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THE CLASSROOM V.

THE CLASSROOM. Help defeat white supremacy in Mississippi.

From: Jim Dean, Democracy for America.

To: David McDonald.

David --

Next month a crucial local election is happening in the Deep South -- and if we win, we can take a major step forward in building a movement for economic and racial justice.

Democracy for America is endorsing Chokwe A. Lumumba for mayor of Jackson, Mississippi because he is determined to deliver radical change and take power back for the community from the white supremacists and their Wall Street allies in state government.

Lumumba and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Jackson are some of the most exciting and transformative leaders in politics anywhere in America. Because of that, the right-wing and the political establishment in Mississippi are doing everything they can to defeat Lumumba and the people of Jackson.
Jackson has the largest concentration of Black residents in Mississippi, and the Republican-controlled state government is doing everything possible to undermine residents' political power -- including a state-led takeover of vital community institutions like their local airport and public schools. Jackson has a target on its back that the current mayor isn't equipped to deal with. But Chokwe A. Lumumba has the right mindset and strategy to rally the people of Jackson to fight back.

Lumumba is working to fulfill the promise of his father, also named Chokwe Lumumba, who was elected mayor of Jackson in 2013 on a platform of radical progressive change. He began to deliver on that promise of returning power to the people -- but passed away in 2014, just a few months into his term in office. The current mayor has failed to fulfill the promise of that grassroots movement, even as attempts to undermine Black political power have worsened.

Lumumba can win this crucial election and create a more reflective democracy -- where elected officials actually reflect the lived needs and experiences of the communities they represent, and work tirelessly alongside their fellow community members for economic and racial justice. A Lumumba administration would jump right in to rebuild infrastructure, create jobs for Jacksonians, provide holistic solutions to crime, and return control of the schools to the people.

Last week DFA-endorsed candidates won big in local elections in Berwyn, Illinois. DFA members are currently mobilizing to support Tishaura Jones, running for mayor of St. Louis. If we can win in Jackson on May 2, we can send a clear message to Donald Trump and white supremacists everywhere that we're taking back our cities and using them to build transformative, radical power.


Thank you for helping build the movement in the Deep South.

- Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

THE CLASSROOM. ACLU Nationwide- PREJUDICE REWRITTEN IS STILL PREJUDICE

The Trump administration today announced a new Muslim ban executive order after losing in court on the first one.
Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, had this reaction:
“The Trump administration has conceded that its original Muslim ban was indefensible. Unfortunately, it has replaced it with a scaled-back version that shares the same fatal flaws. The only way to actually fix the Muslim ban is not to have a Muslim ban. Instead, President Trump has recommitted himself to religious discrimination, and he can expect continued disapproval from both the courts and the people.
No automatic alt text available.“What's more, the changes the Trump administration has made, and everything we've learned since the original ban rolled out, completely undermine the bogus national security justifications the president has tried to hide behind and only strengthen the case against his unconstitutional executive orders.”








THE CLASSROOM. What do the Russians have on Trump?- SENATOR AL FRANKEN.


DAVID,

Here are the cold hard facts.


In 2008, Donald Trump's son said: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."


Trump and his allies have, thus far, kept his tax returns under guard. They won't release them. No one can see them. They won't even release a letter from the IRS to prove Trump's under audit.


Don't get distracted by wiretapping nonsense or Trump's latest Twitter tirade -- those are distractions. These are facts. And there are two questions we need to answer:


What is Trump hiding and what do the Russians have on him?


Al wants an independent investigation to determine exactly how deep Trump's connections to Russia run.


Make no mistake about it -- Russia attacked our elections. They tampered with our democracy.


Now we know that at least two very senior inhabitants of Trump World had connections to Russian officials -- and both lied about it. General Flynn even resigned because of his contact with the Russians.


The American people deserve to know exactly what is going on. Now.


Thanks.


Team Franken


THE CLASSROOM. MORE ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY: SENATORS WARREN, UDALL, AND MERKLEY.

                                                        SENATOR JEFF MERKLEY.



Today is International Women’s Day, David – a time to renew our commitment to the fight for women’s rights, gender equality, and reproductive freedom.
In the age of Donald Trump, here’s why this fight is particularly important:
  • Just days after his inauguration, the President reinstated and expanded the Global Gag Rule, threatening access to basic health care for millions of women worldwide.
     
  • Donald Trump picked Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court, an ultraconservative ideologue who decided the Hobby Lobby case opposing birth control access and threatens safe and legal abortion access.
     
  • The Trump administration proposed drastic cuts to critical services for women, from Planned Parenthood to grant programs that serve the Violence Against Women Act.
     
  • Donald Trump has signed executive orders and made moves that leave transgender women and immigrant women at risk of discrimination.
     
  • The President was elected following a campaign of unrepentant misogyny and has a long personal history of vulgar and degrading language toward women.
It’s no wonder that the day following Trump’s inauguration, women led the largest single-day demonstration in our country’s history. Together, we’re building a movement to resist Trump’s anti-woman agenda and create a future where every person can thrive.
Thank you,
Jeff

                                            









SENATOR TOM UDALL.   

Keep the enthusiasm going (International Women's Day)


The anniversary of Roe v. Wade back in January was a weekend of action. Millions of women and men around the world marched in solidarity. They stood up for women's rights and let President Trump know that we will fight, as one, to stop his anti-woman agenda.

Today is International Women's Day, and we need to keep that energy and enthusiasm going.  

Trump and his allies in Congress are chipping away at women’s rights at every turn.
We cannot stand for it.

On this International Women's Day, we’re fighting for equal pay for equal work, economic opportunity, and access to affordable health care. 

I promise to continue fighting for good policy that strengthens and supports the women of New Mexico and all of our families. Let me know you're with me.
Cheers,
Tom






SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN.



David –
Before I got to the Senate, I was a teacher and a researcher. I taught classes mostly about money: contract law, banking, bankruptcy – and I studied why working families were going broke.

Women are the main breadwinners, or joint breadwinners, in two-thirds of the families in America. And in my academic research, I uncovered some grim facts:
  • Having a child is the single best predictor that a woman will end up in financial collapse.

  • Single moms are more likely than any other group to file for bankruptcy – more likely than the elderly, more likely than divorced men, and more likely than people living in poor neighborhoods.

  • And in case you think I’m just talking about young single moms who dropped out of school, I’ll also point out: single moms who have been to college are actually 60% more likely to end up bankrupt than those with just a high school diploma.
So why was this happening? Why are women still getting slammed? The deck has been stacked against working women and moms for years. And with the Republicans in charge, it’s getting worse – a lot worse.

Young women are doing exactly what we urged them to do: They work hard, play by the rules, and now are attending college at a higher rate than men. But the cost of college is through the roof, and that means more and more women are struggling with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt. So I want to stop here to make a policy point:  the Republicans are blocking our bill to refinance student loans.

Once women get into the workforce, they still only make 78 cents to the dollar that her male colleague earns. African American and Latina women earn even less. And women can be fired just for asking what the guy down the hall makes. So let me stop to make another policy point: The Republicans are blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act.

We know more about what it means to be a working mom.  Moms are ten times more likely than dads to take time off when their kids are sick, and 60% are not paid for that time off. Too many women fear losing their jobs because they are stuck having to choose between work or caring for someone they love. So let me stop again to make a policy point: The Republicans won’t even let us have a vote on paid sick time and family leave.

And what about women who are struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck? Minimum wage workers haven’t gotten a federal raise in seven years, and today nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women. Mothers of very young children disproportionately work low-wage jobs in every state in the country. So let me stop to make another policy point: Republicans are blocking every effort to raise the federal minimum wage.

And what happens after a lifetime of work? Because women make less than men throughout their lifetimes, they receive, on average, about $4,000 less a year than men in Social Security benefits. This really hurts because women are less likely to have other assets, so they rely more heavily on those checks to keep them out of poverty. So I’m going to stop for another policy point: Republicans still threaten to cut Social Security for women and families.

I could keep going like this for hours, but you get the point: Across the board, issue by issue, women’s issues are economic issues, and women’s values are Democratic values.

Donald Trump was right about one thing: the game is rigged. It’s rigged for rich guys like Donald Trump. The system works great for those who can hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists, but it leaves women and families behind. A system in which Republicans work tirelessly to rip away health care from millions of women and defund Planned Parenthood health clinics, while giving away billions of dollars in subsidies to Big Oil. A system that cuts Head Start programs and NIH medical research, but protects tax breaks for billionaires and giant corporations.

For me, this is personal. Growing up, my family had a lot of ups and downs. My daddy sold fencing and carpeting at Montgomery Ward. When I was 12, he had a heart attack and the medical bills piled up. We lost our family station wagon, and we were about an inch away from losing our home. My mother, 50 years old, pulled on her best dress and walked to Sears to get a minimum wage job answering the phones. It saved our house, and it saved our family.

When my mother did that, it was a time in America that a minimum wage job would keep a family of three afloat. Today a full-time minimum wage job won’t keep a momma and a baby out of poverty. The policies we fight for matter. They matter to women, to families, to human beings all across this country. They are more than policies – they are the living embodiment of our values.

I truly believe that if we fight for those values – today and every day – we will win. I’m ready to right. Women are ready to fight. And America is ready to fight.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.


Now I understand why Republicans didn’t want to show us this health care plan. TrumpCare will make Americans pay more, for fewer benefits, and leave millions without any coverage whatsoever. It decimates Medicaid, forcing low-income families, those with disabilities, and seniors to fend for themselves, and uses the savings to cut taxes for the wealthy. It defunds Planned Parenthood, where millions of women and men get important health care services. It defunds Medicare, significantly reducing its solvency. And as the opioid crisis rages in Rhode Island and around the country, it threatens coverage for addiction treatment. It even hands health insurance companies an incentive to dole out multi-million-dollar salaries to their CEOs. If President Trump wanted a plan that breaks virtually all of his campaign promises on health care, this is it.


THE CLASSROOM. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY.

Today is International Women’s Day, and while it’s important to remember how far women’s rights have come, it’s also critical that we recognize the vulnerability of those gains to Republican attacks. Consider what we’ve seen from the Trump administration:
  • Trump promised to roll back Roe v. Wade and to choose a Supreme Court Justice to support him.
  • Trump and Congressional Republicans plan to defund Planned Parenthood and jeopardize family planning resources both at home and across the globe.
  • Republicans want to replace the Affordable Care Act and threaten American women’s access to comprehensive health care.
Women’s rights = human rights. Human rights = women’s rights.

All of these fights are critical; all of them will impact women’s lives in profound ways. And while it may seem an overwhelming battle is ahead of us, what we have accomplished so far is inspiring.

A century ago, American women could not vote. Fifty years ago, most American women did not work outside the home. Today, American women control their destinies when past generations did not -- but on issues from family leave to equal pay, health care to military service, from domestic violence to institutional bias throughout our society, we still have work left to do.

I’m committed to this fight...

Thank you,

Ed

The Presidential Tax Transparency Act- Senator Ron Wyden — US Senator for Oregon.

Trump’s unprecedented move to hide his tax returns raises red flags about benefits he might personally receive from tax plans, executive actions, and new bills. And, without Trump’s tax returns, we’re completely unaware of potential financial interests in Russia and other foreign countries.
Let’s bring transparency back to the White House, 
starting with Trump’s tax returns... 
...urge Congress to pass the Presidential Tax Transparency Act.

Chris Murphy for Senate

David -
In the most charitable reading of last night's news, it is now clear that Jeff Sessions misled the Senate Judiciary Committee while testifying that he had no contact with Russian government officials during the presidential campaign.

As such, I am calling on him to resign his post as Attorney General immediately.

President Trump's National Security Advisor was already forced to resign when it became clear that he lied to the American people and the vice president about his conversations with Russia. Now, it appears the attorney general may have done the same to the U.S. Senate.

The chorus of voices calling for Jeff Sessions' resignation has grown louder by the hour.

I watched Attorney General Sessions' press conference a short while ago, and am heartened to hear that he will recuse himself from any investigation into the Trump campaign's relationship with the Russian government. Unfortunately, that is no longer enough. There is simply no way to assure that his compromised position on this issue will not continue to disable a thorough, independent investigation at the Department of Justice. He must step down.

Every best wish,
Chris Murphy
U.S. Senator, Connecticut


Chris Murphy for Senate

David - 
The new Muslim ban President Trump just signed is as much of an un-American, moral abomination as the first version we beat in the courts several weeks ago.

But I want to be clear: I am not going to take the chance that we get another judicial reprieve; I intend to introduce legislation to block this unconstitutional atrocity from going into effect. I won’t be wasting much time either, because this executive order gives life to the terrorist movement and will eventually get Americans killed. If Trump’s goal was to perfectly play into our enemy’s hands, he nailed it.

I know that my outspoken approach on issues like this makes me an enemy of the White House. It’s why the media reported that Steve Bannon had his political department “looking into” me.

That’s fine, I take it as a compliment. Because at the end of the day, they are no match for millions of us fighting together. We’re proving that in our protests, and we’ll prove it when we win elections...

Every best wish,
Chris Murphy
U.S. Senator, Connecticut





                              SUPPORTING THE USO.


(NORMALLY, I DO NOT INCLUDE ANY REQUESTS FOR: DONATIONS, SIGNING OF PETITIONS, MEMBERSHIP etc., IN THE E-MAIL LETTERS I RECEIVE. I BELIEVE MY READERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO TURN TO THE PAGE, AND READ THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, IF THEY KNOW THERE IS NO TYPE OF SOLICITATION INVOLVED.  I BELIEVE THIS BENEFITS EVERYONE, FOR IT GIVES READERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN ABOUT PEOPLE AND GROUPS THAT AFFECT THEIR DAILY LIVES, WITHOUT THE IMPRESSION THAT IS JUST A PLEA FOR MONEY. IN THIS CASE I HAVE SUSPENDED THAT RULE. IF YOU WISH TO SEND A MESSAGE, CLICK ON "SEND A MESSAGE OF HONOR."
David –

For our brave service men and women, keeping our country safe isn’t their only worry. They’re stressed about being able to afford a house and quality daycare for their children. They’re anxious about finding a job after they leave active duty.

According to the 2016 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey, many believe the American people don’t appreciate how much they’ve given up to serve our country.

Until they hear from you.

When we asked you to join the Force Behind the Forces by sending a message of support to a hero, you stepped up to help show our service men and women that we have their backs.

We know your message will bring a smile to the service member who receives it. So why stop there? Will you take a moment to thank our men and women in uniform again by sending another now?

Show your gratitude and support by sending another message to a brave service member now. Let our heroes know you stand with them, today and every day.

In a recent survey of service members, 88% of respondents feel the general public doesn't truly understand their sacrifices.* SEND A MESSAGE OF HONOR | *2015 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey


U.S. SENATOR SHELDON WHITEHOUSE TALKS ABOUT SUPREME COURT NOMINEE NEIL GORSUCH. (AUDIO POST.)





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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III should never have been elevated to the position of U.S. Attorney General – but he was.
Republicans confirmed him despite the fact that he has a record of making it harder for black citizens to vote.
Republicans confirmed him despite the fact that he has a record of failing to protect LGBTQ Americans from discrimination.

Republicans confirmed him despite the fact that tens of thousands of people joined my call for them to reject Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.
Now, it's come to light that he lied to the Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing about his contacts with the Russian government.
It’s time for Sessions to resign – and time for an independent investigation on Trump's ties to Russia.

JOE.

Changing the face of Congress. Why we should support Jon Ossoff.





From: Jim Dean, Democracy for America.

David --

We're making a major announcement today about the most important congressional special election of the year.

If we win -- and defeat a Trump Republican in a (very slim) Trump district -- it will be a game-changer.

I'm talking about our endorsement in the all-important special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District on April 18. It's an open seat in an Atlanta suburb that Donald Trump won by only ONE POINT -- 48% to 47%. And, even better, it's a seat that was just vacated by Tom Price, who Trump picked to lead the repeal of Obamacare as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The resistance is mobilizing to elect Jon Ossoff, the bold Democrat who has taken this race by storm, energized by the support of civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis and a growing movement of progressives across America.

Here's why a Jon Ossoff victory can be a game-changer: It will show Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and every other Republican that they could lose control of Congress if they continue to support Donald Trump's catastrophic agenda -- especially the repeal of Obamacare.

DFA is endorsing Jon Ossoff today because winning a huge victory in this April election will send a powerful message to Trump and Republicans in Congress...

Since the Tea Party victories of 2010, Republicans haven't paid a price at the polls for their extremist policies. A massive resistance is building across the country against their attacks on immigrants, their assault on voting rights, their desire to destroy our health care, and more.

Here's the thing: Until Republicans lose seats in Congress, they're not going to change. They think they can ride out the storm.

But if we elect Jon Ossoff -- everything can change. A victory in this bellwether district will make Republicans much less willing to defend Trump or repeal Obamacare. And it can turbocharge the progressive resistance, showing the nation that Republicans can be beaten.

There's another reason to win this race: Jon Ossoff's likely Republican opponent is Karen Handel. You may remember her as the right-wing anti-abortion head of the Susan G. Komen Foundation who cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. She was forced to resign as a result -- but now she's back, and wants to go to Congress to continue her attacks on women's rights.

It's no exaggeration to say the whole world is watching this special election. Winning here isn't going to be easy... 

Thank you,

- Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America




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