December 8, 2016

Actions:

Quick and easy Thursday action. US Representative Lamar Smith, Chair of House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology – and another climate change denier – has a one-question survey on his website about congressional priorities for the year. Please select “other” and write in “climate change mitigation”. His website is: lamarsmith.house.gov. If you’re so inclined, please do that, copy and paste this message and share this post without attribution. Thanks!

Add your name to tell Obama to delete Discriminatory Registration of Muslims.

From Shaun King and his #Injustice Boycott: The conditions on the ground in Standing Rock have deteriorated. It’s a blizzard. The temperature is often well below 0 degrees, but here’s the thing – the people honestly believe, and I agree with them, that if they all pack up and leave, Energy Transfer Partners will start constructing the pipeline. As you may have seen in the emails I sent you yesterday, or in many recent news articles, Energy Transfer Partners fully intends on constructing that pipeline and they have openly said they intend to build it right through Standing Rock.

They have invested billions of dollars and have billions more on the line. Many people believe that once Donald Trump is elected, or perhaps over the next few weeks, they will actually continue the construction of the pipeline. People inside of the energy industry have written me and begged me to tell you that letting up would be a huge mistake. I believe them and you should too.

Our closest friend on the ground in Standing Rock is an amazing man named Chase Iron Eyes. He was born there on the Standing Rock Reservation and is accountable to the local leaders and elders. Chase is directly managing all of the emergency supplies that we sent to Standing Rock, but he and his team desperately need better transportation to manage and transport the supplies.

For instance, we sent thousands of propane heaters. We sent thousands of industrial strength yurts. In a single car, they can only transport 2-3 heaters and one yurt. They need to purchase several trucks that they will use daily, around the clock, to transport supplies to and from the camps. This isn’t a one time thing either. Every single day, they need to shuttle new supplies in, and send broken or heavily used materials out. You have to understand that this camp, and this community, supports thousands of people.

Chase Iron Eyes and his team have started a fundraiser that will allow them to immediately purchase several trucks, including 1 pick up truck, 1 moving truck, a flat bed trailer, and 15 passenger van to shuttle volunteers in and out every day.

Here are your actions for today:

1. DONATE now here.

Please give your best gift. It’s tax deductible. Chase and the team will also provide immediate evidence of the purchases they make with your donation once they receive the funds.

2. On Twitter, write the following tweet, or your own modified version that includes the link to the fundraiser:

In #StandingRock @ChaseIronEyes & his team need a pickup truck, a flatbed trailer, a moving truck, & a van. DONATE:

https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/last-real-indians-nodapl-aid

3. On Facebook, please post the link and make your own personal plea to your friends and family to join in. Feel free to include the plea below as well:

The fight to protect the water and land in Standing Rock IS NOT OVER. Anybody who is telling you that has been misinformed. Energy Transfer Partners fully intends to build the Dakota Access Pipeline on the same path as always. As the weather there has turned to blizzard conditions, the people there need our help.

Chase Iron Eyes and his team are raising funds for a pickup truck, a moving truck, a flatbed trailer, and a 15 passenger van. They need these things right away.

I’ve donated and hope you will join me. Chase and his team will report back to all of us once they’ve purchased the trucks. Let’s Stand Up for Standing Rock

https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/last-real-indians-nodapl-aid

From Rebecca Solnit: #dailydemocracydefense #day8 #againstnormalization #peoplegetready
The first step in defending something is understanding what’s at stake, and the second is understanding what you’re defending it from. There is a lot of “normalization” going on that treats this as an ordinary transition of power, but it’s clear that Trump is out to destroy, by appointing men (and, so far, one woman) totally unqualified for, extremely hostile to, or both to the offices they are supposed to fill. Thus an unstable man who would undermine security as National Security Advisor, a man who knows nothing about housing and urban policy to HUD, an inexperienced woman who wants to funnel public school funds to private schools as head of education, and a climate denier actively suing the EPA to head the EPA.
Maybe the third is assessing yourself. What are your commitments, what are your values, what are your dreams? Have you watched films or read books about the Underground Railroad, the French Resistance, the Holocaust, the wars against Native America and wondered what you would do in a crisis, who you would be? Weren’t there Germans who watched their neighbors being hauled away to camps but let the pull of the everyday keep them on track? For those of us who are not directly threatened, one question is: do you resist that pull to normalize your own life when your nation and world are not normal, when your neighbors are vulnerable? When do you step onto another path or find even a small, allotted time daily or weekly for commitment to the public good?
Educating yourself is key. We are in this predicament in large part as the result of a lot of people who don’t participate at all and other people who accepted false and misleading news and even as a result of the mainstream media ignoring important stories and pumping up and distorting others. Find your trustworthy sources. Find your community. Find your commitments and hopes. Find the way to support all these things that support you.
And for our practical action today, we’re going to encourage you to support the Democratic candidate for senate in Louisiana: if he wins this runoff race, he’d bring the total of Democrats almost even with the Republicans, which would be a really important counterbalance in this crisis. Here’s his website, where you can donate or volunteer (and remember, you can make calls from anywhere in the country: here’s a place to sign up for calling: https://www.callfire.com/…/a760d880-bbdc-11e6-a77f-00163e46… [copy and paste]).