ACTION: We can change VA seats from red to blue within the first ten days of 2017!!!

There is a special election on January 10^th for Virginia State offices.    Yep, that's just 3 weeks away!  

Cheryl Turpin is running in Virginia Beach (HD-85).      And Ryant Washington is running in Lynchburg (SD-22).  Jennifer McClellan is running in Richmond (SD-9)

What you need to know:

Virginia has been so gerrymandered that the districts do not reflect the demographics of the state.  Meaning there are more Democrats in the state than Republicans but the Republicans take so many of the elections because of gerrymandering.  In fact it is so bad that there is a lawsuit going before the Supreme Court in March about VA gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters.   In the meantime there is this election.  

It is going to take a lot of our help but we need to make phone calls and donate to the democrats who are running for VA state offices. 

This is how we begin to build a 50 state blue path.

What you can do:

You can donate to all three candidates by going HERE.

Consider phone banking.     Did you know you can virtual phone bank from your home?   Reach out to the campaigns and tell them you will virtual phone bank for them.  They will send you the link.   

Friend their campaigns on FB and share updates.  

Reach out to your friends in Virginia and inform them that you know about the Special Election in VA on January 10^th.   Tell them that you donated to the candidates.    Do you know what kind of influence you will have living in another state calling or emailing your VA friend and telling them, “I’m so invested in your state’s campaign I donated and I’m virtual phone calling.”    Your passion will ignite your VA friends.

By doing these actions we can get  real BLUE action

within the first ten days of 2017! 

Ask: Who do you know?

Do you have relatives or friends in these districts?    Are they Democrats?   Get the word out to them that they need to galvanize their friends and get out and vote.    This is not easy in non presidential years....send them an email.   By putting these elections on your radar you can put on their radar.  

Sign a Petition: FACEBOOK Voting Reminders

On December 10, only 29 percent of the registered voters showed up to vote at the run off in Louisiana.   Foster Campbell, the Democrat who ran for senator, lost.  But then when you only have 29 percent of the voting population show up---well....crap happens. 

Local and state elections are low turn outs.    Facebook could help if they put local elections in the daily feed.  "Get out today and vote!"  

Help us keep the ball rolling: recruit your friends, family, and colleagues to sign and share our petition.

Educate: FAKE News

ACTION: Push Back on Donald J Trump's Conflict of Interest

Where to begin on DTrump's conflict of interests?
I got a great list of what to do from a fellow Blue Warrior.

Friday:
Call every member of the House Oversight Committee who is a Republican and ask that they stop dt's corruption, you can mention his call with Taiwan a place where he is trying to do business https://www.theguardian.com/…/trumps-taiwan-phone-call-prec…:

https://oversight.house.gov/subcommittee/full-committee/

(The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee presented the chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz with a letter asking him to investigate DT's finances
http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/…/2016-11-28.EEC%20et%…)

Call you Representative and ask what they're doing to resolve dt's conflicts of interest/corruption. Ask that they support, Representative Katherine Clark's and Jerrold Nadler's (a senior member of the house judiciary committee) Presidential Accountability Act (HR 6340) and make sure that the bill holds dt to the same standards as other legislators. If they're a Democrat ask if there's a coordinated strategy to fight his corruption:

Call the judiciary committee since the bill was referred there: 202-225-3951.
Or the chairman of that committee, Bob Goodlatte: 202-225-5431

http://katherineclark.house.gov/index.cfm/press-releases…

Look at all the new cosponsor's for the Presidential Accountability Act! Calling works. Keep the pressure on:  https://www.congress.gov/…/114t…/house-bill/6340/cosponsors…

Tip: Keep your Representative and Senators numbers in your phone that way they're easier to call. http://www.house.gov/representatives/http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Action: How are you getting news? Break out!

It is time to break out of the Nation News Cycle.  

Did you know you can set up Google alears and follow people in twitter?    

Go to your Mayor's Twitter page and follow.  
Go to your City Council's Twitter page and follow.  

The same iwht your State Rep, your State Senator,  Congressional Rep, Congressional State Senator, Your local political reporter, police chief, sheriff.  Bookmakr the political news of your local paper. 

Don't let the national reporters churn up the news and give it back to you in bite size piece.  You follow the sources.     

Action: Call for Campbell

Yesterda and today I called Louisiana for Foster Campbell. I did it two weeks ago at someone's house but this time I just did it at home. It is Virtual phone bank. I'm sure some of you have done before. 

I did it between running errands and spoke to 30 people. They were very lovely. And I encouraged them to vote for Foster. Can you please do it for an hour? The election is on Saturday. It is our last hope to help the senate with one more blue senator. Trump is going there this weekend to do a victory lap, suck up oxygen like the vampire that he is and promote Kennedy the GOP candidate. Please please please take an hour and make the calls from your cozy house. In your crappy clothes...that feel so comfy.

Go HERE to sign up for Virtual Calling. 


Calling Heals.

ACTION: Sister District Project

I have recently joined Sister District Project.  

This is a site that is focused on flipping districts.    Come join!

Action Heals.

Have you sent an email to the Electoral board?

I did this a week ago and meant to put it up on the blog, but Thanksgiving being the attention suck that it is....I forgot. 

Go to AskTheElectors    and  follow the instructions.  You will be very surprised by some of the automatic responses that you receive.  

Action heals. 

Action Group

Have you joined Action Group Network?
This is a must do for anyone that sees issues that are important to them.  Is concern these issues may be worsened in the next four years and wants to do everything they can to help but knows they can't do it alone.

I went to a local big meet up and about 600 people showed up.  This was word of mouth by the way, that is how much people are invested in being agents of change and support.    You will find your like minded people.  I HIGHLY recommend joining.

ACTION GROUP NETWORK


Action Heals.
Action Changes.

Musing: By Nate Silver

Learn: Trump's Transition Peeps

DJT has been announcing his Cabinet and White House choices every couple of days since the election.  
It has been a very painful process.    

The Associate Press has a chart that they fill in with each announcement.

Educate yourself on each person.   Simple search engines will tell the story.

For example,  here's a simple search on Betsy Devos Trumps choice for Education Secretary.

Yeah, scary.  But more to the point, we need to educate ourselves on these choices but not shut down.  

Learning Heals.  

UPDATE: Jill Stein

Jill Stein yesterday changed the fundraiser goal after Wisconsin bumped up the re-count costs from 1.1 million to 3.5 million.  Wow.  
Consider making another donation. 


Action heals.

Action: Call Rep Chaffetz

Our friends at flippable.org  have put the word out for a good action plan.

Call and tweet at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is chaired by Representative Jason Chaffetz.    Chaffetz by the way has investigated HRC with quite a zest and zeal.   We now must hold him accountable to investigate the conflicts of interest with President-elect Trump.

Call Committee Office (202) 225-5074

If the mailbox is full
202 225-7751 (Chaffetz's DC office)
801 851-2500 (Chaffetz's Utah office)
Twitter: @govoersight

Thank you, flippable

Action heals.

Action: Jill Stein. Yes. Jill Stein.

As candidate for President of the US, Jill Stein has a right to verify machine counted votes.    And this varification can impact the results of the election.  Including HRC's votes.    You can donate to help Stein make the 7 million goal.   

The Stein/Baraka Green Party Campaign is launching an effort to ensure the integrity of our elections. With your help, we are raising money to demand recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—three states where the data suggests a significant need to verify machine-counted vote totals.

This effort to ensure election integrity is in your hands! We need to raise over $2 million by this Friday, 4pm central just to make it in Wisconsin. In true grassroots fashion, we’re turning to you, the people, and not big-money corporate donors to make this happen.

Action Heals. 

Sign Up: flippable

Did you know that there are purple counties that can move blue?  In both state offices and federal districts?  We can shift these to blue.   Yes.  It has been done before, look at 1968 map and then look at 1974 or 76 map.    Here is a site committed to flipping so committed its name is flippable.   I signed up for flippable and liked what I received.    Sign up.


SignUp Heals.

Interesting Development: Gerrymandering

This will not impact 2016 election but this could be interesting going forward.

"This is a big victory for those who want to see courts rein in partisan gerrymandering. But it is anybody’s guess what happens to this when it gets to the Supreme Court," wrote Richard Hasen, an elections law expert at the University of California, Irvine, on his blog.

Here's the NPR piece on this story.   Again, very interesting. 


Musings  Heal.

ACTION: Affordable Care Act

I just did this after a friend pointed it out to me. Very easy. And it works.   Here's the action.  


All who want to protect the Affordable Care Act:
Paul Ryan's office is conducting a survey hoping to show a popular mandate to repeal the ACA. It's automated and quick. Here's what to do:
1) Call (202) 225 - 0600
2) Wait for recording to start (there will be a long pause)
3) You will get prompted by the survey
4) Press 2 to participate
5) Listen through GOP message
6) Press 1 to register your support for the ACA


Action Heals. 

Action: Electoral College

Many of you have signed various petitions regarding the electoral college.  I know.  I did, too.

But this is something different.    You will be sending emails directly to the electors.    I invite you to do it.  Their automatic responses are very illuminating.      The guy from Texas....wow.   I'll let you form your own opinion.

Action Heals.

ACTION: Wall of US

Have you joined Wall of US ?

They offer concrete actions a couple times a week.   As of right now it looks like a smart group.   Give it a whirl.

Action Heals.

Good Phone Number for the Oversight Committee

For those of you who have been calling the bum number in DC (bad number 202 225-5074) for the House Oversight Committee -- I have a good number. I got it from Rep. Cummings' office. Who is the leading Democrat on the committee. This is the House Oversight Number for Democrats. I called and expressed my concern about Mr. Trump's finances.   Where to begin with the conflict of interest.? ! ? 

 202 - 225-5051. I reached a human.


Action Heals. 

Musing: Obama to Trump: Counties That Flipped

You see this map?  
Those red spots are counties that voted for Obama in 2012 but this year voted for Trump.
You will see that this had an influence on Ohio, Michigan & Wisconsin.  

The demographics are more detailed than the map reveals and you can find it HERE

Do you know anyone in these counties?  Have you talked to them?  Is there something to gain from a conversation?     This is probably where the democratic party needs to go and begin the healing.   Just sayin'.

Connecting Heals.

Virtual Phone Bank

Today I went to a virtual phone bank being hosted at house not far from my own home.   We were calling on behalf of the Democratic Party of Louisiana for Foster Campbell.   Foster is currently in a run off in Louisina.  This is a chance for us to get another Democrat in the senate.  There is a chance and we need to pursue it.  It is easy to set up a virtual phone bank.  Reach out to the Campbell Campaign and host one in your own home.  

Action Heals.

Inspired: Stephen Stills

On Monday night I attended a RISEUP: LA meeting.  It was a quickly put together meeting that was inspired after last week's election.   Their first meeting was on Wednesday November 9 when a hundred people in a park met to discuss their fears and concerns about the next four years.   From that meeting RiseUp was created.   My friend invited me to their second meeting on Monday and it was lovely.  They had guest speakers from Planned Parenthood and Tree People.   There was a trauma therapist who talked about fear and there was a small chamber trio who performed some lovely music.    All of that was lovely but I was most moved by their guest speaker Stephen Stills.

Stills is legendary singer from Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and his own solo career.   His music is iconic, even if we don't know it...we know it.   That's how baked in his songs are in our lives.

But he was not there to sing he was there to talk.   He has been political his whole life and he talked about as a teenager trying to drive across the south to hear MartinLutherKing speak and how in Alabama police told him to drive back home to Florida.  I was so taken by his words because they rang true for me because I am feeling the same thing he felt in 1968.   In '68 Nixon won by a landslide and GOP took houses and senate seats.   It was certainly a volatile  year for the Democrats who were split about Vietnam.     Stills said the first thing he did was dust himself off and support mid-term elections.  He backed campaigns of Congressional and Senate seats all over the country.   Slowly red seats went blue.   By 72 there was real movement.  

This is my own position.   And right now I am doing all I can to support Doug Applegate in Congressional District #49.   Provisional Ballots need to be observed by Democrat representatives in both Santa Ana and Orange County.   This is a real shot.  Issa is trying to shut down the provisional ballots!
In Lousiana I have financially supported Foster Campbell who is in a run-off against the republican candidate for the Senate.     We start right now doing what we can to take back the house and senate.   Just as Mr. Stills did in 68!

Here's a little Stills music to inspire.

Action Heals.

UPDATE! We can Move Darrell Issa out of Congress! But we need to move FAST!

Get Issa Out of HERE!


Right now they are still counting the votes in Orange & San Diego County!!  It's not over at all!

Edited to Update.

Doug Applegate is above in San Diego County by about 5,000 votes, there are currently 230,000 provisional ballots left to to be counted.    Plus there are provisional ballots in Orange county left to be counted.
  Issa is racing to try and shut the provisional voting down.  And The GOP is sending money to help him.  Issa and the GOP are spending a lot of money including paying people to observe on their behalf.  Gross.  

Please donate to Doug Applegate because they are paying staff every day beyond the November 8.  And there could be expenses if they have to do a recount.  So, we need to do all that we can to get Issa out and Applegate in.

Please donate HERE! 
 The Democrats need volunteers to observe provisional ballots in both Orange & SD Counties. Can you help?  
email volunteer@applegateforcongress.com
And sign up to help.

Inspired: The Storm

Thousands and thousands of storms are brewing.
Including the person sitting at their computer reading this right now.

Donate.  Sign a petition.  Call.   Act.  Share.     Repeat.

Action Heals.

Petition Alert: Steve Bannon

Have you signed this petition to stop Steve Bannon as chief white house strategist?


Do you need some background?   HERE.

Flip A Senate seat!!! We have a chance!!! Foster Campbell

Did you know the senate seat for Louisiana is in a run off?  Yes.  I'm not kidding.  

Foster Campbell is the democrat running and it is tight.   But he can do it.  

Let's move out of shock and anger and into action...  I donated $25.   Can you do the same (or maybe more)?  


Please donate...even something small will help!  

We need to galvanize our energy around one very strong potential Bright spot!


Action heals.

A Boost: SNL

Give yourself a boost.   David Chapelle was pitch perfect.   Seriously, this is healing.  And funny.

SNL

Humor Heals.

LGBT - Protect

Have you signed the petition to remove Russell Amendment?  

Please sign it. 

Action Heals. 

Democratic Party - Your Local Group

So here are the facts.   I've been voting Democratic for several decades and I have donated to the National Democratic Party but in all that time-----I had never joined my local chapter of the Demo Party.  

I am ashamed frankly that it took this long.    But I did it and I hope you will join your local chapter as well.

Let's Talk -- Waking Up

We cannot change our politics without changing the people in politics.  

We need more women in politics.

We need more people of color in politics.

We need more people who aren't afraid to be authentic in politics.

What about you?  What about a friend of yours?   What about your sister?  Your cousin?  Your boss?  

Do you know these groups and how they help women and new candidates?

 SHE SHOULD RUN


California's Women List


EmergeCalifornia 


VoteRunLEAD

Young Elected Officials 



You start local but what do we know?   All politics is local!

If anyone has other good links please let me know.

How To Effectively Work with Your Congressman

Here is some great advice.     At least I can say I learned something.    

Have you reached out to your congressman/woman?  

Now's the time.


Action heals.

Send Me Real Action Plans

If you have bumped into real action plans or strategies or logistics or good things we need to know as we go into to this very charged environment send them to me.

Thank you

What's This About? Action Heals.

You see that candle?
That candle is for you.  

On Thursday, thirty-six hours after the election, I went to my local church and I lit a candle for you.    All of you.  All of us.    I said a prayer that this candle help heal our pained Americans.    I probably should have also lit a candle for the rest of the world given I think they are scared as well but I was short on time.   I'll get that candle going for them in a couple of days.

But I don't just light a candle and go back to business as usual especially when it is something as important as what has just happened.   Ah, no.

I am too pro-active.  

I have been doing a lot of things since Tuesday including donating to my important causes (Greenpeace, ACLU, Planned Parenthood).   They will need my help.  And I need their help to heal.

And I went to my Congressman's office.

And I'm emailing friends who I think can help flip a district because 2018 will be here in a minute and we need to start now!  

And I am processing what just happened to us but I am choosing carefully what I will watch.  I'm not a victim.  I'm also not an indiscriminate Rager.  Although, I think anger is important to motivate.  But basically,  I do stuff.   Why?   Because Action Heals.

I want to share what WE can ALL Do.  

I swear we can effect real change.  I would not waste your time.

Action heals.

Texas. Make a District Fip

Are you in Texas?   Do you have a friend in Texas?

Do you see that bluepointy part of Texas?
Just to the upper left  of the blue pointy part is Texas Congressional District #23

The democrat who lost it, lost it by about 1500 votes.  That is not much in a big district in a big state.

This is FLIPPABLE.

If you live there or a have a friend who lives there please ask them to contact the Texas Democratic Party and engage them.  Make sure they run the right candidate.   Talk to them.  Get real.   Get them real.


Action Heals.

Where are my Glamour Peeps?

This is not just to my LA & NY peeps, I have a feeling there are others of you out there who could be helpful.  

Who knows Spielberg, Geffen & Katzenberg?  

In order to go forward we will need to change some basic componets to the DNC.   And instead of  using these three men as ATM machines----  Spielberg, Geffen & Katzenberg need to tell DNC,  "It's time to do something different.   Go back to Grassroots."  

Instead of clogging up my city with street closures for mega fundraising dinners, I would rather these three guys write checks to help move congressional seats across the country.    

If you know anyone who knows them let's start that discussion.

Action Heals.

Supreme Court. Just Do it!

My dear friend Lissa sent me a petition to sign telling Obama to appoint the next Supreme Court Judge.   Apparantly, he does have a constitutional right to do it.    I am not a consitutional scholar and won't ever be one so I don't know if this is accurate or not.  But I signed it.  

Action Heals.

When Husbands Make A Move.

My husband is not one to get too riled up about much.   Not his nature.   And even though he looked like he got hit in the solar plexus this week he was still his calm self.  
...Until.    Until I mentioned in passing,  "I heard Sarah Palin is being considered for Department of Interior."  

Bam.

He turned from the kitchen sink and looked at me and said, "What?"   I repeated what I saw in on someone's FB feed and he said, "Damn it.  I'm joining the Sierra Club."    And he did.

Action Heals.  

Processing: Michael Moore, Eddie Glaude & Anand Giridharadas on Morning Joe

We will be processing the results of the election for some time.    The grist mill will occasionally present something that I think is worthy to read or watch.    This Segment on Morning Joe is exceptional.  I learned.  I agreed.  I also disagreed.  This is why we call it processing.     It is also interesting watching three generations speak about it although they never identify their age differences.  I saw it as I watched it.   I'm somewhere in between Moore and Eddie.    

And BTW it is worth noting that they blew threw 5 commercial breaks.  It was suppose to be on 7 minute segment.  Instead it was so meaty and hard of a discussion they took NO break and it went 44 minutes.

And if you have not read Michael Moore's To-Do List....HERE you go.

North Carolina. Make a District Flip

North Carolina: What's Going On? 

They are still counting votes and the Democratic challenger for Governor is leading by a narrow margin.

There are congressional districts that came in blue and purple who still have a GOP Congressman.  There is a real chance to make a district flip.

Who do you know in North Carolina?    Tell them to look at this map.

And tell them to look at this LINK  

The tell them to connect with  North Carolina Democratic Party   And they should discuss a real viable candidate to make a vulnerable district flip.  

Action Heals.  

Los Angeles

I am so proud of Los Angeles. We voted a small tax to take care of the homeless (measure HH). We voted for a bond to improve public transportation in a huge way (measure M). We voted a tax increase for our Parks (measure A) and Bond to increase funding for our community colleges (measure J). My god, LA, we rocked it this year!!!!!!