[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

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·         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.

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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.

 

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