INCO WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 2/12

V-DAY RALLY FEBRUARY 14 INCO's V-Day Rally to End Violence Against Women and Children Wednesday, February 14  •  11:30 am - 1 pm 8th and Commercial, outside the Astoria Post Office Bring signs  * * * * * SIGN-MAKING FUN Monday, February 12 •  1:30 - 3:30 at Carolyn Eady's, Astoria   We'll have poster board and markers, and you can bring your own. For more information or directions to her house, contact her at cebeady@outlok.com. NO INCO Happy Hour this week! See you next week.  ACTION PRIORITIES  www.indivisible.org     This week's Americans of Conscience Action Checklist is here.         Contact elected officials here. •  Tell Your Members of Congress to stand up for our country and protect the Mueller investigation. Updated information and resources from Indivisible are here. •  Protect Dreamers and demand a humane immigration policy: It’s possible that we could get a breakthrough for Dreamers in Congress, especially as we approach the arbitrary March 5 deadline, when the number of DACA recipients losing their protections will skyrocket from 122 to 1,200 a day. Please contact your Members of Congress to make sure we get a DACA fix that is consistent with our values and that doesn’t require Dreamers to sacrifice their parents in the process. Check out Indivisible's Immigrant Ally toolkit. Despite widespread national and Congressional bipartisan support for the Dreamers, some GOP members of Congress and the President are using immigrants to score political points. They need to develop a reasonable immigration policy, including a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. Language affects immigration policy almost as much as politics. •  Demand full long-term funding: for the Children's Health Insurance Program, aid to post-hurricane Puerto Rico (an unincorporated territory of the US), Secure Elections Act (S.2261), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, DREAMers, National Parks, the NIH, Medicaid, and Medicare. •  Beware of #TrumpThreatLevel. Indivisible monitors Trump's war-mongering, avoidance of sanctions for Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the increasing lack of expert, experienced national security professionals. Read more here. They won't know what you want if you don't tell them. HAPPENINGS Check for details and new posts on our events page.   THIS WEEK Monday, February 12, SIGN-MAKING FUN for the V-Day Rally, 1:30 - 3:30,  Carolyn Eady's partly-heated garage, Astoria; contact her at cebeady@outlok.com for directions or more details. We'll have some poster board and markers; you're welcome to bring your own. Tuesday, February 13 - Seaside/Gearhart Community Group meeting, 6:30-8:00.  Contact  Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com for location. Tuesday, February 13 - Astoria Community Group monthly meeting, 6 pm, Street 14 Cafe, 14th and Commercial, Astoria. This is after hours, so no food or drink available for purchase. NO INCO HAPPY HOUR THIS WEEK!  See you next week. Wednesday, February 14 - V-DAY RALLY, End Violence Against Women and Girls, 11:30 am -1 pm, 8th and Commercial, Astoria. Bring your signs.  Saturday, February 17 - Warrenton INCO Community Group meeting, 11 a.m., Dooger's Restaurant, Highway 101. Every Wednesday, INCO Happy Hour, 4-6 pm, Buoy Beer, probably in the Tap Room, foot of 8th on the Riverwalk, Astoria. Food and non-alcoholic drinks available; no host, no agenda, no meeting. Happy Hour for February 14 is cancelled. Almost every Friday - INCO Southwest Washington postcard party; email gwenbrake@gmail.com for date, time and place. UPCOMING Wednesday, February 21 - INCO Vote the Future Team, 6:30 pm, Seaside Library Board Room, Seaside. Tuesday, March 6 - Oppose Bigotry Team meeting, 6 pm, at Joan's, Astoria. Contact catladyjoan@gmail.com for directions. Wednesday, March 14 - INCO Book Club, 6:30 pm, at Carolyn's, Astoria. Contact cebeady@outlook.com for directions. This month's book is The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life, by Any Partanen. Friday, March 16 - Upper North Coast Oregon INCO (Manzanita-Cannon Beach) meeting, 6:30 pm, location to be announced. INCO NEEDS YOUR QUESTIONS What do you want to know about the candidates for office? Please send your questions to incoregon@gmail.com by Sunday, February 18.   You can help INCO provide helpful information to you and other voters for May's primary election. Please submit questions with yes/no answers for the 3 Clatsop County Commissioner positions and for one state senator and one state representative. INCO will prepare and distribute a "scorecard" with candidates' responses to the questions INCO asks them about policy and values. INCO will contact every candidate for those positions. We'd love to have your suggested yes/no questions. INCO leadership will choose 4-6 questions from all questions submitted that address key issues for the scorecard. Examples of such questions might be “Do you support the Clean Energy Jobs Act?” and “Do you favor offshore drilling in Oregon?”  The most helpful questions will focus on issues that county commissioners and/or state legislators work on. Additional comments from candidates will be posted on our Vote the Future website. ALES & IDEAS Enjoy an intriguing evening, meet new people, and Introduce INCO to others. Help staff the INCO information table at Ales & Ideas the first Thursday of each month at Fort George's Lovell Showroom in Astoria, 6:30 -8 pm. We also have our yard signs, buttons, t-shirts, and other items available for purchase/donation. Contact incoregon@gmail.com to volunteer. RUN FOR SOMETHING! In “Politics Shouldn’t Be Like Open Mic Night” (Op-Ed, Jan. 26), Jonathan Rauch and Raymond J. La Raja expressed concerns about the “amateurization of politics.” They are wrong. Competition is good. More candidates running equals more voter contact equals more engaged voters. When turnout is good, Democrats fare better. While amateurs shouldn’t be president, they should absolutely run for the other half-million state and local positions in our country. How else can people develop political experience? Every public servant has to start somewhere. The traditional political gatekeepers failed us by supporting candidates who looked like them (read: rich old white men). The key to reducing partisanship is not to run fewer people. It’s this: Run good people in every race at every level. You don’t need years of political experience to serve well on a school board or in the state legislature. You need passion, a willingness to learn and more compassion than our president. ROSS MORALES ROCKETTO BROOKLYN The writer is a co-founder of Run for Something. This letter to the editor ran in the New York Times February 5, 2018. Running for office? Your filing deadline for the May 15 primary election is March 6. Open positions are listed here. Ken Potter made this beautiful Little Free Library as INCO's donation to the Seaside Library Foundation fundraiser March 31. This is a silent and live auction to benefit Reading Outreach in Clatsop County. Libraries ROCC is a program in Clatsop County that is a partnership among the communities, public libraries, corporate sponsors, and the school districts of Clatsop County. Tickets may be purchased at the Astoria, Warrenton or Seaside Public Libraries. NEWS FROM CONGRESS I recommend an excellent Congressional newsletter from Congressman Michael Capuano (D-MA). It includes information about less well-known legislation, behind-the-scenes activities, and his take on US politics.  For example, this week's tells about a significant decline in tourism to the US during the Trump administration, new incentives for big banks to take over smaller community banks, Ben Carson's family profiting from his role as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and weakening of nutrition notification rules.  -- Laurie Caplan Jen Hoffman was a dynamic speaker at last month's INCO summit. Her weekly Americans of Conscience checklist - email and online - covers a range of resistance accomplishments, lesser-known political issues, and her thoughtful opinions.  We are making progress in some areas: CHIP, Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands recovery, Baby Mateo, read it all to keep you encouraged. We recommend it! -- Deb and Laurie INSIGHTS "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest  for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."           --Samuel Adams  (1722-1803) We're Ready!  INCO has planned a “Rally for the Rule of Law,” to be held in the event Trump fires Rosenstein or Mueller or takes a similar action that threatens the rule of law as it relates to the investigation. We'll post info on our INCO Facebook page and email an Action Alert. You can also sign up (RSVP) for a notification here.   COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS  Get involved with your INCO Community Group today in Manzanita-Cannon Beach, Seaside, Warrenton, Astoria, Washington Peninsula. INCO's Events Team, Oppose Bigotry Team, Vote the Future Team, and Book Club are INCO-wide. All INCO Indivisibles are invited to participate. For more information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.   Questions, suggestions, & photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com Share this newsletter and our website with other resisters. They can join INCO here and ask to join our closed Facebook group. INCO is supported entirely by your donations. Donate here. Deb Vanasse and Laurie Caplan, INCO Co-chairs INCO Weekly Newsletter   February 12, 2018 Copyright © 2018 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or signed up at a community group meeting. Indivisible North Coast Oregon (INCO) defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. Our mailing address is: INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon PO Box 536 Warrenton, Oregon  97146 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list