The post also includes good news, the impact of new leadership in New Mexico. Our votes did matter. We still need to be vigilant, but the PARCC standardized testing is gone with the stroke of the pen and the Oil Conservation Commission reversed its fracking decision. Progress is possible and we meet today to advance planning to advocate for a growing list of MUST PASS bills. Let’s Do This!
Our Statewide Rapid Response Network Alert System is now up and running, and we are experiencing a non-stop flow of new people JOINing our Network. We have begun sending out email invitations to various groups across the state and many of our allies are doing the same. But the best way for us to build a strong base across the state is for those who read the blog to reach out to friends and other organizations in which they are involved and ask them to share information about the Response Network. But first you should JOIN, and then SHARE with others. Click here to JOIN.
Tuesday’s post included language developed by one of our volunteers who sent out emails to over 200 people. If you copy and paste the info from that post (click here) you can use it in emails to others, customizing as necessary. In doing so, you will be greatly advancing our efforts to achieve a higher minimum wage, pass the Health Security Act, and protect our planet. JOIN AND SHARE. Let’s Do This!
Roundhouse Begins Tuesday! Let’s Do This
Retake volunteers are working non-stop to get ready. We have very specific guides and supports to share at tonight’s meeting for anyone who wants to research bills, do outreach, or advocate either by phone or at the Roundhouse. We’ve added more facilitators to ensure you get the direction you’ve wanted and you will have plenty of time to ask questions and get comfortable. If you signed up to JOIN (above) you are in our system and will begin receiving alerts next week. Many of our MUST PASS bills have been pre-filed and we will begin having summaries on our website very soon. If you want to help pass these bills, join us today at 6. See below.
Thursday, Jan. 10, 6pm–8pm at 1420 Cerrillos, The Center for Progress & Justice. Retake Our Democracy Roundhouse Advocacy Team Organizing & Training Meeting. The Roundhouse session opens in less than a week. Over the past 5 weeks, we’ve grown our Advocacy Team sign-ups from 17 to over 140 people. But many have been to one or two meetings with family and holiday conflicts preventing more consistent participation. We are now poised to begin and tonight would be a very good time to join us. Orientation for new participants will be from 6-6:30 followed by Q&A. We will then spend 75 minutes in breakouts for:people who want to:
- Serve as liaison with our allies coordinating advocacy, ensuring alignment between ally and our priorities;
- Advocate at the Roundhouse periodically, often according to your personal schedule or due to your desire to support specific bills…there are a good many people like this and they can serve critical roles beyond just attending hearings for their bills….but this needs to be well coordinated and this group will have two facilitators focused only on this one role;
- Serve as a RH Coordinator one day a week or even just one morning or afternoon, a critical role, but one that requires a very specific commitment of time;
- Research, scan and sort bills and then create summaries for those ranked as Priority or MUST PASS; and
- Conduct outreach to specific districts where we need to expand our base.
Our leadership team spent Tuesday at the Roundhouse to develop very specific plans for where we meet and when and we’ve spent time plotting out with precision exactly how each of the above roles fit together and the fine details you’ll need to understand to do your piece well. So this is a critical meeting.
Please RSVP by writing to paul@retakeourdemocracy.org. And please, please, please, ask 2-3 friends.
Donald Trump Is Our National Emergency, Not the Refugees at Our Border Aching to Contribute to Our Nation
If you watched his address Tuesday you had to cringe. One lie after another to justify his scheme to fulfill an utterly divisive and racist campaign pledge. CNN’s short video below picks his lies apart one by one…in just two minutes.
The national emergency is not the refugees, it is that Donald Trump is beginning to sense he is in over his head and is failing and flailing. That is the national emergency, a president out of control. From Truthout: “Donald Trump still has vast power at his immediate disposal. He can hire the worst people to fill vital posts. He can sign Executive Orders that allow the dumping of toxic chemicals into aquifers. He can continue to rip families apart at the southern border. He can ruin longstanding international relationships and cuddle up with despots and dictators. He can ignore the climate even as it comes crashing down around him. He can order an airstrike against any point on the map. He can peel the crust off the Earth with nuclear weapons if he so chooses.” Now that is an emergency.
The video below counters each of Trump’s lies, but the sad reality is that those who need to understand his deception, don’t tune in to CNN; they watch the fake news echo chamber that is FOX news. For those people his excruciating mis-characterization of the refugees, his claims of children being unaccompanied by parents, of refugees being at fault for the opioid epidemic, of his tawdry description of the murder of a police officer, all of that plays well in the living rooms of his supporters, despite the facts belying every one of his deceptions.
If you know any Trump supporter who has any grasp on reality, copy and past the video and ask if they are willing to talk. At some point we need some of them to jump the Trump ship too. But while they fawn all over their savior, we will continue to build our base. The base we develop through the Network will advocate for good bills this legislative session, but that same network will be in place and ready to canvass, call and contribute to progressive candidates at the local, state and national levels. We’ll keep NM bold and blue and then we’ll do our share to elect a president with values and decency in 2020.
But if you still don’t think voting matters, note that in just one week, MLG has eliminated the heinous PARCC standardized test that just wastes classroom time and insults teachers. She has appointed people to the Oil Conservation Commission who have already reversed the decision to approve doubling drilling operations in San Juan and Rio Arriba counties, she has appointed former Sen. Cisco McSorley to direct the Corrections Department and recruited a fierce advocate from for children and families from San Francisco to lead the Children Youth and Families Division. NM’s midterm successes are already improving the lives of New Mexicans. Time to roll up our sleeves and turn good bills into good laws. Join us tonight at 6pm.
Let’s Do This.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne.
Categories: Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform
The Thom Hartman Show and Democracy Now did an even better job of fact checking, while filling in details and facts, that CNN does not cover. It is kind of scary how few people in this state are even exposed to these kinds of programming. 45 is the only president ever to have his own propaganda networks. Our local newspapers are not really countering any of the propaganda, they are still running with their “both sides” nonsense. They are even soft peddling the Martinez Reign, here in NM.