UPDATE: Just wanted to add a mention of the I Am a Muslim Too rally tomorrow at noon in Times Square in NYC. See here for more details.
Now back to your regularly scheduled post:
First, the pudding: Have you met Tiny Trump? People have decided to start photoshopping miniature versions of the current White House resident into news photos. He’s almost adorable. Almost.
And now the meat: Congress is on recess this week. That means TOWN HALLS for you to visit with several hundred of your new friends.
MoveOn and several other non-Trump-loving groups are helping to organize what they call the Resistance Recess, which is not a recess from resistance but, well, resistance during the congressional recess.
There’s already been one notable ruckus at a town hall held this morning by Republican congressman Tom Reed in Ashville, New York.
Here’s the relevant info from the email I got from MoveOn.
MoveOn, Daily Kos, Indivisible, and other groups across the progressive movement are launching a huge effort called The Resistance Recess. Together, we will make sure that members of Congress and the media hear that Americans won’t tolerate the Trump Republican agenda, including attacks on our health care.
Here’s how it will work:
- We will show up at our elected officials’ events, town halls, and other public appearances to demand answers to the questions that we, their constituents, deserve to have answered—from whether our members of Congress will pledge to protect and improve our health care (instead of stripping it from millions of Americans) to how they will stop the unconstitutional actions of the White House.
- We will make it clear to Republicans that the Trump administration’s dangerous policies are completely unacceptable—and that we won’t let these attacks on health care, our communities, and our democracy occur unanswered. If Republicans put themselves on the wrong side of history, we will hold them accountable.
- We will make it clear to Democrats that progressives demand full-on resistance to Trump’s agenda. That means fighting for an immediate, independent investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, rejecting his Supreme Court nominee, working to overturn his racist and xenophobic attacks on immigrants, and using every available tool to block his toxic agenda that would bankrupt our nation and divide our communities for the benefit of billionaires and corporations. Although some Democrats are starting to stand up, we need all Democrats to catch up to the resistance in the streets and do their part in this unprecedented moment.
- And if lawmakers refuse to hold public events for their constituents, we will hold our own. Some lawmakers are trying to wiggle out of holding town halls or other public appearances. When that happens, we will hold “constituent town halls” to highlight to the public and the media the lawmakers who won’t even meet with their constituents.
We need you next week! But according to our records, there isn’t a Resistance Recess meeting close to you yet. Can you post an event, so we can invite other constituents in your area? Here’s how:
First, double-check to see if there’s an event near you. (It’s possible that event has just been added, or that we don’t have your full address.) Click here now to see if there’s a local Resistance Recess event targeting your member of Congress.
If you don’t see anything posted, call your representative’s and/or senators’ district and D.C. offices—and see if they are planning on holding a public town hall or office hours.
- If YES, they say that they are holding a town hall or office hours, submit the details here, and we will invite nearby MoveOn members who are constituents to join you there.
- If you discover that NO, your members of Congress are not hosting a town hall within a reasonable distance from you, you can host a constituent town hall—an event that constituents hold to have their voices heard and highlight their lawmakers’ lack of a formal town hall. A constituent town hall is a great way to get media attention and highlight that your lawmaker is avoiding constituents during the congressional recess! Here’s how to host one:
- Find a location—like a library, event space, or even outside a member of Congress’ district office—and pick a time and date.
- Invite your member of Congress.
- Click here to post your event on ResistanceRecess.com, and MoveOn and partner groups will invite fellow constituents.
- Put together an agenda and let the media know.
- Check out our materials page for all the guides and information you need to plan an event.
- Have an awesome event!
Post here if you’re planning to go to a town hall!
I just officially RSVP’ed the one Tony Cardenas is holding on Tuesday evening! I may or may not have a ride; if not I am fully prepared to pedal my bike 6.5 miles uphill through possible rain in order to be there.
Oh crap. I jumped and RSVP’d for the Duncan Hunter town hall, but I misread the time it’s occurring (I thought it read 6pm, but when I signed up, it read 10am). I can’t get time off in time for that.
I hope enough other people go. I have doubts about the people in this district.
…on the other hand, I never knew he was actually Duncan Hunter, Jr. I lost the opportunity to vote his father out of office, and never knew it. *seethes*
Did y’all hear about Trump’s “poll” to see how Americans felt about “the lying media”?
Because it was hilariously broken and biased (I even filled it out with all the best answers), and now Trump’s stamping his feet and sending out emails to
people who answered favorably“real Americans” to it to take it again.They also edited it to remove all of the “maybe” answers and a few of the text boxes so now it’s only “yes”, “no”, and “no opinion” answers on his highly misleading questions.
@Paradoxical Intention
The option of ”other” in that survey really gives people more control, i think. You can use it to tell Mump how you REALLY feel about his questions. It asks for your name and address, so be careful.
Trump’s admin is such a shitshow in part because he’s having trouble getting serious people to work for him. On the national security front his first nominees for Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Army withdrew from consideration and his first two choices to replace Gen. Flynn as National Security Advisor passed.
Can I get a link to that poll, please?
@MrsObedMarsh
https://gop.com/mainstream-media-accountability-survey/
They did a very similar one during the campaign. Some questions are exactly the same.
https://action.trump2016.com/trump-mms-survey/
I just added a mention of a big rally planned for tomorrow in Times Square: The “I am a Muslim Too” solidarity rally. For more see here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1179497628838456/
There’s been terrible flash flooding in Southern California. 4 people have died. I hopefully the storms will have died down enough for any event in So Cal can take place without natural incidents.
To any SoCal posters, please stay safe.
We’ve got another storm coming at Northern California soon so hopefully nothing and nobody up here gets hurt and shit either.
I am going to one for Rep. Chris Smith (district 14, NJ) at the Monmouth County Library Western Branch in Manalapan NJ. It runs for 6-8pm and all constituents are welcome. An invitation was sent to Rep. Smith, let’s see if he actually shows up.
Booted up Tor again, filled it out. Nothing but ‘other’ answers for me!
@Handsome :Punkle Stan: Jack
I should be okay. The dangerous part of the storm was yesterday; it looks like slim chances of rain between now and Tuesday but no more deluge.
@Karalora
I hope so. We’ve had some rockslides, trees knocked over and the river has flooded the road in some places up where I live but at the very least the fire danger warning has been staying low for the last few months hahaha.
If we aren’t on fire, we’re fucking flooded.
I filled out that survey. I insulted Lord Dampnut in every box by writing things like ‘Donald Trump is amazingly incompenent,’ and ‘Donald Trump is a huge embarrassment.’ I also used a fake email since they don’t verify your email or anything. Plus, you don’t (or at least didn’t) have to check the ‘other’ circle to type in the box.
I hope you get to the town hall safely, Karalora. Hopefully it isn’t raining on Tuesday.
My rep isn’t planning on holding a town hall while on recess because of ‘the preplanned protests.’ I guess he prefers spur of the moment protests.
Speaking of weather, a few days ago (Thursday) we had several inches of snow and 20 degree weather. Today it was in the 60s and sunny. I wore sandals and my flower hat.
@Handsome Jack
I hope the weather in your area clears up soon. We had flooding a few weeks ago, when we had a big thaw. We didn’t have enough snow around to have flooding with this thaw, thankfully.
@JoeB
Thanks for the link! You can bet I left my opinions on here.
Chuck Johnson is going to interview George Zimmerman on the anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s murder
Ew.
They’re taking questions, and which questions are asked will be determined by how much money is donated by the asker. Most of the money will be going to Zimmerman, so he gets to make even more money off of his crime.
Ew.
I love the idea of going ahead and holding a town hall meeting, regardless of the elected representative. So inspired! Don’t forget to invite the local press (I don’t know if that’s included in the linked resources), or offer to write up/photograph the event yourself, if they can’t make it.
I’m very lucky in that my MP is already doing most of what I would want her to do. But these posts have been a good reminder that I ought to be thanking her for that on a regular basis. Politeness costs nothing!
@JoeB
Thanks! I filled out the survey, using a false name and email. He’s not gonna like what I said (tee-hee).
********
In other news:
Audio Reveals Trump Encouraged Golf Club Guests to Sit in on Cabinet Member Interviews
http://theslot.jezebel.com/audio-reveals-trump-encouraged-golf-club-guests-to-sit-1792518391
Some of you are probably aware that Trump referenced some kind of terrorist attack happening in Sweden “last night” (presumably Friday night). You have probably already been able to determine that there was no terrorist attack, or any kind of major incident related to terrorism, refugees, immigrants, Muslims, etc. I just thought I’d pop in to confirm that he is indeed making shit up again. Nobody knows what the fuck he’s talking about. Our previous PM made a tweet asking if Trump is high or something. Newspapers are publishing articles in order to calm people down, in case they buy into Trump’s lie. Nothing has happened. It’s just Donald Duck being a fucking moron again.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/Vn17J/in-english-this-happened-in-sweden-friday-night-mr-president
Does Trump even know when he’s lying? Obviously it’s worrying if he’s knowingly inventing events which didn’t happen, but it’s terrifying if he can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Kat, I thought he was no longer using the term “Winter White House”. Mar-a-Lago is now, apparently, the “Southern White House”. Which ought to be smacked down every time he says it. You maybe get to call it that, if you gift it to the country in perpetuity. Although the country ought to say “thanks, but we were looking for somewhere with a bit more class”.
Be careful David… I clicked on a link to check for Resistance Recess events locally, and it gave me a page with “not Dave Futrelle” link to click if I didn’t want to RSVP as you. I wonder how many of these you’re now signed up for.