Thursday, July 6th

We're coming to end of the public comment period on Trump and Ryan Zinke's unprecedented review of our national monuments. They're talking about rolling back these designations and putting these shared spaces in jeopardy. (Read more.)

Make sure the Interior Department hears from you before July 10th.​

Action You Can Take Today

• Sign the League of Conservation Voters petition.
• Write a letter via the REI blog.
• Tweet at Secy Ryan Zinke.
• Post a message on Zinke's Facebook page.

Monday, July 3

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

Some Talking Points for the Fourth of July

We all know that Trump, unlike previous presidents, has not made his tax returns public. We also know that he did not really divest from his businesses properly and continues to profit from them.

Comic by Tom Toles

Most of us probably don't have a full grasp of the nature and extent of Trump's conflicts of interest. This serious article spells them all out and explains why they are a problem. Get yourself a long cool drink before reading, because it's a long, long list: https://www.justsecurity.org/42728/mixing-politics-business-master-list-trumps-conflicts-interest/

Saturday, July 1st

(Adapted from Rogan's List and NewYorkUpstate.com)

Trump's Election Integrity Commission, which will meet in July and is chaired by Mike Pence, with Kansas anti-immigrant gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach as vice-chair, is requesting full voter rolls, including names and party affiliations, from every single state.  They claim that the purpose of the group is to "promote fair and honest Federal elections", however most of the commission members believe that voter fraud is rampant and that voting guidelines need to be more stringent. In other words, it's really a voter suppression commission. (Read more.)

The commission is now seeking data from all 50 states that includes voters' first and last names, dates of birth, political parties (if available) and the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Officials in at least 24 states have said they won’t turn over all voter roll data and in at least five states they’ve made it clear they won’t turn over any, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, who announced yesterday that New York will not comply with a request for voter data. 

Action You Can Take Today

Contact the Governor and thank him for standing up against this farce.  

By mail:

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

By phone: 

1-518-474-8390

Online: 

Contact form here.

If you live in a state other than New York, you can reach out to your secretary of state or election board and tell them you want them to stand up too: https://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/contact-sos/.

You can use this script: https://twitter.com/Celeste_pewter/status/880531418350198784. 

Friday, June 30th

(Adapted from Rogan's List & Women's March)

In a chilling, shameful misrepresentation of the #resistance, the NRA has gone a step too far in their newest video ad that barely stops short of promoting violence.  As we are reminded by Vox, the NRA "has a very long history of using apocalyptic, paranoid rhetoric about the collapse of American society in order to sell people on the notion that they need to act now to preserve their gun rights." 

They seem to have forgotten that protest is a form of patriotism, and that Americans have the right to free speech.  The Women’s March has penned an open letter to NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre, which states in part, "Mr. LaPierre, before the Second Amendment was the First Amendment. The advertisement released by the NRA is a direct attack on people of color, progressives and anyone who exercises their First Amendment right to protest. At a time when our nation is seeing a rise in racially charged incidents and violence motivated by hate speech, it is unconscionable for a powerful organization like yours to unashamedly peddle an "us versus them" narrative. You are calling for our grassroots, nonviolent resistance movement to be met with violence." (Read more.)

Action You Can Take Today 

The NRA needs to hear from all us, we the people, that provocative propaganda like this is not only unacceptable, it is downright dangerous. Tell them at https://contact.nra.org/contact-us.aspx.

Philipstown Democrats are carrying nominating petitions this week for Town and Country-level races. Help us get these candidates on the November ballot.

Candidates for Town Offices:

Richard Shea. Town Supervisor 

Michael Leonard, Town Councilman 

John VanTassel, Town Councilman

Candidate for County Sheriff:

Robert Langley

We are also carrying petitions for delegates and alternates for the 9th Judicial District Convention.

If you are a registered Democrat and would like to sign, please contact us at [email protected] or through the contact form on our website.

Thank you.