The end of net neutrality would be a disaster for our country and the free flow of ideas. But this fight is not over. Here’s what’s at stake and how we can save net neutrality:
Category Archives: Action Alert!
4/4 How Long, Not Long! MLK50 Thread
Last year, the Benny family went on our own “Freedom Trail” journey in Alabama, whereby we went to Selma to visit the site of where the march started, at Brown Chapel AME, where there was a bombing, and we drove over the Edmund Pettus Bridge towards Montgomery. In Montgomery, we visited the church where Dr. King spoke and got a tour. The tour guide was excellent, made it more interactive by having couples and pairing up folks from an all-white high school student group that was visiting, by getting up and saying “How Long, Not Long!”, taken from a speech … Continue reading →
3/26 Which is More Important Today–Stephanie Clifford, Russia, or Progress?
Last night, TOP had a liveblog going about Anderson Cooper’s Stephanie Clifford interview on 60 Minutes last night. I discovered it on the Recent Story list while looking for the new series, These Revolutionary Times. Also, I found another FP post by GOS himself, who provided a quick transcript from CBS. To me, it is pitiful but TOP is starving for ratings. I’m surprised they didn’t solicit quite the polling that CNN did: Source: CNN Mind one, I did see the interview when it was being broadcasted last evening. The only thing that was particularly interesting was the timing of … Continue reading →
11/10 News Roundup – Sanders Calls On DNC To Implement Findings of #UnityReformCommission, 100% Renewable More Feasible Than Ever & More
We Need a Truly Grassroots Democratic Party: A Call for DNC Chair Tom Perez To Implement Findings Of #UnityReformCommission by Bernie Sanders
The Establishment (political, economic and media) wants us to believe is that real and fundamental changes in our society are impossible.
No. We cannot guarantee health care to all as a right. No. We cannot revitalize the trade union movement, raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour and provide pay equity for women. No. We cannot effectively compete in the global economy by making public colleges and universities tuition-free. No. We cannot lead the world in combatting climate change and transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels. No. We cannot reform our broken criminal justice system or finally achieve comprehensive immigration reform.
They want us to think that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, a nation which has more income and wealth inequality than almost any nation on earth, the best that we can do is to accept tiny, incremental change.
I could not disagree more.
Right now, a Democratic National Committee Unity Reform Commission, comprised of people who supported our campaign, people who supported Secretary Clinton’s campaign, and people appointed by DNC Chair Tom Perez are working on a set of policies that will determine the future direction of the Democratic Party. In many ways, this Unity Commission will determine whether the Party goes forward in a dynamic and inclusive way, or whether it retains the failed status quo approach of recent years. It will determine whether the Party will have the grassroots energy to effectively take on Donald Trump, the Republican Party and their reactionary agenda or whether we remain in the minority.
In my view, this Commission must:
* Make the Democratic Party more democratic and the presidential contests more fair by dramatically reducing the number of superdelegates who participate in the nominating process. It is absurd that in the last presidential primary over 700 superdelegates (almost one-third of the delegates a candidate needed to win the nomination) had the power to ignore the will of the people who voted in the state primaries and caucuses.
* Make primaries more open by ending the absurdity of closed primary systems with antiquated, arbitrary and discriminatory voter registration laws. Republicans are the ones who make it harder for people to vote, not Democrats. At a time when more and more people consider themselves to be Independents our job is to bring people into the Democratic Party process, not exclude them. It is incredibly undemocratic that in some states voters must declare their party affiliation up to six months before the primary election.
* Make it easier for working people and students to participate in state caucuses. While there is much to be said for bringing people together face-to-face in a caucus to discuss why they support the candidate of their choice, not everybody is able to attend those caucuses at the time they are held. A process must be developed that gives everyone the right to cast a vote even if they are not physically able to attend a state caucus.
* Make the DNC’s budget and decision-making processes more open and transparent. If we are going to build a Party that relies on working people who are willing to give $5, $10 and $27 donations, they deserve to know where that money is going and how those decisions are made.
I look forward to following the progress of the Unity Reform Commission, and I urge Chairman Tom Perez and the entire Democratic National Committee to develop policies which move the Democratic Party forward in a very different direction — a direction that will lead us to national and statewide victories. It’s important that you do the same:
More news/video/etc. in the comments, including:
*Bernie Sanders, 10 Senate Democrats push USDA for ‘consumer-friendly’ GMO label
*‘Great Things Come Out of Discomfort’: Our Revolution’s Nina Turner
*Dreamers Take Over Senate Building to Demand New Protections
*Republicans Plan to Turn Puerto Rico Into a Theme Park for Fossil-Fuel Corporations
*Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna: Stop All Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia Now
*Pipeline news, Water Protector Updates & More
Tulsi Gabbard Calls for Real Reform to the Democratic Party, Introduces The ‘Off Act’ & More
Sign the petition calling on the DNC to embrace transparency, accountability, and inclusion! Our hope for real reform to strengthen our Democracy depends on it.
For more information on Tulsi Gabbard:
9/11 Let’s Try Something Different–(Hint: It Requires Your Content)
Today, I wondered if we could try something a bit different. Could we start theme diaries (open thread or focused)–meaning the subscribers actually post the topics? There are 4-5 regulars and we could easily each post a quick diary for jumpstarts on different topics. It seems that all of the burden has been on LD’s shoulders. It doesn’t take much time to just start a thread on a topic or candidate (as LD has been doing). For example, one could start one on Green News (or in LD’s case, he’s great in pointing out pipelines that have created community problems), … Continue reading →
9/7 Colbert’s Mustang Watching Party
Check out this tweet by RoseAnn DeMoro. … Continue reading →
4/17 Open Thread & News Roundup
Good morning TPW’ers! I’m trying to spread stuff out a little bit so will be putting the Bernie news in its own thread when time allows, as well as separating out some of the other bigger news items and then putting everything else here.
Starting off with:
Keystone XL Opponents Target Banks Funding Climate Destruction
Kicking off a week of actions targeting the institutions financing the controversial Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipelines, activists on Saturday protested at banks in 25 cities to shine a spotlight on the roll they are having on climate destruction.
“It’s back—and so are we,” reads the call to action. After fierce nationwide opposition forced the Obama administration to halt the project, President Donald Trump has given it the green light and the climate movement has vowed to fight it once again.
The peaceful demonstrations are “designed to shine a spotlight on the the four key financial institutions bankrolling the KXL pipeline— Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and TD Bank—and pressure them and the broader financial community to pull out and ‘defund’ the project,” said the Rainforest Action Network, which is organizing the week of protest.
In addition to demonstrating outside banks, activists across the country are also planning a banner drop in Los Angeles and a protest targeting local government in San Franciscothroughout the week of action, which will culminate on Earth Day. Find an action near you here.
More in the comments, Hope to see you there!
2/28 News, Open Thread & Bernie
I mean, amazing. pic.twitter.com/wmmCmUCDT6 — Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) February 28, 2017 I just had to share that tweet with Bernie verily amused! 😀 Also this tweet is also Bernielicious: This speech is crashing our servers right now https://t.co/IzUvVw6lDb — Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) February 28, 2017 Did my heart good it did. READ IN FULL: Bernie Sanders’ Speech on Israel, Trump and anti-Semitism at J Street Conference Thank you for inviting me to address you here today. It’s a pleasure to be here with J Street, which has been such a strong voice for saner, more progressive foreign policy ideas. And I … Continue reading →
#NoDAPL Protest Songs And Day Of Action Tweets
Headed out to #NoDAPL Day Of Action event? Not able to go to an event but want to get a look at things from the people on the ground? Here are some pretty damn amazing grassroots inspired songs in support of the Water Protectors to pump you up, to pass around, and overall… to just make your day better. Genres may vary.
Starting things off with one video here, and the rest will be in the comments.
#NoDAPL Twitter Storm Alert – they need our help
Are you on Twitter? The NoDAPL Water Protectors are asking for help to create a Twitter Storm climaxing during the debate, asking why they are not talking about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the need to protect our water. Here’s the text of their request on Facebook, from Noelle Garcia. She explains what a Twitter storm is, why they want to create it, and what to include in your Tweet (including samples of what to say): noelle garcia to International Days of Prayer and Action with Standing Rock The American Indian Center of Chicago is asking people to share plans to start … Continue reading →
CA – With an Assembly like this one – no wonder CA is not what it could be…….
It looks like corporatists all around in CA. No wonder CA is slowly moving backwards. HALL OF SHAME – 16 Democratic Legislators in progressive Districts voting as Republicans – voting so bad they got F’s The Hall of Shame includes the state legislators most out of step with their constituents, and most closely aligned with corporate and special interests that exploit Californians. To make the list, a legislator needs to have a Courage Score of 59 or lower — resulting in a grade of “ F ” — and represent a district which clearly supports more progressive policies than the legislator. … Continue reading →
Petition to Protect Chelsea Manning from Solitary as Punishment for Suicide Attempt
Roots Action, which, as you may know, was founded by anti war activists David Swanson and Norman Soloman and journalist Jeff Cohen has an important petition on the rootsaction.org web site to the Secretary of the Army against punishing Chelsea Manning with solitary confinement for her own recent suicide attempt: http://rootsaction.org/featured-actions/1249-urgent-chelsea-manning-is-being-charged-for-her-own-suicide-attempt Chelsea, as you may know, as an act of conscience, leaked info about the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan as well other classified info listed at the bottom of her Wikipedia page to inform us what was being done in our name with our tax dollars and … Continue reading →
“Our Revolution”: New Organization Announced by Former Bernie Campaign
This was emailed to persons on the email list yesterday afternoon: Political pundits and the billionaire class are watching very closely to see what Bernie supporters do next. Some of them might be tempted to believe our political revolution is toast. They want our extraordinary phone banking, door knocking, and grassroots organizing efforts to stop. They want us to get discouraged. They want to vanquish our movement once and for all. We aren’t going to let that happen. That’s why, on the evening of August 24, we will kick off a new organization called Our Revolution with a major live … Continue reading →
Action Alert! Today is Earth Overshoot Day
OvershootDay.Org On August 8, 2016, we will have used as much from nature as our planet can renew in the whole year. We use more ecological resources and services than nature can regenerate through overfishing, overharvesting forests and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than forests can sequester. From Gawker: Today is Earth Overshoot Day—the day when humanity has consumed more natural resources than the planet is able to generate in a single calendar year. Disturbingly, this date is happening earlier with each passing year. According to the Global Footprint Network, an international think tank concerned with environmental sustainability, … Continue reading →
