: a web that grows more tangled all the time," The Guardian, July 30, 2016. Josh Marshall, "Trump & Putin. Yes, It's Really a Thing," TalkingPointsMemo, July 23, 2016. Tom Hamburger, Rosalind Helderman and Michael Birnbaum, "Inside Trump's financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin." The Washington Post, June 17, 2016. Marshall, "Trump & Putin. Yes, It's Really a Thing,," TalkingPointsMemo, July 23, 2016 and Abigail Tracy, "Trump's Confusing Answer on Crimea Raises Questions About His Campaign Chairman's Alleged Ties to Russia," VanityFair.com, August, 1, 2016. Caitlin Macneal, "Manafort: Trump Still Not Going To Release His Tax Returns," TalkingPointsMemo, July 27, 2016. Rogin, "Trump campaign guts GOP's anti-Russia stance on Ukraine," The Washington Post, July 18, 2016.

 

 

From: Paul Hogarth Daily Kos Stop Trump
Subject: Sign if you agree: Russia meddled in this election. We deserve to know how much.

We deserve to know how much Russia interfered in the presidential election.

Sign the petition by Daily Kos and Senator Mazie Hirono to President Obama urging him to make the full report public.

Senator Mazie Hirono and six of her Democratic colleagues sent a letter to President Obama asking him to declassify any and all information pertaining to the Russian government's involvement in the U.S. election.

The White House responded by announcing an investigation into Russia's interference. This is an important step, but the President has not committed to releasing the report's findings to the public.

The fact is that "intelligence" was continuously leaked during this past election season with reportedly nefarious intentions on the part of the Russian government.

The American people should have a clear understanding of what influence Russia has had and if this has ramifications for the newly elected, Russian-"friendly" Donald Trump.

Sign the petition by Daily Kos and Senator Mazie Hirono to President Obama: Declassify any and all information pertaining to the Russian government's involvement in the U.S. election.

 

End of MPEN e-Newsletter