Weekly Action Plan for February 27, 2017

Welcome to Escondido Indivisible’s weekly action plan for February 27, 2017! Escondido Indivisible is a grassroots group of neighbors, friends, and residents dedicated to affecting changes in our local community. Send us links and comments at EscondidoIndivisible50@gmail.com or @EscInd50 on Twitter.  If you were forwarded this letter, you can subscribe here, and check the archive here.

FYI, our sister group has a public Facebook at Escondido Indivisible if you want to join in the discussions.  If you plan to attend Senator Anderson's Escondido Community Coffee on March 9 or Representative Hunter’s Town Hall on March 11, please fill out the following forms so we can coordinate (each will take around ~5 to 15 min): State Senator Joel Anderson's Escondido Community Coffee & Representative Duncan Hunter's Town Hall​.

Congress resumes this week so we continue to have a busy week ahead. (37 days since President Trump has been in office as of this writing.)  It’s okay if you can’t do everything on the plan. Pick 1 action every day or 3-5 actions for the week and commit yourself to doing them. Whatever your commitment, as President Obama said in his farewell speech: Believe in your ability to bring change. Show up, dive in, stay at it.

Events | Indivisible | San Diego County Progressive Events

• February 28, 2017, 10:00 AM: Rep. Hunter Constituents Rally for #ResistTrumpTuesdays:  

  • Join Indivisible NC @ 1611 N. Magnolia Ave., Ste 310, El Cajon, CA 92020

  • Join Indivisible Fallbrook @ 41000 Main St., Temecula, CA 92590

• February 28, 2017 from 6:30 PM - 8 PM: Escondido Democratic Club’s New Member Orientation & Mixer @ Offbeat Brewing Company, 1223 Pacific Oaks Pl, Escondido, CA 92029.  Please RSVP here or via email: EscondidoDems@gmail.com

• March 1, 2017, 10:00 AM: We Stand with Dreamers and Farm Workers Rally @ 5306 N River Rd, Oceanside, CA 92057

• March 4, 2017: Host or attend a local Swing Left house party meeting for volunteers

Future Events

• March 8, 2017: A Day Without Women.

• March 9, 2017, 6:00 PM: State Senator Joel Anderson's Escondido Community Coffee @ Veterans of Foreign Wars, John R. Simpson Post 1513, 230 E. Park Ave, Escondido, CA 92025

• March 10, 2017: Rise with Standing Rock and Native Nations March

• March 11, 2017, 10:00 to 11:30 AM: Representative Duncan Hunter’s Town Hall @ Ramona Mainstage, 626 Main St., Ramona, CA 92065 (first-come, first-serve)

• March 11, 2017, 10:00 AM: Escondido Democratic Club’s General Meeting @ TBD

• March 14, 2017, 6:00 PM: North County Immigration Taskforce’s General Meeting @ 370 Mulberry Ave, Suite E, San Marcos, CA 92069

• March 15, 2015: The Ides of Trump

• March 28, 2017, 6:00 PM: North County Immigration Taskforce’s General Meeting @ 370 Mulberry Ave, Suite E, San Marcos, CA 92069

• April 15, 2017, 10:00 AM: Trump’s Tax Day @ 1200 Third Ave, San Diego, California 92101

• Earth Day, April 22, 2017: March of Scientists in Washington

• April 29, 2017: People's Climate March

Action Plan

Indivisible Action Calendar | the 50th | Daily Action | 5 Calls | The 65 | Damsels In Defiance | It’s Time To Fight | re:act | Resistance Database | Resistance Manual | Rogan's List: Today's "To-do" List | Weekly action checklist for Democrats, Independents, and Republicans of conscience | WTF Happened Today

Monday

• Follow-up with Senator Anderson and ask him to vote yes in favor of SB-149 which requires presidential candidates to release their last 5 tax returns to be listed on CA election ballot. The bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee of which Senator Anderson is a member.  Talking points: During the campaign, President Trump promises to release his tax returns and he has yet to fulfill his promise. We, the public, deserve transparency and honesty from our president and future president candidates.

• Follow-up with Rep. Hunter and ask when he is holding a town hall or public meeting.  He has not publicly announced his town hall, which his Chief of Staff, Mike Harrison, communicated to Indivisible CA-50 leaders as being scheduled on March 11, 2017 in Ramona and is first-come, first-serve. Script: “Hi, I’m a constituent from City, Zip Code.  When is Rep Hunter's next town hall or public meeting?” / “What do I need to know to attend his town hall or public meeting?” / “Will he be publicly announcing his next town hall or public meeting so his constituents know that he is available for a public open forum discussion?” / “I want to participate in a public open forum discussion talk with Rep. Hunter.  If there is no room at his March 11 town hall, is he going to hold another town hall soon?" As a postscript, ask if he is still refusing meeting requests from his constituents and politely reminds him that as an elected representative paid by taxpayers, he’s obligated to meet with his constituents.

• Contact members of congress and ask them to demand President Trump’s tax returns.  Talking points: The President is a public figure holding the highest office of our government.  We, the public, deserve to know if he has business ties to Russia or other foreign countries that might impact his decision making.  It is important because President Trump has not divested from Trump Organization and we need to know if he is profiting from his office as President of United States. See Demanding Trump’s Tax Returns.

• Contact the White House and ask when the President will release his tax returns? See talking points from above.

Tuesday

• Attend Constituents Rally for #ResistTrumpTuesdays at Duncan Hunter's Office at 10:00 AM:

  • Join Indivisible NC @ 1611 N. Magnolia Ave., Ste 310, El Cajon, CA 92020

  • Join Indivisible Fallbrook @ 41000 Main St., Temecula, CA 92590

• Follow-up with Senator Anderson and ask him to vote yes in favor of SB-562 (Californians For A Healthy California Act) which “explore[s] the establishment of a single-payer health care system in California.” Talking points: with the possibility of losing our health care due to efforts by congress to repeal the ACA, California needs to take the lead in finding ways to achieve universal health care.

• Contact Rep. Hunter and express disappointment that he voted yes in favor of H.J.Res.66 and H.J.Res.67, which block California from helping us save money for retirement. Ask him how he plans to help workers whose employers do not offer retirement plans?  See State Retirement Plans (H.J. Res. 66), Nearly 7 million Californians will be automatically enrolled in state-run retirement savings plan and Congress threatens California’s groundbreaking retirement program.

• Contact Senator Feinstein and Harris and ask them to vote no against Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy. See Oppose Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy.

Wednesday

• Attend We Stand with Dreamers and Farm Workers Rally at 10:00 AM @ 5306 N River Rd, Oceanside, CA 92057

• Follow-up with Mayor Abed and ask him how he plans to address fears and concerns within our community about recent immigrant enforcements. See Impact of New Executive Orders and DHS Memos on Enforcement in California, ICE Raids/New DHS Deportation standards and Deportation splits up Escondido family.

• Follow-up with Senator Anderson and ask him to vote in favor of SB-54 (California Values Act) which limits local resources to federal immigrant enforcement unless there is a judicial warrant. The bill passed the Public Safety Committee (of which Senator Anderson is a member and had voted no) and was referred to the Appropriations Committee.  Senator Anderson has been using SB-54 to appear in local TV and radio news programs. Talking points: Escondido has one of the harshest anti-immigration policies in the country, and it has negatively impacted the health and growth of our city.  Use personal stories of how the presence of ICE has impacted you or your community.

• Read-up on A Brief Guide for Sharing Reports of Raids on Social Media.

• Follow-up with members of congress and re-affirm your desire for (a) ​an investigation into President Trump’s ties with Russia and Russia’s involvement with our election, and for (b) ​Attorney General Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation. See Investigate Trump Administration’s Ties with Russia, Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War and The 3 Trump-Russia scandals, explained. Talking points for Rep. Hunter: “Rep. Issa, your Republican colleague, has recently stated in an interview with Bill Maher that he’ll be asking intelligence committees to investigate into Trump’s ties with Russia, and that he believes AG Sessions should recuse himself.  Will you join Rep. Issa and commit to the same?”

Thursday

• Follow-up with Senator Anderson and Assemblymember Waldron and ask them how they plan to address the rise of hate speech and crime in U.S. and California?  Talking points: (a) Hate crime events involving a religious bias in California increased 49.6 percent from 127 in 2014 to 190 in 2015. (b) There are 79 hate groups in the state last year, an increase from 68 in 2015. (c) 55 Jewish Community Centers received bomb threats in 2017 so far, including Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in San Diego who received 2 bomb threats alone this year so far. (d) An Indian expat working at Garmin in Kansas was killed by a white extremist this past week (with 2 others being critically injured). Note that many Jewish and Indian residents in Escondido are impacted by the bomb threats at JCC and Kansas shootings.

• Follow-up with Rep. Hunter and ask if you would be able to afford health care in 2018.  Talking points: 370,000 in San Diego County Could Lose Insurance without the ACA, and 29,500 are enrolled in the 50th District. Under the proposed GOP replacement plan, total costs for health care would increase by $6,089 annually for those ages 55 to 64.  Keep pressing the questions: “Will I (or someone you know) be losing my health care coverage?  Will I be able to afford my health care coverage?” See Study: ACA enrollees’ costs would spike under Republican plans and Leaked report suggests millions could lose coverage under GOP health proposal.

• Contact Senator Feinstein and Harris and ask them to vote no against Seema Verma for Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator. See Oppose Seema Verma for CMS Administrator and Seema Verma's Plan to Make Poor People Pay More for Less.

Friday

• Contact Mayor Abed to request that he attends the San Diego Community Choice Energy Forum 2017 on March 10, 2017 in San Diego.  Talking Points: Community choice energy allows cities to competitively buy cleaner energy options comparatively or below the cost of energy from SDG&E, and as mayor of a city with growing demand for clean energy, Mayor Abed should attend the forum to be informed about community choice energy.

• Contact Senator Anderson to support the Preserve California Environmental Protection Package (which are being re-referred to the Senate Rules Committee):

  • SB-49 California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2017, which ensures current federal environmental protections remain enforceable under state law even if the protections are rolled back at the federal level similar to the Protect CA Air Act in 2003.

  • SB-50 Federal public lands: conveyances, which discourages the sale or conveyance of federal public lands in California to other parties

  • SB-51 Professional licensees: environmental sciences and climate change: whistleblower and data protection, which protects whistleblowers working in “environmental sciences and climate-change-related” federal agencies in California as well as all “scientific information and other data otherwise in the public domain”

• Read-up on New EPA head Scott Pruitt's emails reveal close ties with fossil fuel interests and Scott Pruitt vows to slash climate and water pollution regulations at CPAC.

• Contact Rep. Hunter and ask him how will the building and maintenance of the Mexico-US borders be funded? Talking points: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection will open bidding for federal contractors in March, and estimate cost for extending current border wall is $21 billion, but it’s unclear who will be paying for the cost for the border wall. Emphasize that as a taxpayer, you don’t want to pay for a border wall that will negatively impact the economic growth of San Diego nor the environment. See The Environmental Consequences Of A Wall On The U.S.-Mexico Border.

Saturday

• Read-up on 100 days of Trump claims and How Trump spent his first month in office, by the numbers.

• Write a postcard to President Trump to be mailed by March 15, 2017 for The Ides of Trump.

• Write a letter or postcard to members of congress and post a picture of the envelope or postcard’s front cover to social media under hashtag #LettersfromCA.

Sunday

• Contact the Escondido Union School Board and ask them how they are protecting transgender students and students from immigrant families.  See Schools In Transition, GLSEN 2015 National School Climate Survey, Prepare immigrant youth and families for an ICE raid & Deportation Defense Guide.

• Contact a news organization and thank them for their investigative news coverage of President Trump and his administration. Re-affirm your desire to see accountable, critical and fact-based news reporting.  See Trump can be impulsive. But his war with the press is strategic.

• Read-up on Guide on Fake News, Misinformation, and Propaganda and Evaluating Sources in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning About Fake News.