AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION. UPDATE: [Links now working] Call for Participants: APA Strategic Planning Focus Groups.

Yesterday, not long after we sent this email, our email provider experienced an extended service outage. For much of yesterday afternoon and evening, none of the links in our emails were working. Today, the links are working, so if you're interested in participating in a focus group, you can now access the form.

Dear DAVID,   As you may know, the American Philosophical Association is currently engaged in a strategic planning process. Following a survey circulated this past summer, we are organizing a series of focus groups with philosophers, both members and nonmembers, to provide feedback on the APA's current work and potential future directions and priorities.   There will be five online focus groups held via the Zoom web conferencing software this November. In addition, one in-person focus group will be held at each of the 2020 APA divisional meetings. While the in-person focus groups will be open to anyone who wishes to participate, participants in the online focus groups will be pre-selected to ensure the focus groups include philosophers with a variety of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds.   Two of the five focus groups will be targeted to particular constituencies that were underrepresented among survey respondents, to ensure voices from those constituencies are included in the strategic planning process. One focus group will be targeted to adjunct and contingent faculty; another will be targeted to community college faculty. Adjunct and community college faculty are welcome to participate in the general focus groups as well, but the targeted focus groups will include exclusively faculty members from these constituencies.   If you are interested in participating in one of the APA strategic planning focus groups, please complete the focus group interest form. Those who are selected to participate will be informed by email in advance of the focus groups.   If you are unable to participate in a focus group but would like to submit feedback for inclusion in the strategic planning process, send an email to strategicplanning@apaonline.org.   Thank you for participating in this important process.   All the best,   Amy Ferrer Executive Director

NPR BREAKING NEWS. Top Ukraine Expert Reported Concerns About July Trump-Ukraine Call.

The early morning light hits the U.S. Capitol Building on Oct. 17.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council repeatedly raised concerns with his superiors and lawyers about President Trump's demands that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who is a veteran of the Iraq War and expected to testify Tuesday as part of the House impeachment inquiry, listened in on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Vindman says he believed if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the energy company where Biden's son sat on the board, Ukraine would lose bipartisan support — and the investigation would "undermine all U.S. national security," according to a copy of the opening statement obtained by NPR. "I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine," Vindman states.

POLITICS

READ: Ukraine Expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's Opening Statement

Vindman will be the first White House official to testify who was on the July 25 call. That call is now at the center of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly used his office to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political rival.

I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman

Vindman says he took his concerns first to NSC lawyers on July 10 and then again after the July 25 call. Vindman says he learned in the spring that "outside influencers" were promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the views of much of the administration. He said the narrative was not only harmful to U.S. government policy, but also "undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine."

Vindman didn't specifically state who those outside influencers were, but that he once confronted Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the Europeon Union after a July 10 meeting with a Ukraine delegation. Vindman said Sondland emphasized to Ukraine officials that they need to open investigations of the 2016 election and the Bidens. "I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such an investigation were not something that the NSC was going to get involved in or push," Vindman states.

POLITICS

House Will Vote To Formalize Impeachment Procedures In Ongoing Inquiry

Vindman said he was proud to serve his country and that he sought to raise his concerns internally to National Security officials "in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to cooperate within the chain of command."

Read the statement below or click here.

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION: Call for Participants: APA Strategic Planning Focus Groups.

Dear DAVID,   As you may know, the American Philosophical Association is currently engaged in a strategic planning process. Following a survey circulated this past summer, we are organizing a series of focus groups with philosophers, both members and nonmembers, to provide feedback on the APA's current work and potential future directions and priorities.   There will be five online focus groups held via the Zoom web conferencing software this November. In addition, one in-person focus group will be held at each of the 2020 APA divisional meetings. While the in-person focus groups will be open to anyone who wishes to participate, participants in the online focus groups will be pre-selected to ensure the focus groups include philosophers with a variety of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds.   Two of the five focus groups will be targeted to particular constituencies that were underrepresented among survey respondents, to ensure voices from those constituencies are included in the strategic planning process. One focus group will be targeted to adjunct and contingent faculty; another will be targeted to community college faculty. Adjunct and community college faculty are welcome to participate in the general focus groups as well, but the targeted focus groups will include exclusively faculty members from these constituencies.   If you are interested in participating in one of the APA strategic planning focus groups, please complete the focus group interest form. Those who are selected to participate will be informed by email in advance of the focus groups.   If you are unable to participate in a focus group but would like to submit feedback for inclusion in the strategic planning process, send an email to strategicplanning@apaonline.org.   Thank you for participating in this important process.   All the best,   Amy Ferrer Executive Director

The American Philosophical Association University of Delaware 31 Amstel Avenue, Newark, DE 19716   Click here to change your subscription settings. To unsubscribe, click here.

Support first responders in the California fires. TOM STEYER.

DAVID, California is in a state of emergency.

Last night, a brush fire erupted near the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. High winds turned the hillside into a firescape — it has burned more than 600 acres, thousands are being evacuated, and firefighters are working nonstop to contain the flames.

That is just today, in just one part of California. The Kincade fire has been burning in Sonoma County since Wednesday. More than 66,000 acres have burned; hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes.

I’m proud of my home state for responding the way we always do in the face of continuous climate disasters. First responders are going above and beyond to keep us safe. Shelters in surrounding counties are opening their doors to take in stranded families. All of us are asking, “How can we help?”

I hope you will support our first responders, our second responders, and local organizations by donating to them today. They need us right now.

Please keep safe,

Tom Steyer