Call To Action - November 29, 2020

11/29/2020

Stop Trump’s Plan To Hurt The Biden Administration

Although President-elect Biden will take office in less than two months, the Trump administration is quietly going about laying traps to prevent Biden from being effective. Particularly alarming is Trump’s executive order last month that will reclassify many federal employees at the last minute and allow them to be replaced (permanently) with Trump loyalists. In particular, Trump employees in the Office of Budget and Management could subvert much of Biden’s presidency. You can read more about it here: Trump moves to strip job protections from White House budget analysts as he races to transform civil service

Action: We should insist that our Members of Congress act this week to stop this attempt to hurt the next administration.

Script: I am calling as a member of Olympia Indivisible. I am alarmed at President Trump’s blatant attempt to damage the in-coming Biden administration by trying to reclassify Federal Employees and replace them with Trump loyalists.

I ask that you, my member of Congress, move to stop the President’s executive order that will reclassify Federal Employees (Schedule F). This can be blocked in the spending bill they need to pass mid-December to keep the government funded. This is urgent and needs immediate action by you.

Patty Murray: (206) 553-5545 Email
Maria Cantwell: (206) 224-6400 Email
Denny Heck: (202) 225-9740 Email

The Thurston County Food Bank

Thanks the many generous members of Olympia Indivisible. Before Thanksgiving, OI delivered a check to the Food Bank for $1,650. Way to go OI!

TC Food Bank, volunteers, and line-up of cars on Monday, November 23.

Postcards for the Georgia Senate Run-Off

Volunteer writers are still needed for postcards to Georgia for the Senate run-off elections. We have plenty of cards and addresses available now for local pick up. You'll need to provide the 35-cent stamps. We'll provide cards, addresses, a script, and instructions.

This postcard campaign targets likely Democratic-leaning voters who do not vote regularly. The send date is December 26-28, in time for in-person voting on election day.

Please contact: postcardrequest@gmail.com

Shop Locally, Not With Amazon

During this holiday shopping season, we on the CTA team are asking that you take a moment to consider where you spend your dollars. With the dangers of COVID more people than ever are shopping online and small local businesses are experiencing severe revenue losses. We all recognize the benefits to our community when we shop locally, so we are encouraging all OI members to shop at our local small businesses.

As a corollary to that, we are discouraging folks from shopping on Amazon. During this pandemic, while small businesses are closing, and millions of Americans have lost their jobs, or had their hours reduced; Amazon, by July, had doubled its profits, and by October, tripled them. Nevertheless, Amazon is still not providing adequate PPE for warehouse workers and forcing them to work in unsafe conditions.

Compounding this injustice the company continues to do all it can to prevent workers from unionizing. In fact, Amazon’s violations of workers’ rights across the globe is so egregious “that human rights advocates at Amnesty International on Thursday released a report detailing Amazon's ‘adversarial relationship with trade unions’ and lackluster approach to health and safety.”

As progressives, if we in OI don’t stand up for workers and small businesses who will?

Action: Shop locally when you can. When shopping online look at alternatives to Amazon such as books from our wonderful local book sellers or sites like Alibris or Powell’s Books etc.

Many of our local shops offer online sales, but if you cannot find what you’re looking for with them try sites such as: Esty, Overstock, Wayfair, Newegg, Rakuten, REI, Ikea, Bestbuy, etc. Many offer free shipping and often you can find better bargains than those at Amazon.

Georgia on Our Minds Benefit Concert

On Sunday, December 6th at 5:30 PM, PST, Olympia Indivisible will present a livestream concert Georgia on Our Minds, a 90-minute Facebook livestream concert of American old-time and roots-based music to benefit “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” the outreach campaign of Black Voters Matter (BVM).

The concert will feature two ensembles of rising young musicians from the Olympia, Washington region (the Sassafras Sisters and Dante and Eros Faulk) and two internationally-known professional artists (Bruce Molsky and Jake Blount).

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop is reaching out to Black voters in Georgia ahead of two critical Senate run-off elections in January. The campaign includes a statewide outreach tour on the Blackest Bus in America, digital and radio advertisements, community events, and food giveaways that will inform and engage Georgia voters about the upcoming election and encourage them to use their voting power at the polls once again. This campaign is part of BVM’s core mission to expand Black voter engagement and build progressive power.

ACTION: Attend the concert which is free and open to the public; concert-goers will be able to donate online to BVM during the show. 100% of the concert proceeds will go to BVM’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop campaign.

This Facebook concert is accessible to anyone (no membership or Facebook account required to watch). Just click on the link below and refresh your browser window at 5:30PM, on Sunday December 6th, you'll see the live video appear!

https://facebook.com/groups/quarantinehappyhourmusic

Olympia Indivisible thanks The Quarantine Happy Hour for providing the venue for this the concert and Get Up in the Cool podcaster Cameron DeWhitt for emceeing.