Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Vote Forward's letter writing campaign for the Georgia senate run-offs is now up and running. They're doing things a little differently for this campaign, so even if you've written letters before, they're asking you to read the instructions carefully!

https://votefwd.org/posts/Georgia-Runoff-campaigns

As a big focus in 2020 will be on various kinds of elections, I've pulled together voting-related resources from the last three (!) years of thisfinecrew. Many thanks to all the people who originally brought these links and organisations to the attention of the comm.

Targeted support for progressive candidates

SwingLeft (Lets you volunteer to support progressives in Swing Districts, no matter where you live)
Flippable and Local Majority (Both focused on targeting state legislatures where flipping a few seats can turn them blue -- putting Democrats in charge of the next round of redistricting in 2021)
Get Mitch or Die Trying (Donate to the eventual Democratic nominee in 10 seats that could be flipped and one that needs protecting)
Sister District (Matches volunteers in safe blue places with strategic state elections throughout the country)
Emily's List (Helping pro-choice Democratic women around the country run for office and win.)
Get Her Elected (arranges for volunteers to offer their skills pro bono to progressive women candidates running for office at all levels of U.S. government)
Run for Something (Recruiting and supporting young progressives)
314 Action (Encourages scientists to stand for office and helps them win)
Higher Heights (Investing in a long-term strategy to expand and support Black women’s leadership pipeline at all levels)
The Collective PAC (Supporting African American Candidates)

Get Out The Vote, voting suppression and voting reform

Postcards to Voters (A grassroots organization that sends hand-written postcards to potential progressive voters in competitive districts)
Vote Forward (Send letters to traditionally under-represented voters to encourage them to voite)
National Voter Registration Day (not until September 20, but they need money as well as volunteers)
Moms Vote (Engaging women, especially mothers, to vote through activities like postcard campaigns and phonebanking)
Multiply Your Vote (Volunteering opportunities to encourage people to vote)
ACLU (Various activities and campaigns around voting rights)
Fair Fight 2020 (Helping staff, fund, and train robust Democratic voter protection operations in battleground states)
VoterRiders (Helping every eligible voter to get the ID - and confidence - to vote)
866-OUR-VOTE (Works to advance and defend the right to vote and offers on the day support to people having trouble voting. See this post for details of how speakers of various languages can contact them)
Woke Vote (A collaborative of grassroots organizers in the South registering voters and canvassing neighborhoods)
League of Women Voters (Campaign to fight voter suppression)
Voto Latino (Provides culturally relevant programs that engage, educate and empower Latinos to be agents of change)
Color of Change (Working to raise the level of Black community involvement in the next election cycle)
#Knockeverydoor (Helps volunteers start door-to-door canvasses to help build a majority of voters for progressive causes)
Press for adoption of the National Popular Vote proposal

Keep an eye on your voter registration

Some states are very good at dropping eligible voters off their rolls during "normal" updates, so keep an eye on your registration (and remind others to do so).

You can use Vote.org to check your registration or use this awesome post on US Voter Information put together by sathari to find links to a range of election information for your specific state.

Get involved locally

Why you should join your local political party
Find Democraic Events near you

If you know of any other organisations you think are worth supporting, let us know in comments.

Kavanaugh was, to no one's great surprise, confirmed to the Supreme Court yesterday. We're already seeing responses and actions to move forward, like this fundraiser to honor Dr Blasey, particularly in her professional capacity. But the focus is now switching back to the mid-term elections and taking back as much control as possible in Congress.

We've also been swapping advice on how to look after yourself when protesting, in case the Big Orange Baby throws another tantrum and threatens Mueller and Rosenstein again.

So what else has been going on in the comm?

Upcoming Elections - New

For Your Rage-donations
Strategy Call: Moveon.Org
More Postcard Campaigns!
Here Comes The General

Voter Registration, Voting Rights and How to Vote

Useful How-to Guide For Voters
Link(Spam): US Voter Information
Deadlines to register: in table format and in graphical format.
There have been more reports of people being removed from rolls so check your registration and tell others to as well.
Cancelled voter registrations: If You're In Indiana Or Know People In Indiana
Check For Availability Of Provisional Ballots, And Resist And Win Calls

( Ongoing Actions -- Elections )

( Ongoing Actions -- Immigration )

( Ongoing Actions -- General )

( Housekeeping )

So, what have you all been up to in the last week or are planning to get involved in next week?

alexseanchai posted about this in comments to the last check-in post and I thought it was worth pulling out as a top-level post. (Originally via conuly)

Congress is looking to extend copyright protection term to 144 years

Buried in an otherwise harmless act, passed by the House and now being considered in the Senate, this new bill purports to create a new digital performance right -- basically the right to control copies of recordings on any digital platform (ever hear of the internet?) -- for musical recordings made before 1972. These recordings would now have a new right, protected until 2067, which, for some, means a total term of protection of 144 years. The beneficiaries of this monopoly need do nothing to get the benefit of this gift. They don't have to make the work available. Nor do they have to register their claims in advance.

Write to your representatives and consider donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

(Why, yes, the copyright on Mickey Mouse is close to running out again....)

This week saw another horrific mass shooting in a school that's reignited the gun control debate.

Meanwhile, the details of the events leading up to the shooting are being used by Trump and his defenders/apologists as another stick to beat the FBI and discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. On Friday, the investigation handed down indictments for 13 Russian nationals and 3 companies for criminally interfering with the 2016 election.

We've had just a couple of posts in the comm this week.

Actions
Feminist Wikipedia Takeover
District funds for the mid-terms

Housekeeping (the usual stuff)
Reminder that we now have a Friending Meme and a (locked) post where you can connect with others with live in the same area. We hope you find both of these posts useful!

We also 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.

As we don't always get the time to pull things out of the suggestions post into their own separate posts, it may be worth checking every week (or tracking the post) to see if there's any new information you're interested in.

Also if you need help with tags, PM redbird, who is our tag guru. Both tassosss and I are very grateful for the help.

So, what have you all been up to in the last week or are planning to get involved in next week?

A bill that would use Congress's authority under the Congressional Review Act to reverse the FCC decision last month to ditch net neutrality now has enough co-sponsors to go directly to the Senate floor for a vote:

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/367929-senate-bill-to-reverse-net-neutrality-repeal-wins-30th-co-sponsor-ensuring

The press release from Senator Ed Markey, who introduced the bill, is at https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-leads-resolution-to-restore-fccs-net-neutrality-rules. The release includes a list of co-sponsors, which seems to be up-to-date.

Contact your Senators to ask them to support the bill by co-sponsoring it and voting for it. (And if they won't support it, it sounds like getting them on record will be useful as an attack point for the mid-terms.)

(both seen at fail_fandomanon)

Here's a twitter thread with a good summary of the current situation, as well as some great ideas and resources for taking action. These include a link to a list of Health Legislative Assistants for various senators, and the suggestion to reach out via social media to friends in states with key senators who need to be influenced:

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/872911051628707841

It also points out that, worryingly, staffers report calls to senators' offices have fallen back to near to "normal", pre-Trump levels.

This Trumpcare Toolkit also provides a list of the key senators who need to be influenced and gives some easy ways to reach them. There's also a link to a letter asking the Senate to take expert and public testimony on the bill:

https://www.trumpcaretoolkit.org

Edit: Another list of staffers dealing with healthcare for Republican senators:

https://mobile.twitter.com/jonfavs/status/873223442518073346

From the responses to that thread: if your senators are Democrats, you can call and ask them to hold off on all non-essential business until a public hearing is scheduled for the new bill.