Breath deeply. Channel rage into action and keep fighting — it will pay off in a month!

1. Thank Ana María Archila and Maria Gallagher who held Sen. Jeff Flake’s elevator to ensure he heard of their and other survivors’ sexual assault experiences before he voted on whether to advance Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination process.

“Your patience and tenacity in speaking truth to power made a difference, and inspired me to continue to speak out against sexual assault wherever it is occurring.”

Address:

c/o The Center for Popular Democracy
1730 M Street NW, Suite 1115
Washington, DC 20036

2. Write postcards to help Harley Rouda defeat Rohrabacher in CA-48. Sign up at Postcards to Voters. So simple, effective, and quick. They tell you what to write, you only sign your first name, you pick how many cards and when to write, and you feel like you’re making a difference because you ARE!

3. Call Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono to thank her for coming to vote against Kavanaugh despite recovering from recent surgery for kidney cancer.

• Sen. Mazie Hirono: (202) 224-6361 or (808) 522-8970

4. Sign up to help collate local city council and school board materials at the Democratic Volunteer Center in Palo Alto this week.

• WHEN: Tues 10/9, Wed 10/10, and Thur 10/11 2-5:00
• RSVP at the Democratic Volunteer Center website

(from Wall of Us)

“I was swallowing my secrets and making my body expand and explode. I found ways to hide in plain sight, to keep feeding a hunger that could never be satisfied — the hunger to stop hurting. I made myself bigger. I made myself safer.” — Roxanne Gay on how she coped with sexual assault, from her book Hunger

C2A TAKE ACTION by supporting victims of sexual assault.

ACTION #1 Jam the phone lines to protest Kavanaugh and support Dr. Ford.

• 202-224-3841 Sen. Dianne Feinstein 
• 202-224-3553 Sen. Kamala Harris
• 202-225-2631 Rep. Ro Khanna (District 17)
• 202-225-8104 Rep. Anna Eshoo (District 18)
• 202-225-3072 Rep. Zoe Lofgren (District 19)

ACTION #2 Send an e-mail to thank the American Bar Association and/or the Dean of Yale Law School for calling for an investigation of the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and ask them to encourage others in the profession to speak up, here are email addresses and sample scripts:

• abanews@americanbar.org

“I am writing to thank the American Bar Association for the thoughtful letter sent to the Judiciary Committee recommending it conducts a proper investigation of the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. In the short window of time left to influence this horrific situation, can you share the letter publicly and encourage other professional bodies to support your recommendations?”

• heather.gerken@yale.edu

Dear Dean Gerken, thank you for your support of a proper investigation into the allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh. I hope you will encourage other Deans and leaders in the legal profession to support the call for an investigation.

ACTION #3 Take the time to support ourselves and others who have survived sexual assault.

Be kind to yourself and practice self-care. (New York Times)

Volunteer to provide crisis support to survivors. (RAINN)

Donate to RAINN.

Please contact our senators and request they demand Kavanaugh withdraw his nomination for the Supreme Court. The serious and credible allegations against Kavanaugh show he is not fit to serve on and must remove himself from consideration immediately.

• Call: 1-844-6-RESIST
• Email: https://democracy.io/
• Fax: https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php
• Text using Resistbot: Type RESIST to 50409
• Facebook Messenger: https://www.facebook.com/resistbot/

Thanks for all you do. It matters. Please comment below and share your action!

Email or send this letter to advocate for fair and accurate elections. Email is registrar@rov.sccgov.org.

Shannon Bushey
Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters
P.O. Box 611360
San Jose, CA 95161-1360

Dear Ms. Bushey,

As a registered voter from [name of your city or town], I am writing to thank you for the work you do to keep our elections fair and secure. The integrity of our elections is worth protecting, and I have some questions about our district’s election preparations for the upcoming midterms.

First, does our district keep an offline daily backup of votes as they are received? And will our district conduct an election audit to ensure accuracy of the vote count?

If we are using electronic voting:

• Does our district have backup pollbooks to check in voters if there’s a problem with electronic pollbooks?
• If voting machines break, will our voting district have enough emergency ballots on hand for 2-3 hours of voters at peak times? How do you estimate needs for adequate numbers of provisional ballots?
• If a voting machine breaks, will each polling center have pre-printed signage that instructs voters on alternative options? What plans are there to accommodate voters with disabilities in this case?

If we are using paper voting:

• Are there sufficient paper ballots printed to permit 100% of registered voters to participate if they all choose to do so?

I take my right to vote seriously, and want to be sure that my vote is fairly and properly counted, along with those of all eligible voters in our district. I would appreciate any information you can provide, so thank you, in advance, for your willingness to help me understand how my district is preparing for the upcoming elections. I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]
[Your address]
[Your email address]

Show your Solidarity! Show up for immigrant and marginalized communities, by advocating with Governor Jerry Brown!

PART 1: ACT ON AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

a. Help stop rape on the night shift! Support the 100 brave women janitors walking 100 miles from SF to SAC and call Gov. Jerry Brown (916) 445-2841 to tell him to sign AB-2079 (Janitorial workers: sexual violence and harassment prevention training). Follow SEIU United Service Workers West for updates!

b. Support Ethnic Studies in California! AB-2772 allows for high schools in California to apply for grants to incorporate ethnic studies as a curriculum. SB-895 will require the department of education to make a Vietnamese American studies curriculum that will be accessible for district adoption. Studies have shown that when students feel represented in their classroom it increases class engagement, attendance, and performance in other academic areas. Please take the time to call the governors office tomorrow and ask him to sign AB-2772 and SB-895.

c. Stop human trafficking! AB-2034 is on the Governor’s desk for consideration and will require transit employees in bus, train, or light-rail operations to undergo human trafficking awareness training by January 2021. Please email/fax letters to:

• Email: leg.unit@gov.ca.govm
• c.c. email: Ryan.Guillen@asm.ca.gov
• Fax: (916) 558-3177
  

d. SB-946, which would decriminalize street vending across the state, is on Governor Brown’s desk. Please send letters of support urging the Governor to sign it. Attach a pdf letter and email directly to the following:

• leg.unit@gov.ca.gov
• Daisy.Luna@sen.ca.gov
• dsmith@publiccounsel.org
• kmckeon@publiccounsel.org

COMMENT ON FACEBOOK ABOUT WHICH YOU DID AND HOW IT WENT! Please share scripts and pro tips!

PART 2: AMPLIFY in any of the following ways:

a. SHARE this post on your own timeline.

b. TAG a friend on social media.

c. REPOST in another resistance group.

d. TWEET, INSTA, or otherwise share on another platform!

CONGRATULATIONS for doing this! And thanks for showing your solidarity!

Sunday rally near Valley Fair to protest Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination (Sharing from MoveOn.org)

WHEN: Sunday, August 26 at 11:30 a.m.

WHERE: The Peace Corner, Santa Clara

Corner of Stevens Creek Blvd & Winchester Blvd (corner near David’s Bridal) (map)

WHY: Protest Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court!

Supreme Court Justices are nominated and confirmed to the Court for a lifetime appointment. As Trump sits in the White House, a politically polarizing confirmation could set American justice back for decades. The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh is an insult to the agonizingly slow progress of Justice that has been accomplished over the last 242 years! The Democratic party may not have the numbers to block this appointment, but do they have the will. It is frightful to think that there is a real possibility that Democrats could be responsible for ANOTHER conservative appointment.

Let’s show our community that there is real local opposition to Brett Kavanugh’s appointment! Our #StopKavanaugh action is a street protest. We’re taking our message directly to our audience, the public–directly to people who aren’t engaged yet. Directly to people who may not see our message anywhere else in their daily lives. Not to mention all of us standing out there with our signs, waving to them and engaging/inviting them to respond with their car honking, waves, and smiles. This is a great recruitment opportunity for people to see that there are others in our community that care and feel the same way they do.

See you out at The Peace Corner!

Can you spare a few minutes THIS AFTERNOON to take one quick action to #StopKavanaugh?

We need at least one Republican senator to oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. TODAY (Thursday) is a national call-in day of action around that issue. The National Equality Action Team and other organizations are organizing folks to reach out to voters in key states and connect them with their home state senators. Want to help? Read more and sign up here:

• We Need You to Help #SaveSCOTUS (The Neat)

One quick action about the Supreme Court and one quick action on behalf of immigrants. Read … Rise … Resist!

1. Demand a thorough review of Brett Kavanaugh

Trump’s Supreme Court justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, has authored copious legal opinions and other documents, from testimony about Bush-era torture policies to his position that a president can ignore laws that he doesn’t think are constitutional. One continual theme is his support for a greatly expanded executive authority. 5 Calls argues that “The American people deserve a thorough examination of Kavanaugh’s extensive body of work before his nomination can be sent to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. Yet on July 18th, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley made clear he has little intention of doing so, saying he intends to only probe ‘relevant’ documents.” In essence, Grassley is trying to ignore or obscure large portions of Kavanaugh’s record.

Tell Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris — both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — that you want a transparent and thorough examination of Kavanaugh’s record before sending his nomination to the floor of the senate for confirmation.

Call:

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein: (202) 224-3841 or (415) 393-0707
• Sen. Kamala Harris: (202) 224-3553 or (415) 355-9041

Use this script, adapted from 5 Calls:

“Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from San Jose. I’m calling to demand that the committee commit to a transparent and thorough review Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s extensive body of work before referring his nomination to the full Senate. I’m also asking the Senator to do everything she can to make sure Kavanaugh is not confirmed. Thank you.”

2. Push back against the Trump administration’s strategy to penalize sanctioned (legal) immigrants for using public benefits

The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is finalizing a policy to penalize immigrants seeking permanent residency status for availing themselves or their U.S.-born/citizen spouse or children of a wide range of public benefits, including common tax deductions, Medicaid, children’s health insurance, Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, food stamps, public housing, etc. In essence, immigrants would be disqualified from receiving a green card if they claimed nearly any benefits or if DHS deemed them likely to receive benefits in the future. By striking at the health and well-being of families, this rule — according to the National Immigration Law Center — would have the broadest effect of any immigration proposal in recent memory, with the potential to affect tens of millions of people. And by targeting low-income, Latino and black immigrant communities, it would also widen the already deep disparities in healthcare in this country. It’s worth reiterating that immigrants’ use of services is not a burden on the economy; they pay considerably more into the health care systems than they use (ditto other public benefits).

• This White House proposal has legal immigrants forgoing healthcare services out of fear (LA Times)

Tell your Representative and Senators that you oppose this proposed rule and ask them to do everything they can to stop it.

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren: (202) 225-3072 or (408) 271-8700
• Rep. Ro Khanna: (202) 225-2631 or (408) 436-2720
• Rep. Anna Eshoo: (202) 225-8104 or (408) 245-2339

Use this script from 5 Calls:

“Hi, my name is [NAME], and I’m a constituent from San Jose. I’m calling to urge Rep./Sen. ___ to speak out against the Department of Homeland Security’s proposal to penalize legal immigrants for accessing non-cash public benefits. Legal immigrants pay billions in taxes, stimulate the economy, and deserve the right to access basic benefits like the earned income tax credit.”

If you can, then call the Department of Homeland Security to tell them that you oppose this proposal; their number is: 202-282-8495.

TAKE ACTION by submitting a comment stating your opposition to the citizenship question being added to the 2020 census.

Read more:

• League of Women Voters