Since the 2016 election, we’ve been excited to see a spike in the number of women interested in running for office, but it wasn’t until this week’s episode of Call Your Girlfriend that we heard directly from some of them. We highly recommend that you check it out, because these smart, capable, and brave women candidates are a breath of fresh air as they explain why they are running and break down some surprising and not-so-surprising challenges along the way. One of the women they talk to, Laura Moser, also founded the Daily Action app, and she explained to Vogue this week why even the smallest action can make a huge difference:
“By mid-February, we had more than a quarter of a million subscribers, and we had notched some real victories, too, such as helping to push the House GOP to walk back its plans to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, and helping persuade the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to publicly commit to complying with all judicial orders and immediately release data on how many people they were detaining. We accomplished these things, and many more, simply by urging tens of thousands of Daily Actioneers to place phone calls all day long.”
Cheers to these women for running, and to all those knocking on doors, making phone calls, donating, and taking these small daily actions to create the change we so desperately need.
Your weekly songspiration!
1. Even Republican senators admit that everyone’s calls, protests, letters, and general outrage helped kill the health care bill! Protesters (including doctors and nurses) risked arrest and occupied Senators’ offices on Monday (x2), Tuesday, and Wednesday. Here’s a great roundup of all the action in D.C., but the states got in on it too:
? Kansas ? Maine ? Arkansas ? South Carolina ? North Carolina ? Indiana
Talk of a repeal-only plan was quickly squashed by three women senators, but Republican efforts are not completely dead in the water, so keep calling and showing up and we can kill this thing for real.
2. The Supreme Court expanded the categories of people exempt from Trump’s travel ban to include grandparents and other relatives of American citizens.
3. The Women’s March organizers rallied hundreds of protesters at the NRA Headquarters in Virginia, before marching 18 miles to the Department of Justice in D.C. If you couldn’t make the march, you can still support their call for civil rights charges in Philando Castile’s murder and an end to the use of racial profiling as a police tactic.
4. Members of the group Bay Resistance dropped by the home of a contracting company’s CEO who put in a bid to build Trump’s proposed border wall—and convinced her to sign a pledge promising to retract the bid and not work on the wall in the future. (Thanks, Diana!)
5. Trump’s voter commission has been hit with seven federal lawsuits from Common Cause, Public Citizen, ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and EPIC in a move to defend our privacy and security—not to mention all the public comments flooding in against the commission’s dangerous request for voter data.
6. The House of Representatives voted to protect an amendment to the 2018 defense budget bill that requires a study of the effect of climate change on the military.
7. Connecticut passed a new civil forfeiture law that requires a criminal conviction before police can permanently confiscated a person’s property. (Thanks, Laura!) This makes Connecticut the 14th state to pass this legislation—you can check out where your state stands on this issue here.
8. Starting soon, Cook County, IL judges will be required to set affordable bonds.
9. A judge threw out a conviction against a protester who laughed during Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing.
10. On the international front: Chile just turned 11 million acres of donated land into protected national parks, and the UK plans to ban ads featuring harmful gender stereotypes. (Thanks, Mara!) ?
11. The social media manager for Merriam-Webster is schooling the haters again, and we love it. #whatsupdoc
12. The Seattle Storm WNBA team has become the first pro sports team to partner with Planned Parenthood—raising $42,000 from tickets sales at Tuesday’s game.
13. Thanks to the Black Student Task Force, the University of Oregon officially renamed a dorm originally named after a member of the KKK. (Thanks, Margaret!)
14. In a victory for the Committee for a Better Arvin, California will limit the amount of a cancer-causing chemical in drinking water.
15. Make the Road scored two wins this week: They helped Allentown, PA ban conversion therapy, and they were instrumental in New York City’s prosecution of a landlord who retaliated against a tenant complaint by reporting them to ICE.
16. Thanks to a lawsuit from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the Trump administration has to release Mar-A-Lago visitor records by September 8th. (Thanks, Amy!)
17. After difficult negotiations and a public campaign, NPR’s staff union has reached a tentative agreement with leadership.
And while we’re on the topic of NPR, we’ll leave you with this helpful reminder brought to you by former NPR Politics Podcast co-host Sam Sanders, who has a brand new show called It’s Been a Minute. We know what we’ll be listening to this weekend. ? ?
P.S. Feel-good fried chicken.
P.P.S. 11 ways a white man is not privileged.
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