Weekly Check In February 26

[tassosss]

I’m back from being out of town. Many thanks to tanaqui for keeping up with check-ins. This week there were a lot of town halls taking place around the country. Did you go to one, or plan to? How was it?

Housekeeping
Is anyone out there interested in helping us tag posts? That seems to be the area where we’re falling down the most.

Reminder that we have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

If you read one thing this week, read this:
A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed, and What the Majority Can Do This is an excellent article that talks about world views and the brain and how absolutely essential the language used around politics is for shaping how people vote.
Follow up reading includes actions you can take.

Muslim Ban/Immigration
tanaqui  has an excellent round up post this week on what our Minority President’s next moves are and what DHS is doing.

Confirmation Hearings
Not a lot of movement at the moment but we’ll keep you updated as they continue.

Get Involved
Anyone thinking of running for office? The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is holding candidate training this spring and summer for how to run for office

Get Educated
You can request a recording of the conference call that took place this week with Elizabeth Warren to discuss resistance strategies
snickfic ’slink roundup on running for office, and work done by the resistance, including a platform for The Movement of Black Lives
In yesterday’s roundup Civics 101 podcast, enrollment in ACA maps, resistance news, how voter ID’s discriminate, and Delaware’s special election for a State Senate seat goes to Democratic candidate Stephanie Hansen
Updates of Minority President’s campaign in contact with Russian operatives during the campaign and his undermining of democracy by attacking the press

Poll #18044 check in Feb 26

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

View Respondents

This week I

View Answers

called my one senator
4 (36.4%)

called my other senator
3 (27.3%)

called my representative
2 (18.2%)

got on a resistence call
0 (0.0%)

signed up for daily action alerts
2 (18.2%)

called my state senator
1 (9.1%)

called my state representative
2 (18.2%)

called my governor
1 (9.1%)

went to a protest
5 (45.5%)

went to a town hall
2 (18.2%)

.

View Answers

got involved with a local group
3 (15.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter
7 (35.0%)

donated money
9 (45.0%)

took care of myself
13 (65.0%)

committed to action in the coming week
3 (15.0%)

did something else
10 (50.0%)

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Thank you! Some links are broken, like the Muslim ban one supposedly over at tanaqui's?

[sathari]

EEEPS!!!! DNC MEETING!!! I have meant to make a post about it, like, since it happened. (So. Much. Awesome. And seriously, we have like the deepest bench ever, just judging by all the people who ran.)

I am currently in the "overload" mode of "so many reasons to call different reps, so few calling-people skill-points" and any thoughts from this comm that could help me organize myself would be epic. (I'm sort of leaning to calling my Senators about the need for an independent special counsel on the Russia connection, what with the latest info on Sessions' apparent chats with the Russian ambassador that he didn't mention in his confirmation hearing, and then, oh heavens, there's state/local stuff to wrangle.)

Last but not least, I recommended this in another comment but it's worth repeating here: if you haven't read the book version of All The President's Men, do yourself a favor and read it, because seriously, it's the same exact thing we're dealing with now. Attacks on the media? Check. ("Fake news" is apparently just the new "collection of absurdities", and Sean Spicer is likewise Ron Ziegler 2.0, complete with overheated press conferences and banning of news outlets.) Wacky and profoundly immoral hijinks to manipulate the campaign complete with paid operatives and foreign involvement while accusing the other party and the media of the same sort of thing ever so loudly? Check. And... the press and the people stepping up to call time on these shenanigans, even if it takes a while? Check, check, check.

My takeaway from it is that we all do need to keep the pressure on our Congressbeings--- there's a line in the book, "The men on the floor [of the Senate] were sharp interpreters of the political winds", which refers to the fact that the then-minority of Republican Senators all supported the resolution to create the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to go after the Watergate crew. IOW... if we blow hard enough, they're gonna read the winds. We've just got to keep blowing! *cheerleads cheerleads cheerleads*