Brandon Williams's $1000 per person MAGA Mike Fundraiser
Brandon Williams Brought MAGA Mike Johnson to New Hartford
In response, IMV and CNY Citizen Action released the following statement yesterday
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New Hartford, NY - Congressman Brandon Williams is hosting a fundraiser with Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday, February 22nd early in the morning at the Yahnundasis Golf Club. The lowest ticket price is $1,000 per person and a photo with Speaker Johnson will cost more than $13,000 each.
“Why do constituents have to come to Rep. Williams with money equivalent to their rent payment in their hands in order to have a conversation with him? He didn’t want to have a dialogue with anyone at his free, public town halls last year,” says Indivisible Mohawk Valley, a local political activism group active in Oneida County.
“Brandon Williams’s MAGA message doesn’t represent the people of CNY, and neither do $13,000 photo ops with an election denying abortion extremist, who supports raising the age on Social Security,” says Senya Bekui, Lead Organizer of the Central New York Chapter of Citizen Action of New York.“Rep Williams appearing with Speaker Johnson in such a time of economic uncertainty for the people of this region sends a strong message against the working families he is supposed to represent.”
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The NYS Democratic party put out a statement as well:
"The Company They Keep: Molinaro and Williams Fully Embrace MAGA Mike Johnson"
NEW YORK – Today, Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams are fully embracing their far-right extremism as they bring MAGA Mike Johnson to New York. For two of New York’s most vulnerable Republicans, Molinaro and Williams certainly aren’t hiding their MAGA loyalties. They’re parading around with the leader of the far-right movement who has promised a national abortion ban, wants to slash Social Security and Medicare, and is playing politics with our border security as New Yorkers face the consequences
Do Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams Stand with MAGA Mike’s Extremist Agenda or New Yorkers?
Extremist Mike Johnson’s agenda:
Championing a total national abortion ban with no exceptions and rolling back reproductive freedoms he calls “an American holocaust.”
Pioneering cuts to Social Security and Medicare by $2.7 trillion and pushing to raise the retirement age.
Playing politics with border security by following Trump’s orders and rejecting a bipartisan border agreement.
Espousing dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and sponsoring bills aimed at ripping fundamental human rights from the LGBTQ community."
Be sure to talk with family and friends about Brandon Williams' very close ties with MAGA Mike and his extremist agenda.
Join Us at our February 2024 IMV Meeting: Sunday 2-4 pm
IMV February 2024 Monthly Meeting
Sunday, February 25th
2-4 pm
New Hartford Public Library (Sammon Room)
2 Library Lane, New Hartford
Bring a Friend!
We are super excited about Indivisible's new Neighbor2Neighbor program! We'll give an update on it at the meeting and also get fired up about petitioning which starts on Feb. 27th.
We'll also have a brief update on Redistricting. NYS Dem Chair Jay Jacobs has stated that the Feb. 15th proposal from the commission deserves scrutiny because state Republicans, including Lee Zeldin, are in favor of it. Perhaps closer to home, NY's Democratic Rural Conference, in which Bill Thickstun (Oneida County Dem Committee's Chair of Towns) is an officer, has released a statement opposing the latest proposal for creating huge uncompetitive districts that in practice cede most of rural upstate New York to extremist Republicans.
What is Christian Nationalism anyway? We'll have a brief explainer about the world view that Brandon Williams shares with Lauren Boebert, "the Mikes" (Mike Johnson, Mike Pompeo, and Mike Flynn), and millions of voters across the country, including some in NY22.
What are the questions we want to ask congressional candidates in a questionnaire/interview? We'll have a short brainstorming activity in groups to generate those questions.
We look forward to seeing YOU on Sunday!
Indivisible's Ezra Klein Talks FILIBUSTER with Sen. Markey on Zoom
You know it. We know it. The filibuster has been weaponized by MAGA Republicans to become one of their strongest weapons in preventing Congress from passing meaningful legislation. It’s long past time for the filibuster to go. But what is the smartest, cleanest path to preventing that obstructionism?
We have watched Senate Republicans use the filibuster as a conservative shield -- blocking any measure of popular progress from passing through Congress including:
Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block Obama’s judicial nominees in a move that shaped the future of court appointments for all sitting presidents.
The For The People Act would have achieved comprehensive voting rights and election reform ensuring fair, equitable, and ethical elections across the country… if Republicans had not been able to use the filibuster to block the legislation.
Though Democrats are poised and ready to codify reproductive freedoms into law, Senate Republicans are using the filibuster to block our bodily autonomy and impose draconian abortion bills on Americans at the state level.
Republicans don’t care about the will of the people. Republicans don’t care about enacting popular and widely impactful policy. They care about maintaining their death-grip on power for themselves and their wealthy donors. If we want to move forward, Democrats must reform the filibuster. But how?
Sen. Merkley has long been a champion of filibuster reform, charting a path forward even as it was a less popular position in the Democratic party. His book offers a path forward through looking at the past:. Senator Jeff Merkley and his longtime chief of staff tell the insiders’ story of how the Senate used to work and how the filibuster came to cripple the self-styled “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” with paralyzing gridlock. And they make the surprising case that restoring a modified version of the old-style, talking filibuster may just be our democracy’s path back from the brink.
Together, let's harness the power of dialogue to create meaningful change, and build a more just society for all.
IMV Climate Crisis Working Group
No calls to action this week! Please send good vibes to our IMV delegation heading to Albany for Beyond Plastics Lobby Day of Action on Tuesday. Thanks to the activists who regularly go to Albany to press state legislators and the Governor on climate protection legislation!
Save the Date of the next Climate Crisis Working Group meeting on March 11th.
Help get Sarah Klee Hood on the ballot
Team SKH is excited to hit the ground running by collecting petitions. The first day to collect signatures is February 27th so sign up here to join us via zoom to get all the details on how to collect valid petition signatures -- and have fun doing it!!
WHAT: Training on how to collect valid petition signatures and answer any questions you might have about the petition process.
WHEN: Sunday, Feb. 25th @ 5pm.
WHERE: Zoom (zoom link sent upon RSVP and again the morning of the training).
**Email Caroline Cranford at caroline@sarahkleehoodny.com if you have any questions beforehand.
Then, join in the Team Sarah Klee Hood Petition Day of Action in Utica on Saturday, March 2nd at 10am, Home of Charles Matheus, 716 James St., Utica. RSVP here Everyone will be trained before going out, so no worries if this is your first time getting involved. If you can not attend the zoom training beforehand (see above on Feb. 25th) emailcaroline@sarahkleehoodny.com.
Herkimer County Democratic Committee Update
Herkimer County Democrats are grateful to the folks who have stepped up to ensure that our committee remains constituted according to Election Law. We would welcome more! If anyone is interested or has a friend in Herkimer County who might be interested, have them contact us at HerkDems@gmail.com
We will be doing a zoom training on petitioning after our (postponed) meeting on February 27th. Most monthly meetings are on zoom. Event notice for the meeting on the 27th: https://www.facebook.com/events/901516401452209
Take Action. Do What You Can. Hope is a Discipline and a Practice
This past week I (Jen) was reading about Mariame Kaba, a longtime activist and organizer in the anti-incarceration movement. Her famous quote that "Hope is a discipline" led me to a cool blog post by Suzanne Phillips, the Executive Director of Climate Generation. See what Phillips does here? She begins with a quote from longtime writer-activist Rebecca Solnit:
“'Not acting is a luxury those in immediate danger do not have, and despair something they cannot afford.'— Rebecca Solnit
The paralyzing despair of climate grief is a privilege. The folks whose lives are being literally turned upside down don’t have time for despair, “they simply can’t afford,' says Solnit, “to lose hope.' Solidarity with Indigenous and front line communities means showing up and taking action while holding the despair and anxiety.
'Hope doesn’t preclude feeling sadness or frustration or anger or any other emotion that makes total sense. Hope isn’t an emotion, you know? Hope is not optimism. Hope is a discipline… we have to practice it every single day.' — Mariame Kaba
Kaba’s words remind us that we can be hopeful and still experience all of the feels. That our hope can be grounded in the nitty gritty reality and not a rose-colored space of unicorns and rainbows.
'I’m not saying we’ll live to see some sort of paradise. But just fighting for change makes you stronger. Not hoping for anything will kill you for sure.' — Leslie Feinberg.
Fighting for change makes you stronger." (Suzanne Phillips)
Sometimes fighting for change means protesting or writing a letter to the editor. Sometimes it means going on a bus to Albany to lobby. Often it means meetings where we strategize about how to challenge MAGA elected leaders or shape messaging that will work when we talk to our neighbors during GOTV. For the next month, for many of us, it means carrying candidate petitions door to door. We will be getting the necessary signatures to put our candidates on the ballot for federal, state, and judicial office, as well as secure our own seats on Democratic committees.
Collecting signatures is not glamorous work, but it must be done. And it has a benefit, which is that every request for a signature gives the signer a way to participate actively in the political process and also to learn, from us, about that process and about our candidates. It's also a good way for us to start hearing what is on voters' minds. What are their worries and concerns? What are their hopes? When we knock on doors for candidate signatures, we make politics human. We make it a conversation. There's nothing better than connecting to our community, even in cold and snowy March.
IMV Friends:
Fighting for change (including petitioning!) makes all of us stronger!
Hope as a discipline fuels our fight for change.
And our fight for change connects us and builds community, and that fuels both hope and change.
See you at the IMV meeting on Sunday. And good luck for the first week of petitioning!
Follow us on Instagram's Threads.net/@indivisiblemohawkvalley, on X (Twitter) using @indivisiblemv and of course on our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group.
