From: Munsup @SISCOM Seoh
Subject: FW: Sound familiar??? Sign the petition against ‘Military Parade’; MoveOn official vote results on “Launch ‘Resist and Win’?”; and more
- FW: Sound familiar???
- FW: Schumer Agrees to Give up Shutdown Fights for Two Years, in Deal That Would Deprive Senate Democrats of Power
- FW: ** Official vote results on “Launch ‘Resist and Win’?” **
- FW: Sign the petition re: Military parade
- FW: This U.S. Senator just tore Trump to pieces
- FW: Nancy Pelosi is NOT backing down [read before dinner!]
- FW: I just signed this petition telling governors not to collaborate with Trump to end Medicaid.
- FW: Happening now: Resist Trump’s racist, xenophobic plan to rip apart families.
- FW: One of History’s Foremost Anti-Slavery Organizers Is Often Left Out of the Black History Month Story
- FW: Just received this: THIS IS WORTH THE FEW MINUTES IT TAKES TO READ AND DIGEST!
From: Eric Kramer
Subject: Sound familiar???
From the physician’s medical diagnosing coding guidebook. Sound familiar???
From: Judy Burnette
Subject: Schumer Agrees to Give up Shutdown Fights for Two Years, in Deal That Would Deprive Senate Democrats of Power l Truthout
Schumer Agrees to Give up Shutdown Fights for Two Years,
in Deal That Would Deprive Senate Democrats of Power
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43483-schumer-agrees-to-give-up-shutdown-fights-for-two-years-in-deal-that-would-deprive-senate-democrats-of-power
Thursday, February 08, 2018 By Sam Knight, The District Sentinel | News Analysis
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer make their way to the Senate floor after announcing a two-year deal on the budget earlier in the day on February 7, 2018. (Photo: Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call)
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Senate Democrats look poised to relinquish significant leverage — the threat of withholding government funding — well into the next Congress.
Leaders from the Senate Majority and Minority said Wednesday that they agreed to a budget deal that would roll back short-term funding norms spearheaded by Congressional Republicans during the Obama administration.
The agreement would eliminate so-called sequestration caps created by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The spending limits were agreed to by Congress after Tea Party Republicans threatened to shutdown the government.
The compromise would hike spending on defense and domestic programs by $300 billion, and it would keep the government funded through October 2019.
“After months of legislative logjams, this budget deal is a genuine breakthrough,” said Chuck Schumer (D-NY) from the Senate floor. “After months of fiscal brinkmanship, this budget deal is the real first sprout of bipartisanship, and it should break the long cycle of spending crises that have snarled this Congress and hampered the middle class.”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also hailed the agreement. Speaking just before Schumer, he said: “For the first time in years, our armed forces will have more of the resources they need to keep America safe.”
The Pentagon, which received $700 billion this year, would see funding increase by $169 billion.
According to Schumer, the deal would boost spending on healthcare programs, infrastructure and higher education. The agreement would bolster community healthcare grants, while extending funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by four years until 2027.
It would also deprive Senate Democrats of a tool they could use to stymie the Trump administration, which has been plagued by repeated accusations of Executive Branch abuses, including unprecedented nepotism and conflicts of interest, and obstruction of justice in the FBI inquiry into alleged election meddling in 2016. Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress, but need Senate Democrats to guarantee that budget legislation won’t be filibustered.
Schumer said the deal was hammered out “without a great deal of help from the White House,” but Presidential aides praised the development. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that it would offer “certainty” and a “much needed” boost in defense spending.
The House might have other plans, however. Influential hardline conservatives look set to oppose the agreement. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), chair of the Freedom Caucus, came out early against the proposal, according to NBC News.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also said that she won’t back the deal, according to The Hill.
Pelosi repeated demands for a government funding agreement that includes consideration of Dreamers — 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children. The cohort had been granted protections from removal proceedings under the Obama administration. Last year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the program would expire in March
In his floor speech on Wednesday, McConnell said that the Senate would soon have an open debate on immigration legislation. He said there would be a “level playing field at the outset,” and that the Majority and Minority would “alternate proposals for consideration and for votes.” According to Reuters, the debate is expected to occur next week.
Before backing the Senate deal, Pelosi is asking House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to schedule similar deliberations.
“Without a commitment from Speaker Ryan, comparable to the commitment from Leader McConnell, this package does not have my support,” she said on Wednesday.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Sam Knight is a reporter, editor and cofounder of The District Sentinel, a news co-op reporting on Washington and federal policy for the left.
From: Ilya, Stephen, Maria, Marie, and the rest of the team, MoveOn.org Political Action
Subject: ** Official vote results on “Launch ‘Resist and Win’?” **
The votes are in: MoveOn members have voted 91% to 9% for MoveOn to run the biggest midterm elections program in our history, so today we are taking a big leap and launching the program.
And this decision comes not a moment too soon, because the past week has brought a spate of troubling headlines from the nation’s top election experts, such as “What Happened to the Democratic Wave?” and “The Last Two Weeks of Polls Have Been Great for Republicans. Do They Signal a Shift?”1,2
The New York Times put it this way: “Last month it seemed that Democrats might ride a giant tsunami to control of the House and Senate. Now, some are wondering whether there’s a Democratic wave at all.”3
If we needed evidence that winning big in November is not a foregone conclusion, we have it. So we are getting to work right now systematically putting the pieces in place to win in November.
But launching a campaign of this size is a huge leap of faith, because it will require a substantial and consistent flow of funds between now and November in order to succeed. And our funding comes from you, our members, not billionaire donors. So to pull off this $15 million campaign, we need your support.
Can you start a monthly donation to MoveOn today to help power our campaign to win big at the ballot boxes this November?
Donate monthly or make a one-time gift
So what’s behind headlines like these today from CNN and The Washington Post: “Republicans are suddenly more optimistic about the midterms” and “Improving poll numbers give Republicans hope that the midterms might not be so bad”?4,5
Polls are swinging toward Republicans. Donald Trump’s approval rating is the highest it’s been in nearly a year.6 And the Democrats’ large advantage on the “generic ballot”—polls that ask people which party they would support in upcoming congressional elections—has evaporated to only a small lead.7
Here’s our best understanding of what’s happening: Corporate America has teamed up with Republicans in Congress and their billionaire donors to boost public opinion on the new tax law, touting and shining attention on companies announcing meager, one-time bonuses for some workers rather than the multibillion-dollar windfalls showered on the top 1%. And it’s working.
Public opinion of the new tax law is shifting, even though the reality is that the vast majority of tax giveaways benefit billionaires and big corporations. And a majority of voters now say they approve of how Trump is handling the economy—and that Trump, not President Obama, is primarily responsible for the economy’s health.8
That’s why the road to winning in November begins now. Together, we’re launching our largest midterm campaign ever, a $15 million effort to end Republican control of the House, win key Senate races, support 100 strong, diverse, progressive candidates for state and local office, and mobilize voters in every corner of the country. And we need to start right now if we are going to have enough funds to sustain us through November.
Click below to start your monthly donation today to help fund this critical grassroots election campaign.
Donate monthly or make a one-time gift
We’ve resisted mightily this past year. Sometimes we’ve even succeeded against all odds.
And now it’s time to electoralize the Resistance. November is coming. Let’s resist—and win.
Thanks for all you do.
P.S. Here’s our elections plan in a nutshell:
- We’ll work to support 100 candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives to end Republican control of Congress—so we can expand the map, support a slate of progressive challengers, hold incumbent Republicans accountable for their votes, and put an end to attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, give handouts to massive corporations, and continue countless attacks on our communities.
- We’ll endorse progressive candidates in key Senate races and support 100 diverse, dynamic, fierce down-ballot candidates to build up progressive power at the state and local level around the country.
- We’ll build on the grassroots organizing tactics and technology that we developed and tested in 2017—tactics in the areas of recruitment, training, voter persuasion, mobilization, organizing, social media, mobile tools, tech, analytics, and video. For example, last year with our partners, we led a series of Ready to Resist mass mobilizing calls that regularly engaged tens of thousands of activists, and we also organized a Resistance Summer training program that supported 1,000 MoveOn members across the country as they developed powerful organizing skills. We will mobilize these members and train even more to lead this year.
- We’ll run a campaign that stands shoulder to shoulder with the communities most impacted by GOP attacks and policies—including Muslims, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and people of color. These communities have been consistently used as scapegoats to mobilize Republican voters during elections. We will push back on candidates of either party who throw vulnerable communities under the bus to win elections, and we’ll elevate candidates who authentically channel the voices of the diverse American electorate.
- We’ll scale our innovative social media persuasion testing and delivery technology that proved effective at persuading and turning out thousands of voters in both Virginia and Alabama last year. MoveOn’s tech and mobile teams developed a new peer-to-peer messaging platform, Spoke, that has already been responsible for mobilizing 60,000 grassroots actions. We will put all of these tools to work in service of our electoral objectives in 2018.
- We’ll fund this work with hundreds of thousands of small-dollar contributions from MoveOn members in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. And, if necessary, we will launch a Super PAC to enable us to collect more resources to maximize the power of MoveOn members. (The Super Pac would be time-limited, we’d disclose the names of donors giving over $200 publicly to the FEC, and we’d shut it down after the close of the election.)
It’s a big, ambitious plan, but it will be possible only with your support. Will you start a monthly donation now?
Donate monthly or make a one-time gift
Sources:
- “What Happened To The Democratic Wave?” FiveThirtyEight, February 1, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/33484?t=8&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks - “The Last Two Weeks of Polls Have Been Great for Republicans. Do They Signal a Shift?” The New York Times, February 2, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/33485?t=10&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks - Ibid.
- “Republicans are suddenly more optimistic about the midterms,” CNN, February 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/33486?t=12&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks - “Improving poll numbers give Republicans hope that the midterms might not be so bad,” The Washington Post, February 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/33487?t=14&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks - “Trump’s Approval Rating Is the Highest It’s Been in Nearly a Year, Poll Finds,” Time, February 3, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/33488?t=16&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks - “Are Democrats Winning The Race For Congress?” FiveThirtyEight, last accessed February 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/33104?t=18&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks - “Republicans are suddenly more optimistic about the midterms,” CNN, February 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/33486?t=20&akid=198521%2E1195276%2EXONrks
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Donate monthly or make a one-time gift
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
From: Stephen Miles, Win Without War
Subject: Sign the petition re: Military parade
Donald Trump wants a massive demonstration of military power in Washington, D.C. A war parade would be a waste of our taxpayer dollars, would not do anything to keep our country safe, and would not honor the men and women in uniform. Its entire purpose is to let Trump play dictator for a day, further eroding democracy, and pushing our country even closer to authoritarianism.
Trump’s war parade must not be treated as normal.
Prevent Trump from holding a dangerous war parade in Washington, D.C.
Trump wants to send tanks, troops, and guns down the streets of Washington, D.C. This is the kind of parade that dictators around the world use to try and intimidate their enemies and, more importantly, their own citizens.
The truth is the money wasted on feeding Trump’s desire to see tanks and missiles paraded past his luxury hotel is money our nation desperately needs turning the lights back on in Puerto Rico, providing treatment for the opioid epidemic, making college affordable, and countless other needs Trump seems to have no interest in meeting.
This is not democracy.
Urge Washington, D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Council to act immediately and shut down Trump’s war parade by refusing to issue permits, allocate resources, or otherwise cooperate with such an outrageous idea.
Click here to stop Trump’s war parade, and then pass the petition along to your friends.
From: Important! Progressive Takeover Update
Subject: This U.S. Senator just tore Trump to pieces
SIGN YOUR NAME: [24 hr deadline]
Stand with Tammy Duckworth to take down Donald Trump >>
| Tammy Duckworth just took Trump to task for being a DICTATOR: | |
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| Yes Tammy!! We’re so grateful that she’s speaking truth to power — so we’re asking 5,000 Democrats to stand with her. | |
| If you want to take down Donald Trump, sign your name right now: | |
|
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| Trump’s bruised ego is undermining our democracy. He’s certainly not a dictator of an authoritarian regime (even if he might act like it): | |
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| But Senator Tammy Duckworth won’t have any of it. | |
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| We think Tammy is so right! Donald Trump ALSO took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. It’s high time he started doing so! | |
| Let’s stop Trump’s dangerous nonsense in its tracks! | |
| We need just 5,000 Progressives to sign on by midnight tomorrow. | |
|
From: BREAKING [SIGN THIS PETITION by PROGRESSIVE TAKEOVER]
Subject: Nancy Pelosi is NOT backing down [read before dinner!]
SIGN NOW: [12 hour deadline]
Sign to STOP Republicans from deporting Dreamers>>
We’re working on borrowed time.
We only have just hours to force Republicans to do the right thing — and pass a budget that PROTECTS Dreamers.
So we’re sending a massive grassroots petition to Washington.
If we don’t get enough signatures — 800,000 Dreamers could face deportation.
There’s NO time to spare. Sign to STOP Republicans from deporting Dreamers:
| SIGN THE PETITION >> |
Trump is playing games with our immigration system and threatening ANOTHER government shutdown if he doesn’t get his way.
Even with a new bipartisan bill on the table, Trump continues his racist rhetoric to dismantle President Obama’s efforts to defend Dreamers.
Demand Congress take action NOW to protect Dreamers.
| SIGN THE PETITION >> |
It’s time we settle this once and for all. Dreamers are American in every way, but one. Congress must act before time runs out.
Click the link below to sign our petition:
https://act.progressivetakeover.org/go/Protect-Dreamers-Now
From: MARGARET PETERS
Subject: I just signed this petition telling governors not to collaborate with Trump to end Medicaid. I hope you will sign and share it.
I just signed this petition telling governors not to collaborate with Trump to end Medicaid. I hope you will, too.
From: Monique Teal, Daily Kos
Subject: Happening now: Resist Trump’s racist, xenophobic plan to rip apart families.
Yesterday, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took to the House floor to share stories of young undocumented people who have been put in peril by Trump and Republicans in Congress. She bore witness to their struggle for a little more than eight hours.
She spoke of people like Denea, who has lived in the U.S. since she was seven and now as an adult is a community organizer. She shared stories of sisters like Alex, a 19-year-old college student, and Daniela, a 24-year-old small business owner. She uplifted patriots like Zion, who is currently enlisted as a reservist cargo specialist in the U.S. Army.
Immigrant youth are in a fight for their lives. We need Republican members of Congress on board to get a floor vote for the Dream Act. Please, make a call today.
Call Representative Michael R. Turner at (202) 225-6465. Demand he support a floor vote for the Dream Act ASAP.
Hi, my name is _______ from ___________ in city ____________. I am calling to urge Representative Michael R. Turner to demand a floor vote on the Dream Act. Immigrant youth are already losing their DACA protections. We can’t wait for Congress to work out a massive immigration overhaul and it’s cruel to leave immigrant youth in limbo. Enough is enough. Please demand a vote on the Dream Act TODAY. Thank you for your time.
As Pelosi was speaking, immigrant youth took over the U.S. Capitol to demand that Congress finally pass the Dream Act, legislation that would protect them from deportation and provide a pathway to citizenship, provided they fulfill a laundry list of requirements.
Donald Trump and his racist, xenophobic administration are demanding an extreme, sweeping immigration overhaul in exchange for protecting immigrant youth. But his deal would rip families apart, further criminalize people of color, and cut legal immigration by half. It’s a non-starter for anyone with a conscience.
Eighty-one percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of independents support providing legal status to immigrant youth. There is no reason for Republicans to continue holding immigrant youth hostage.
Representative Michael R. Turner needs to feel the same urgency as Leader Pelosi and immigrant youth. Tell them to reject Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant plan. Pass the Dream Act now.
Call Representative Michael R. Turner at (202) 225-6465. Demand he support a floor vote for the Dream Act ASAP.
Hi, my name is ______ from ________ in the city of ________. I am calling to urge Representative Michael R. Turner to demand a floor vote on the Dream Act. Immigrant youth are already losing their DACA protections. We can’t wait for Congress to work out a massive immigration overhaul and it’s cruel to leave immigrant youth in limbo. Enough is enough. Please demand a vote on the Dream Act TODAY. Thank you for your time.
From: Wahls, Myron DDS Detroit [mailto:Myron.Wahls@ssa.gov]
Subject: FW: One of History’s Foremost Anti-Slavery Organizers Is Often Left Out of the Black History Month Story
I thought you would be interested in this story I found on MSN:
One of History’s Foremost Anti-Slavery Organizers Is Often Left Out of the Black History Month Story
http://a.msn.com/01/en-us/BBIPVi2?ocid=se
From: Jedith
Subject: Just received this: THIS IS WORTH THE FEW MINUTES IT TAKES TO READ AND DIGEST!
A woman dies at age 65 before collecting one benefit check. She and her employer paid into the system for almost 50 years and she collected NOTHING!
Keep in mind all the working people that die every year who were paying into the system and got nothing! And these governmental morons mismanaged the money and stole from the system, so that it’s now going broke. BEAUTIFUL! and they have the audacity to call today’s seniors “vultures” in an attempt to cover their ineptitude. DISGRACEFUL! The real reason for renaming our Social Security payments is so the government can claim that all those social security recipients are receiving entitlements thus putting them in the same case as welfare, food stamp recipients.
THIS IS WORTH THE FEW MINUTES IT TAKES TO READ AND DIGEST!
F.Y.I. By changing the name of SS contributions it gives them a means to refute this program in the future. It’s free money for the government to spend under this guise.
The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a *Federal Benefit Payment*? I’ll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you.
Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it. The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.” This isn’t a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
(This should be enough for you to forward this message, If not read on.)
If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that’s would make your Social Security investment close to $180,000. If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you’d have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you’d receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month. That’s almost three times more than today’s average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact). And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you’re 98 if you retire at age 65)!
I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts. Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger *Ponzi scheme* than Bernie Madoff ever did. (Lyndon Johnson) They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn’t have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn’t pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they’ve told us that the money won’t support us for very much longer.(Isn’t it funny that they NEVER say this about welfare payments?) But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they’re calling it a *benefit*, as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.
Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t mean that our investments were a charity! Let’s take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government. Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.
Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
End of MPEN e-Newsletter