[mpen-dayton] FW: "Stop confirmation of Betsy Devos" & President Pence?" & "Some questions for Democrats" & "The danger of Trump’s constant lying" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
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- FW: DeVos Vote for Secretary of Education on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017
- FW: Action needed: Stop confirmation of Betsy Devos
- FW: Tell your Senators to vote NO on Betsy DeVos
- FW: President Pence?
- FW: Hatred in the White House
- FW: "Emotional Keith Olbermann Apologizes To The World For 'Traitor' Trump" | The Huffington Post
- FW: Some (pretty darn important) questions for Democrats
- FW: Sam Waterston: The danger of Trump's constant lying - The Washington Post
- FW: Petition: Stop broadcasting Trump's lies
- FW: Soapbox on Trump and Greed
- FW: Trump Can't Make America Great Again without Immigrants
- FW: Sign the petition: Stop Air Traffic Control Privatization
- FW: Make your resistance visible!
- FW: Will the Real Journalists Please Stand Up?
- FW: #NoMuslimBan (sign the petition)
- FW: A Clarifying Moment in American History
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From: Hilary O. Shelton
Subject: Betsy DeVos vote now held over until Tuesday!
The final vote on Betsy DeVos' nomination to be our next Secretary of Education has been held over until tomorrow, Tuesday, 2/7/17, That gives us one more day to make our voices heard!
Mrs. DeVos has zero experience with public schools, either as a student, educator, administrator, or even as a parent. During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ("HELP") Committee, Mrs. DeVos clearly demonstrated that she lacks the experience, qualifications or dedication to high quality public education to lead the U.S. Department of Education's more than 4,400 staff people nation-wide in furthering its mission to foster educational excellence and ensure equal access to high quality education for all students.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD NOW with BOTH of your US Senators! Call now!
From: Betty Lacey
Subject: FW: Action needed: Stop confirmation of Betsy Devos
Hi Munsup-- I got this early this morning and called Rob Portman's office to leave a message. This is all grass roots. I thought you might be interested.
Begin forwarded message:
Below are several ways to petition Rob Portman to ask that he say no to Betsy Devos for Secy of Education. She is woefully unqualified, and it appears there may be a chance to stop her... see my friends email below...There is an email link and phone number below. You need to contact Senator Portman TODAY bec I think the vote is tomorrow(Friday) Please feel free to forward this to anyone interested! - Raji
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I know many of you are already involved in this cause, but I am sending this to folks that I think may be interested.
I learned tonight (on a town hall call with Sherrod Brown) that the confirmation hearing for Betsy Devos may be moved up to as early as Friday so if you share my view that we must do all we can to make sure that Betsy Devos is not confirmed as Secretary of Education, please take action NOW!
Two Republican senators have stated that they will vote NO, along with the Democrats. We need one more Republican senator to join them in order to defeat her confirmation Without the additional NO vote, Vice-President Mike Pence will cast the tie-breaking vote, leading to her confirmation. Let's communicate with Senator Rob Portman asking him to vote NO. The information below is the best way to contact him. Share with friends, family, and anyone else that will reach out. Let's make sure he knows where his constituents stand on this nomination!
Just as an FYI, below are a few reasons that I oppose Devos as Secretary of Education:
- She has NO experience in public education - never worked in it, never attended it, never sent her kids to public schools.
- If confirmed, she will undermine and seek to privatize public education.
- All of her experience is in for-profit education, which includes taking funding from public education to the for-profit centers.
- She was woefully unprepared for the her confirmation hearing, unable to answer basic questions about public education, including IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
Please take a few minutes of your day to contact Rob Portman to urge him to vote NO on her confirmation. This could be the difference - I hope you will find it worth your while.
Rob Portman contact information:
- 202-224-3353 Please keep trying if the line is busy or the voicemail is full - don't give up!
- portman.senate.gov You will find "Email Rob" under the Action Center on bottom right
- https://www.ohea.org/say-no-to-betsy-devos This takes you to the website of the Ohio Education Association, with a petition for you to add your name to - it's super easy!
Don't forget to share with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and any others that believe in the cause.
From: lee stephens
Subject: Fw: Tell your Senators to vote NO on Betsy DeVos
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| President Trump's nominee is on the verge of defeat. The outcome could come down to what you do next. Want to change something? | ||||
From: Thomas Scott
Subject: FW: President Pence?
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/25/dont-look-now-its-president-pence-donald-trump-can-be-deposed-even-without-impeachment/
From: Thomas Scott
Subject: Hatred in the White House
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From: Judy Burnette
Subject: "Emotional Keith Olbermann Apologizes To The World For 'Traitor' Trump" | The Huffington Post
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_589019d8e4b0522c7d3ccbff
From: Robert Reich
Subject: Some (pretty darn important) questions for Democrats
I don't mean to be impertinent, but I have some (pretty darn important) questions for Senate Democrats in Washington, D.C.
And, with stakes as high as they are, I'm guessing you do, too.
Some Democrats are starting to stand up—boycotting committee hearings, joining protests, and promising to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee—but we need all Senate Democrats to catch up with the resistance in the streets and do their part in this unprecedented moment.
Please watch and share my latest video with MoveOn. It's a call to action for all Democrats in Congress to throw away their (very) old political playbooks.
(You can also view it on YouTube by clicking here.)
Look, this is not just another conservative administration. This is not a normal president.
By and large, Democrats have to be tougher and louder and make an unprecedented ruckus. Now.
They have to fight as if our lives and the well-being of our communities depend on it.
Because they do.
Thank you for watching this call to action and then sharing it with your family and friends.
And thanks for all you do.
From: Eric Kramer
Subject: Sam Waterston: The danger of Trump's constant lying - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sam-waterston-the-danger-of-trumps-constant-lying/2017/01/30/71f76e2e-e72a-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html?postshare=4801485867396615&tid=ss_fb-bottom&utm_term=.bd10dc684f22
From: Josh Nelson; Deputy Political Director, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: Petition: Stop broadcasting Trump's lies
| Tell TV networks: Stop broadcasting Trump's lies
The Trump administration has declared war on the truth. With their use of "alternative facts," their repeated insistence that the inauguration attracted record crowds and their flat-out lies about rampant voter fraud, Trump and his spokespeople are using their nearly unfettered access to TV audiences to distribute propaganda and deliberately mislead the American people.1, 2 Add your name:
References: | |||
From: albert baca
Subject: Fw: Soapbox on Trump and Greed
THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ from Kareem Abdul Jabbar:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-trumps-muslim-ban-makes-america-a-bad-horror-movie-970229
Australia and the colony of Georgia were England's choice of where to send its criminals.
Since the very beginning, the colonists and their descendents have grabbed what they wanted - a Manifest Destiny if you will. Study your history. Begin with the Native Americans (The American Indians) where the "Trail of Tears" is probably the worst of many bad incidents where Americans spoke with forked tongues.
Most people don't know that the US owes Haiti a tremendous amount of gratitude. In Haiti, the slave revolt had been successful. Napolean needed money to continue fighting England. So he wanted to use Haiti as a base to influence the US center of the country. But old Nap couldn't take back Haiti. So he sold the Louisiana Purchase for a pittance to Jefferson to get the money to continue to fight England.
Here I have to mention the US Civil War which was not about state rights but about slavery.
After Mexico won its independence from Spain (El Grito de Dolores), Mexico abolished slavery. But Mexico made the mistake of allowing US southerners to settle into Tejas (Texas) The southerners brought their slaves with them. Unfortunately, Mexico was led by an incompatent leader (Santa Anna) who proceeded to lose Texas (Remember the Alamo).
Next lets turn to 54. 40 or fight. The time is the mid to late 1840s. REMEMBER Canada and Mexico. James Knox Polk was smart enough to know that Mother England would help Canada so Manifest Destiny turned to Mexico so we had the Mexican War where the US officially grabbed California before gold was discovered (The Niners sound familiar?) But the real prize of the Mexican War was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo where the US grabbed what constituted the lower 48 except for the Gadsden Purchase, basically useless desert land except it was pretty flat and was a good route for the Southern Pacific railroad. (Mexico calls it the treaty of Mesilla)
Now to what Kareem says about the US actually helping Hitler by refusing to let land an Airship carrying Jews fleeing Hitler. Talking about Hitler's concentration camps, look at what the US did to Japanese Americans during WWII.
And now we have Trump 45 who has American Muslims scared shitless. Anf if Trump 45 wants to build a wall, Mexico sure as hell WILL NOT pay for it. The US taxpayers will.
I didn't like Hillary but I voted for her because Trump 45 is absolutely bananas. He is also rich. Plus enough blue dogs voted for him that he was elected by the electoral college and not the popular vote which he lost by 3 Mil.
The next 4 years are going to be fun. What many people need is somebody like Trump 45 in order to start thinking rationally about our true American values. But then many Americans refuse to be rational.
With that I close.
From: Thomas Scott
Subject: FW: Trump Can't Make America Great Again without Immigrants
Trump Can't Make America Great Again without Immigrants
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From: Andrew J. Tierman
Subject: FW: Sign the petition: Stop Air Traffic Control Privatization
Don't let Republicans privatize air traffic control (as they have been trying to do since ? Reagan fired all of the controllers.) - AT
Sign the petition: Stop Congress from trying to privatize our air traffic control system, again. Click here to sign.
With all the horrible things that Donald Trump and Republicans are pushing through Congress—from a stolen Supreme Court seat, to some of the most extreme Cabinet nominations ever—it is hard to keep track.
And if we don't pay close enough attention, they can get things done below the radar that they had failed to do in the past. While we are distracted fighting other battles, we can lose ones we had won before.
Last year, over 50,000 Daily Kos members (including you) signed our joint petition to stop Congress from privatizing our air traffic control system. The good news? We were successful at stopping it.
But now, Republicans are using shock and awe to ram it through again. And with Mitch McConnnell's wife Elaine Chao as the new Secretary of Transportation, we must be more on guard than ever.
Please sign the petition urging Congress to keep its hands off privatizing our air traffic control system.
From: Ann, Ariel, Farisa, Jodie, Mariana, Mark, Medea, Nancy, Paki, Paula, and Samira; CODEPINK
Subject: Make your resistance visible!
We've been so inspired by the massive uprising of courage and compassion all over the country in the face of Trump's shocking Muslim ban and refugee freeze. Here are a few ways to keep the resistance growing:
Make YOUR resistance visible. Pick one of these wonderful signs and print copies for your windows and office walls. Distribute them to friends, family, neighbors and local businesses. We'd love to see a photo of the creative places you've found to display the image. Send it to us to share or post it to our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account.- Ask your Senator to support bill S248 to stop the Muslim ban. The bill would withhold any funding to enforce the executive order and declares the order illegal based on the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which banned discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin.
- Join us in Washington DC at the CODEPINK activist house. We are looking for creative, resourceful people to stay in the activist house for a minimum of one week to join us as we protest Trump's policies outside the White House, the Supreme Court, Department of Justice, and the halls of Congress, and as we support other groups working for justice. Contact Paki for more info. Or build your local engagement with the support of Mariana.
Ever since Trump's inauguration, CODEPINK members have been in the streets and the airports, in the halls of Congress and Congressional hearings, in State capitols and local representative offices, and outside the White House and the Supreme Court. Let's keep building the resistance.
PS. Don't forget to order one of our Refugees Welcome T-shirts!
From: Eric Kramer
Subject: Will the Real Journalists Please Stand Up?
http://billmoyers.com/story/will-the-real-journalists-please-stand-up/#
From: Tessa Levine, Campaign Manager, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: #NoMuslimBan (sign the petition)
Tell Congress: Rescind Trump's racist and xenophobic Muslim ban
The petition to Congress reads:
"Support legislation to stop Donald Trump's unconstitutional and anti-Muslim attack on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries."
Add your name:
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The nightmares Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail are coming true. He spent his first week in office targeting immigrants and banning Muslims from entering the country. In the face of Trump's hate, thousands of people in communities all across the country came together to loudly and fiercely resist Trump's racism, xenophobia and hate.
The massive and spontaneous weekend demonstrations at airports and city squares across the country put local officials on notice. We expect them to reject Trump's dangerous agenda and stand with the communities he threatens.
Now we need to make sure the resistance to Trump happens in Congress too. Democrats, including progressive champion Sen. Chris Murphy and ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein, are introducing legislation to stop Trump's racist and xenophobic Muslim ban – and we need to build support for them now.
Tell Congress: Support legislation to stop Trump's racist and xenophobic Muslim ban. Click here to sign the petition.
Trump's Muslim ban is appalling, horrifying and unconstitutional.1 It illegally discriminates against immigrants based on their country of origin by targeting people born in seven Muslim-majority countries. Before a federal judge issued a stay on Saturday, federal officials had the power to bar permanent residents and people with legal visas from entering the United States. While the judge's stay protects permanent residents, people with visas, including students, will continue to be blocked from entering the country, and the Department of Homeland Security still has the power to revoke green cards in bulk.2
Both Sens. Murphy and Feinstein have stated that they will be introducing legislation to protect refugee and immigrant communities within the next week. Sen. Murphy is introducing legislation to "immediately overturn Trump's hateful and dangerous executive order."3 The bill would withhold any funding to enforce the executive order and declares it illegal based on the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which banned discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin.4
Similarly, the first of two bills that Sen. Feinstein is introducing will rescind the executive order. Her second bill will amend the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act to add extra layers of protection to block the president's authority to single out groups of people to bar from entering the United States. As long as immigrants, refugees and their families are under attack, we need to push our elected officials in Congress to fight back. They must reject any efforts to use xenophobia and racism to justify deportations, the suspension of civil rights or the closure of our borders.
There is no room for politics of hate and fear in our communities. We must take action now to fight back against Trump and his racist administration's xenophobic and illegal attempts to demonize Muslim and immigrant communities. Speaking out publicly and in massive numbers will help pressure the craven and cowardly elected officials in Congress who have enabled Trump to date.
Tell Congress: Support legislation to stop Trump's racist and xenophobic Muslim ban. Click the link below to sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/block_refugee_eo?t=6&akid=21579.10312106.MiqwpK
Add your name:
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References:
- David Bier, "Trump's Immigration Ban Is Illegal," The New York Times, Jan. 27, 2017.
- Michael Shear and Helene Cooper, "Trump Bars Refugees and Citizens of 7 Muslim Countries," The New York Times, Jan. 27, 2017.
- Ed O'Keefe, "Senate Democrats vow legislation to block Trump's travel ban," The Washington Post, Jan 29, 2017.
- Sen. Chris Murphy, "MURPHY INTRODUCES BILL TO BLOCK PRESIDENT TRUMP'S HARMFUL EXECUTIVE ORDER ON REFUGEES," Jan. 30, 2017.
- Mallory Shelbourne, "Feinstein to introduce two bills in response to Trump's ban," The Hill, Jan. 29, 2017.
From: ICAS
Subject: A Clarifying Moment in American History
A Clarifying Moment in American History
The Atlantic · by · January 30, 2017
I am not surprised by President Donald Trump's antics this week. Not by the big splashy pronouncements such as announcing a wall that he would force Mexico to pay for, even as the Mexican foreign minister held talks with American officials in Washington. Not by the quiet, but no less dangerous bureaucratic orders, such as kicking the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of meetings of the Principals' Committee, the senior foreign-policy decision-making group below the president, while inserting his chief ideologist, Steve Bannon, into them. Many conservative foreign-policy and national-security experts saw the dangers last spring and summer, which is why we signed letters denouncing not Trump's policies but his temperament; not his program but his character.
We were right. And friends who urged us to tone it down, to make our peace with him, to stop saying as loudly as we could "this is abnormal," to accommodate him, to show loyalty to the Republican Party, to think that he and his advisers could be tamed, were wrong. In an epic week beginning with a dark and divisive inaugural speech, extraordinary attacks on a free press, a visit to the CIA that dishonored a monument to anonymous heroes who paid the ultimate price, and now an attempt to ban selected groups of Muslims (including interpreters who served with our forces in Iraq and those with green cards, though not those from countries with Trump hotels, or from really indispensable states like Saudi Arabia), he has lived down to expectations.
Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity-substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better.
The question is, what should Americans do about it? To friends still thinking of serving as political appointees in this administration, beware: When you sell your soul to the Devil, he prefers to collect his purchase on the installment plan. Trump's disregard for either Secretary of Defense Mattis or Secretary-designate Tillerson in his disastrous policy salvos this week, in favor of his White House advisers, tells you all you need to know about who is really in charge. To be associated with these people is going to be, for all but the strongest characters, an exercise in moral self-destruction.
For the community of conservative thinkers and experts, and more importantly, conservative politicians, this is a testing time. Either you stand up for your principles and for what you know is decent behavior, or you go down, if not now, then years from now, as a coward or opportunist. Your reputation will never recover, nor should it.
Rifts are opening up among friends that will not be healed. The conservative movement of Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp, of William F. Buckley and Irving Kristol, was always heterogeneous, but it more or less hung together. No more. New currents of thought, new alliances, new political configurations will emerge. The biggest split will be between those who draw a line and the power-sick-whose longing to have access to power, or influence it, or indeed to wield it themselves-causes them to fatally compromise their values. For many more it will be a split between those obsessed with anxiety, hatred, and resentment, and those who can hear Lincoln's call to the better angels of our nature, whose America is not replete with carnage, but a city on a hill.
This is one of those clarifying moments in American history, and like most such, it came upon us unawares, although historians in later years will be able to trace the deep and the contingent causes that brought us to this day. There is nothing to fear in this fact; rather, patriots should embrace it. The story of the United States is, as Lincoln put it, a perpetual story of "a rebirth of freedom" and not just its inheritance from the founding generation.
Some Americans can fight abuses of power and disastrous policies directly-in courts, in congressional offices, in the press. But all can dedicate themselves to restoring the qualities upon which this republic, like all republics depends: on reverence for the truth; on a sober patriotism grounded in duty, moderation, respect for law, commitment to tradition, knowledge of our history, and open-mindedness. These are all the opposites of the qualities exhibited by this president and his advisers. Trump, in one spectacular week, has already shown himself one of the worst of our presidents, who has no regard for the truth (indeed a contempt for it), whose patriotism is a belligerent nationalism, whose prior public service lay in avoiding both the draft and taxes, who does not know the Constitution, does not read and therefore does not understand our history, and who, at his moment of greatest success, obsesses about approval ratings, how many people listened to him on the Mall, and enemies.
He will do much more damage before he departs the scene, to become a subject of horrified wonder in our grandchildren's history books. To repair the damage he will have done Americans must give particular care to how they educate their children, not only in love of country but in fair-mindedness; not only in democratic processes but democratic values. Americans, in their own communities, can find common ground with those whom they have been accustomed to think of as political opponents. They can attempt to renew a political culture damaged by their decayed systems of civic education, and by the cynicism of their popular culture.
There is in this week's events the foretaste of things to come. We have yet to see what happens when Trump tries to use the Internal Revenue Service or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to destroy his opponents. He thinks he has succeeded in bullying companies, and he has no compunction about bullying individuals, including those with infinitely less power than himself. His advisers are already calling for journalists critical of the administration to be fired: Expect more efforts at personal retribution. He has demonstrated that he intends to govern by executive orders that will replace the laws passed by the people's representatives.
In the end, however, he will fail. He will fail because however shrewd his tactics are, his strategy is terrible-The New York Times, the CIA, Mexican Americans, and all the others he has attacked are not going away. With every act he makes new enemies for himself and strengthens their commitment; he has his followers, but he gains no new friends. He will fail because he cannot corrupt the courts, and because even the most timid senator sooner or later will say "enough." He will fail most of all because at the end of the day most Americans, including most of those who voted for him, are decent people who have no desire to live in an American version of Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey, or Viktor Orban's Hungary, or Vladimir Putin's Russia.
There was nothing unanticipated in this first disturbing week of the Trump administration. It will not get better. Americans should therefore steel themselves, and hold their representatives to account. Those in a position to take a stand should do so, and those who are not should lay the groundwork for a better day. There is nothing great about the America that Trump thinks he is going to make; but in the end, it is the greatness of America that will stop him.
The Atlantic · by · January 30, 2017
End of MPEN e-Newsletter
posted by lucas at 7:03 PM
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