Action Item on ACA

Subject: Get your stamps and envelopes…the work begins 20170124_153543

Diana Chapman Walsh was president of Wellesley College 8 years ago. She recently emailed her former colleagues the following idea:

Listen Up! The Republicans need to get the message from the majority of Americans that we value and need the benefits of Obamacare. Here’s how we do that.
On January 23rd, everyone who feels that way (our numbers are legion) sends a note to Donald Trump with a simple message:
“Don’t make America sick again. Improve Obamacare. Don’t repeal it.”
One envelope for every ACA supporter in your household…even if they are under 18 years old.
Just that simple message. Put it in an envelope, and put a stamp on it.
On January 23rd, mail it to:
Pres. Donald Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20500
Can you imagine the picture of 53 MILLION letters arriving at the White House by January 26th? It will be a mountain. That image might help deter the Republicans from killing the most substantial improvement to American healthcare since the discovery of Penicillin.
Do it today! Drop it into a mailbox near you on Monday, January 23rd.
Please send this email to 20 (or more) of your friends, neighbors ann fellow Americans. Ask them to do the same.
This also helps out the US Postal Service, with about $20 Million of stamp sales.
Don’t send emails to Trump…they don’t photograph well.

This is What Democracy Looks Like!

Saturday was an incredible day for democracy! Thank you to everyone in the United States and around the world who marched or just lent their spirit of support!

Women's March on Washington — Women’s March on Washington

From NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

..”We will do, Andas our founders called upon us to do, and hold our government to account. For careless words and misguided deeds that undermine our greatest strengths. For callous judgments that turn the engines of national prosperity to the profits of a wealthy few. For reckless policies that put polluter profits first and put the rest of us at risk.”
—NRDC President Rhea Suh.

And from Utah: https://youtu.be/ya-HyxDgh24

Let’s March Forward and Speak Out!

Marching Forward

https://www.womensmarch.com/

Saturday, January 21: March in solidarity for clean air and water, march for the protection of civil rights, women’s rights, and the health of our children. Imagine the world as we want it to be and work for it.

To a find a march location near you, Click here

Justice For All

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it!" MLK — “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it!” MLK

Martin Luther King would have fought for environmental justice too. Read about it here.

Does “climate change” exist in Wisconsin?

Ice on Lake Superior doesn't last long, and the lake is warming! — Ice on Lake Superior doesn’t last long, and the lake is warming!

As Wisconsin and the world have probably just experienced one of the warmest years on record, Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, is deleting climate change from existence, or trying anyway. Sorry governor, climate change is not going away!

I have a cabin in Wisconsin, and can rattle off the climate changes I have seen in just the last few years: First I have lived through three very dangerous storms. All three were 100-year events with flooding and loss of many trees. Second, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, lakes surrounding Wisconsin, are warming at a pace never seen before. Third, good winter snow is a thing of the past. Either it doesn’t snow, or after it snows, it rains or warms up making winter sports icy and dangerous. We experience long droughts, then too much rain at one time. And finally, the night temperatures are rising; it doesn’t get as cold on winter or summer nights. Where I sit in Wisconsin the climate is changing!

The governor must feel the need for some attention, or maybe he is applying for a position in the Trump administration? What is the purpose, to waste taxpayer money?

As a taxpayer in Wisconsin I do not appreciate such a waste of time and resources. Can this be good for the Wisconsin economy? I know people who refuse to spend any money in Wisconsin. They drive through refusing to stop or spend a dollar. Why would businesses want to locate in such a backwards place?

Why should we care about climate change?

What is the future, when we can't accept the reality of the present — What is the future, when we can’t accept the reality of the present?

http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-deleted-dnr-website-2166939088.html

Good News! Humans No Longer Caused Climate Change, According to the State of Wisconsin

http://gizmodo.com/good-news-humans-no-longer-caused-climate-change-acco-1790641483

Veteran’s Day 2016

I believe in peace and non-violence. The veterans I have known are awesome. The sacrifice of time and lives is more one can imagine. I have gratitude for what all the veterans of the world have sacrificed for our freedoms and hopes for a better world.
In Canada it is Remembrance Day. This is a post from an amazing college freshman, Sherina Harris. Read her here.

My biggest problem with some of our elected officials is they do not understand the implications of their actions. They don’t respect the lives and families of those in our military when they send them into combat. Leadership, Compromise, negotiations, and PEACE wins the day for me.

Below is from a Startribune.com newsletter by Patrick Coolican:

Veterans Day. A letter home from Sgt. Michael A. DiRaimondo, 22, of Simi Valley, Calif.:

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003: Life is so precious. Living day by day in good health or just happiness is probably what makes me happy right now. I try not to think that what I do makes me happy. Just being alive, having a wonderful family, good friends, watching the sunrise morning after morning that’s what makes me feel good. I think people take their lives for granted. Some just haven’t hit that part of their lives where they stop and say, “I am such a lucky person to have the life that I have.”

DiRaimondo, who planned to be a paramedic firefighter, was killed on Jan. 8, 2004, when his helicopter was shot down while on a medical evacuation mission near Fallujah.

“Keep them in your thoughts and learn about America’s current and potential conflicts. In a democracy, ultimately it’s the citizens who make decisions about war.” Patrick Coolican

Please Vote!

Paul Wellstone

A Love Note To the USA From Canada

https://sherinaspeaks.wordpress.com/author/sherinaharris/

“The moral of the story is this: be kind to people, and encourage kindness when you see it. After the horrible, hurtful things that have been said in this election cycle, we absolutely need more empathy and compassion in this world—no matter what our nationality is.” Sherina Harrris

Sherina is a gifted freshman in college. Her blog site is above

My Take On Regulations

**“I’m going to slash government regulations!” Candidates for office**

Who is their audience for this absurdity?

This is my simple take on a very complex issue.

Many candidates for office talk about cutting regulations. What are they talking about? Why doesn’t the media ask them what regulations they want to cut? One presidential candidate wants to cut food regulations? Cut the Food and Drug Administration rules that govern food production, cleanliness, food packaging and temperature? Ridiculous!

Do we really want less regulation on financial institutions? What have we learned from Wells Fargo? Should we allow banks to cheat their customers like Wells Fargo did? I had a problem with U.S. Bank selling my credit card number to a health club. It took months to get my money back after unauthorized charges were placed on my credit card. Banks need to be regulated!

David Brooks has said, that capitalism without a moral compass is a failure. As evidenced by this presidential race, we have lost our moral compass. Capitalism/for-profit businesses should NOT be deciding what standards they want to follow. Does it work to let corporations set their own rules about polluting our water and dirting up our air when profit is a top priority? What do you think?

Regulations and standards are to keep the public safe. Sometimes rules seem extreme, but they keep us safer regulating our workplaces, food, many products, and other necessary things.

Self regulation does not work. Farmers in the United States were given a pass in the Clean Water Act. They think they can regulate themselves. Is that why the corn and soy bean belt in the United States has dangerous nitrate levels in their drinking water? Business and Republicans think regulations are too expensive. But communities, such as Des Moines, with polluted water pay enormous amounts of taxpayer money to clean their water. Smaller communities often must drink and use this dangerous water.

This is a wonderful story of farmers regulating themselves and trying new things to protect our water resources. Read it here.

Then there is the drug industry. Is there anyone that thinks their self-regulation and monopolies are working? MORE regulation is needed of the drug industry!!

It is less expensive to keep from polluting our air and water in the first place, but of course business doesn’t have to pay for the pollution and sick people they create. Five million people die from air pollution every year.

Never vote for a candidate who promises to cut regulations. They can’t be trusted with the health of people or the earth. They are not for what is good for our children, wildlife nor for the good of human beings on this planet! In the long run clean-up is more expensive than doing the right thing in the first place.

Clean Air Act

http://time.com/4219575/air-pollution-deaths/

Do You Care About Clean Water, Clean Air?

“The environment is where we all meet; where we have a mutual interest; it is the one thing we share.” Lady Bird Johnson

One presidential candidate has promised that he will eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if he wins, which means we can kiss the best, most important parts of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act goodbye, along with almost every other federal clean air and water safeguard.

And if you want even more evidence that this candidates extremism will mean havoc for our nation and our planet, look no further than his stance on the climate crisis: he has called it a hoax created “by and for the Chinese.” Read the entire article here.

And a voter’s guide to candidates.

Category: politics