Things are really, really bad right now. In the midst of a worsening pandemic, economic crisis, and social upheaval, the Trump administration continues to muddy the waters, and the Senate, currently on recess, is sitting on the relief we need in the HEROES Act.
Thanks to the tireless activism of folks like you, we are working to help our communities anyway. But the structural issues remain. Some, like police violence, can be addressed at the local and state level. But at the end of the day, we have to bring change to the federal government.
That’s why we have to win back the Presidency and the Senate in 2020, as well as keeping the House and local seats.
Our fight for 2020 starts right now.
The election is a little over three months away – in California, ballots start going out to voters in October. So now is the time to gear up. This election is a fight for the soul and integrity of our nation. We’re writing postcards and letters, phonebanking, and textbanking furiously to reach voters all over America.
Our fight is complicated by COVID-19. We can’t canvass, but rest assured - we’re doing everything else possible. We’re working on a comprehensive guide to help you get started on electoral work.
And right now, we’re recruiting text bankers for texting with Indivisible National. Text banking is an extremely effective, fast, and easy way to reach thousands of voters. We did a writeup on how it works in early March.
Want to get trained? The next training webinar is TODAY at 10 PM (7PM ET). Register here for it. Or join the one on Sunday, July 19, at 6 PM. Register here.
Want to get even more involved? Next Tuesday, July 21, at 7 PM, we will have our next Indivisible SF Text Team meeting. Join us on Zoom to help us plan to recruit as many people as possible to text bank with Indivisible National’s IndivisiText Team between now and November 3rd! RSVP here.
URGENT Call to Action: Public comment to Save Asylum TODAY!
Under cover of the scandals and tragedies going on right now, the Trump Administration has issued a new rule that would rewrite asylum laws in the United States. If this rule is in place, it would completely gut protections for immigrant women and others fleeing life-threatening persecution. It would be nearly impossible for people fleeing domestic violence, gang violence or extremely dangerous conditions to get asylum in America.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is accepting public comment on this policy and the deadline is TODAY, July 15th. We need you to comment opposing the policy NOW!
Please comment directly on the proposed change TODAY with your own original comment in your own words. Well-informed, original public comment can help prevent bad policy—the administration must address every point made, and arguments and facts in public comments can be cited in court briefs. Public comment works—let’s keep doing it! Click here for talking points and more information.
Make another call to your Members of Congress about the NDAA.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) controls more than 50 percent of all federal spending and sets a wide range of national policies. Next week both the House and the Senate are scheduled to begin amending and voting on the NDAA. Republicans claim that the draft bill is “bi-partisan” because Democrats on the Armed Services Committees voted for it. But its content overwhelmingly reflects Republican demands and priorities. Here are just some of the things the bill does:
- Increases defense spending to a record-breaking $740 billion
- Leaves untouched the 1033 program that militarizes civilian police departments
- Fails to exercise congressional authority over war-making policy and defense spending
- Ignores the climate crisis that threatens our lives and future
This Republican “business-as-usual” NDAA ignores the real national emergencies we face. The pandemic is raging unchecked, hospitals are overwhelmed and under-funded, schools won't be able to reopen safely in the fall, local governments are going bankrupt, the economy is collapsing, more than 5 million newly unemployed workers have just lost their health care, and the growing climate crisis threatens us with floods, fires, hurricanes, and crop failures. The Republican response is to eliminate extended emergency unemployment benefits and cancel the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures while increasing military spending and proposing more tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.
This is ridiculous - Americans need help now, and we can’t allow our Members of Congress to waste time and money with this garbage bill.
We want our Democratic Members of Congress to fight back.
Call your representatives and senators now to ask them to oppose the NDAA unless it increases domestic spending and ends police militarization.
We’ve also drafted a Legislative Letter outlining what we want to see in the NDAA, and we’re gathering signatures. The more signatures we get on this letter, the more impact we have when we send this letter to our Members of Congress! To add your signature to the letter, use the Google form here.
For more information on the NDAA, the 1033 program, and how they got so egregious, read more about the history of our ballooning defense budget on our blog post here.
And if you want to help us craft our next federal call to action, join us at our next Indivisible SF Member of Congress planning meeting tomorrow, Thursday, July 16, at 7 PM! RSVP here.
Stand up for racial & economic justice locally - call your Supervisor!
As we discussed last week, San Francisco is proposing a budget for the coming year that increases SFPD funding by over $40 million while cutting more than that amount from homelessness services, libraries, schools, and more. This is in the midst of a pandemic and unfolding economic crisis! You joined us to call in to committee hearings to protest this staggering misuse of taxpayer money. But as it turns out, it’s quite hard to make any meaningful cuts to the SFPD budget, even though we really need the money for public services right now.
This is because, since 1994, the San Francisco’s City Charter has included an amendment which forces the city to have at least 1,971 full-duty officers on staff at all times. Read more on this amendment and its history in our blog post here.
To be able to cut the police budget, we have to get rid of this charter amendment - and we have a chance to do so this week. A ballot proposal is being heard in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors after having passed through committee. We don’t know when that meeting will be - and we’ll let you know when we know! But the time to call your Supervisor is right now.
Call or write to your Supervisor and ask them to support the measure so police staffing can be changed to reflect the City’s needs!
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ISF General Meeting: Sunday, July 19, 1–3 PM via Zoom. Register here to join our online meeting. We are working on more ways to stay in contact with you online!
Pints & Postcards: Thursday, July 23, 6–8 PM via Zoom. The pandemic might keep us from holding our popular Pints and Postcards event in person, but that just means we have to bring the event to you! Join us and our friends at Vote Forward for Virtual Pints and Postcards. RSVP here.
TODAY: Wednesday, July 15, 10PM: Indivisible Text Banking Training. Learn how to start texting with the IndivisiText program on our platform TextOut! Register here.
Thursday, July 16th, 7-8 PM via Zoom: ISF Members of Congress Planning Meeting. Join us to plan our next federal calls to action and determine the demands we will send to our representatives and senators. RSVP here.
Saturday, July 18th, 10 AM-2 PM: DCCC Endorsement Interviews. Get to know the candidates running for the office of city supervisor this November and learn their stances on important issues by tuning in to virtual interviews hosted by the San Francisco Democratic Party. RSVP on Facebook here or click to our event page for more information.
Sunday, July 19, 2:30-5 PM: Phone Banking with Indivisible East Bay for Mark Kelly. Join fellow activists from IEB to make phone calls for Mark Kelly in Arizona! RSVP here.
Sunday, July 19, 9-10 PM: Indivisible Text Banking training. Learn how to start texting with the IndivisiText program on our platform TextOut! Register here.
Sunday, July 21st, 7-9 PM via Zoom: Indivisible SF Text Team meeting. During this meeting we’ll check in on our networking, get a metrics update from National, and talk about our messaging strategy for recruitment. RSVP here.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
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