Advice on Resistimng

Myra Belle Sorrell shared Linda Sarsour's post.

6 hrs · 

Wondering what to do? Me, too. These are some do-able suggestions. A good place to get started

Linda Sarsour

10 hrs · 

People keep asking me what can they do. Folks are fired up. People want to be engaged. We don't have time to ask each other where you were before because this moment calls for EVERYONE. Our communities are in imminent danger - more than they ever have been before.

Not everyone is a full-time activist but everyone can DO SOMETHING, here are some tangible things you can do:

1. Go meet your neighbors. We can't protect one another if we don't know one another. Do you know who your neighbors are? Who lives two houses down or down the hall from you? Knock on a door, say hello, introduce yourself and say if you ever need anything I am around. You can alleviate someone's fear and anxiety by doing this. Its simple and necessary.

2. Do you know who your city council member is? US Senator, Congressmember, State Representatives, Mayor, Governor? If not, get to it. Save their names and office phone numbers on your phones so you can easily get in touch with them to voice concerns or to thank them when they do the right thing. Elected officials work for YOU, make sure you remind them often.

3. Donate to an organization in your local area that is committed to organizing and building power and/or provides services to directly impacted communities. You can also donate to national organizations of your choice that align with your principles and values and are doing critical work at this time. $20 bucks even goes a long way. Support local organizers - check in on them if you know them.

4. SHOW UP. When you hear of a local direct action try your best to make it or at least promote and ask others to attend. Visibility is important. We cannot be silent in the face of injustice and abuse of power.

5. Share important articles and posts that are informative and accurate. Use your social media platform as a way to educate others about what is happening and sharing action items they can do. If an article doesn't sit well with you, it may not be true - try to verify before posting misinformation and creating confusion.

6. Try to stay positive - especially in front of the kids. I am not saying we should lie to them about the reality but explaining what is happening by following up with actions and solutions and/or stories of people resisting makes for better conversation. Love the kids. Encourage and motivate each other!

7. Take care of yourself. News is overwhelming. Remember to drink water and to eat. Try to find a few minutes a day to read a few pages of a book, laugh with some friends, converse with your spouse/partner, kids or nieces and nephews - basically something that brings you a lil bit of joy to remind us of what we are grateful for. We have to sustain our sanity - this is a long journey.

That's all for now folks. Stay engaged. Stay informed. Stay sane.

Trump Farm

Since his first insane ranting as a candidate I have been trying to ascertain is Trump senile?  Insane? or Crazy like a fox?  It could be that he's both or that he i cray and his handlers are like foxes. The point is there is a method, an ulterior purpose behind the ranting. As we peal back the layers of insanity the purpose underlying looks ever more ugly and dangerous. We are starting to see a true fascism emerging, Take the nonsense allegations of voter fraud, that Hillary's popular vote only exceeded his because 3 million illegal voted for her. A massive conspiracy theory that requires an absurd level of paper trial that no one not even Trump's own lawyers think exists,

As reporters and experts immediately pointed out, Trump's belief that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in November is at odds with what his own lawyers said in court when they challenged the recount petitions of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. "All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake," Trump's legal team argued in a brief....[1]

Yet we see the purpose imn these allegations,k as a smokescreen to justify putting up barriers to the black vote, and to other minorities. His own press secretary let the cat out of the bag: "Spicer also floated the idea that voter ID laws, which serve to suppress voter participation among minorities, young people, and the elderly, could be a solution to problems the investigation may find."[2] read more

So is it just delusion of senility, an attempt to save an aged child's brittle ego. Or was it a secret design all along? Whichever,  it is being worked into the grand design  It has no good purpose,. We can also see this fascistic streak emerging in other areas as well.At the same time there is a scandalous array of statments from the Trump Camp and Republican ogress proclamation that we should not listen to the media but only to Trump.The vilifying of the media has been a the theme inTrump's Champaign since day one.His vilification of the media constitutes a threat to freedom of press.

Less than a month before the U.S. presidential election, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued an unprecedented statement denouncing the then-Republican nominee. “[Donald] Trump has insulted and vilified the press and has made his opposition to the media a centerpiece of his campaign,” said the committee, a New York-based organization that promotes press freedom. “A Trump presidency would represent a threat to press freedom in the United States.”[3]read more

This Threat is born out by Journalists being charged with Felonies from the protest i
Washington. Six journalists were arrested and charged with riotioing because they were covering teh riots.

The charges against the journalists — Evan Engel, Alexander Rubinstein, Jack Keller, Matthew Hopard, Shay Horse and Aaron Cantu — have been denounced by organizations dedicated to press freedom. All of those arrested have denied participating in the violence.

“These felony charges are bizarre and essentially unheard of when it comes to journalists here in America who were simply doing their job,” said Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of Pen America. “They weren’t even in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were in the right place.”[4] read more

This is an extremely dangerous sign, It singles a clear war on the media,This is right out of George Orwell's Fascism by the numbers, that is his political classic Animal Farm [5] Like animal farm hes changed all the messages he gave in the early days but so gradually his supporters never noticed. now America  is paying for the wall but Mexico will pay us back. He was going to make America great again hows he;s going to make America Safe again.

Trump wants to bring back torture, he claims to know better than the generals saying torture works, The CIA says it doesn't but what do they know? Only Trump really knows.[6] Specifically he wnats to bring back water boarding.

The CIA began using waterboarding, among other interrogation processes, after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.Al-Qaeda figures Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were waterboarded dozens of times under CIA detention.A Senate committee concluded the technique did not provide critical intelligence, but some ex-CIA officials insisted it had provided actionable information.The technique is illegal. President Barack Obama banned torture as an interrogation technique in 2009.And late last year, an anti-torture amendment became law. It writes into the Army Field Manual that there can be no "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment".Mr Trump can rewrite the manual but the law's stipulation that there can be "no use or threat of force" cannot be waived by executive order.Paul Ryan, speaking to reporters alongside Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, emphasised the Republican position, saying that "torture is illegal and we agree with it not being legal".

This is a ploy to make the bedrock right wing of Trump support feel secure, We'll teach those old Muslim's a lesson,The issue is to torture terrorists but since he is threatening to use martial law to reduce the murder rate in Chicago [7] how long will it be before he uses torture as a mainstay of American Jurisprudence? You might thing this is a slippery slope argument, Yet Trump is known for going to extremes.His political bread a better is based upon saying the unsalable doing the undoable., Going to extremes is his trademark. He's willing to charge journalists with felonies for rioting because they telling the truth about the riot, He wants to impose martial law to force Chicago to obey the law, Why would he not torturer Americans if he's willing to torture anyone? Moreover, perhaps he wont use torture in mainstream but what would stop him f from declaring protesters rioters and using it on them to silence decent? Even if he never get's that far how closemust we come before it;s too much?


Sources


all articles accessed 1/27/17

[1] Pema Levy, "Spicer Suggests Tighter Voting Restrictions as Solution to Nonexistant Voter Fraud," Mother Jones (Jan 25, 2017)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/sean-spicer-voter-fraud-investigation-suppression

[2] Ibid

[3] Mirren Gidda, and Zach Schonfeld, "Donald Trump's thread to Press Freedom and Why it Matters," Newsweek. (Nov 12, 2016) Online copy URL
http://www.newsweek.com/2016-election-donald-trump-press-freedom-first-amendment-520389

[4]Jonah Engle Bromwich,  "Felony Charges for jornalists at Inauguration Protests Raise Fears for Press Freedom," New York Times, (jan 25,2017) URL
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/business/media/journalists-arrested-trump-inauguration.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

[5] George Orwell Animal Farm Signet; 50th Anniversary edition (1996)

[6] BBC News "Donald Trump says he believes waterboarding works" BBC US ancdc Canada online, (26 January 2017) URL: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38753000

[7] Theodore Schleifer and Joshua Berliner, "Trump says he'll Send Feds into Chicago," CNN Politics
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/24/politics/donald-trump-chicago-carnage/

Urgemt action alert must stop REINS!

Hitler Burns the Richstag


CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS 202-224-3121

A very dangerous bill just passed the house the other day,  we need to know about it and take action immediately. 

The bill, called the REINS Act, requires that any future major regulation adopted by an Executive Agency — say a new toxic chemical standard required by the recently enacted Chemical Safety Act, or a new consumer protection rule about some innovative but untested kind of food additive — must be approved by a specific resolution in each House of Congress within 70 days to take effect.[1]

REINS undemines all health and safety regulation.
NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/opinion/undermining-the-executive-branch.html

Reins is a terrible piece of legislation that would undermine a functioning regulatory system that protects people from harm. It would also do a great disservice to Congress itself.

In a nutshell, the bill would stop any major regulation issued by a federal agency and costing more than $100 million from taking effect unless it received approval from both houses of Congress and the president. Many such rules are issued every year involving everything from food safety to efficiency standards for cars. Disapproval from one house would be enough to kill a rule and force the agency to start all over again. A rule would also die if one house failed to act within 70 days.[2]

read more

Trump seeks to undermine all regulation. "Donald Trump has been consistent on one thing. He wants to weaken or end regulations on businesses and industries. As if on cue, House Republicans and a handful of Democrats recently passed three bills that would radically deregulate corporate America." [3]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/opinion/the-assault-on-health-and-safety-begins.html?_r=0

Under the regulatory process, executive agencies write rules to carry out laws passed by Congress aimed at ensuring cleaner air and water, food safety and many other things vital to all Americans. The Republicans claim they want to reform the rule-making process to make regulators more accountable. But the practical effect of the bills, and their real intention, is to give Congress new power to repeal existing rules and block new ones. In essence, they would attack the protections in bedrock laws like the Clean Air Act, without directly attacking the laws — or incurring the public wrath that would come with a frontal assault.[4] read more

It passed the house so call Senate

CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS 202-224-3121



[1] Carl Pope, "The Most Dangerous Bill you've Never heard of Just passed the House," Huntington Post blog. 01/10/2017 02:27 pm ET | Updated Jan 10, 2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/the-most-dangerous-bill-y_b_14067390.html (accessed 1/26/17) all aritlces

Pope was chairman of Sierra Club.

• Tweet
• Email
• More

[2] "Undermining the Executive Branch." NY Times (editorial) DEC. 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/opinion/undermining-the-executive-branch.html

[3] NYT editorial board,"The Assault on Health and Safety Begins" NYT Editorial, Jan 16,2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/opinion/the-assault-on-health-and-safety-begins.html?_r=0


[4] Ibid

Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

• Share
• Tweet
• 
  

Resist trump

This is an article from a magazine about resisting the Trump Era


Bust

http://bust.com/feminism/18868-positive-protests.html

This doesn’t imply that you have to devote your entire life to protesting or make some grand and dramatic gesture (unless you have the resources and inclination, of course). There are simple ways to fight back against the oncoming administration in a positive and powerful way. And remember: in this political climate, to be yourself and proud of it is in itself a positive act of rebellion.
Donate: Donate your time, donate your energy, donate whatever you can. You can go with big organizations like Planned Parenthood or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), or focus on a more local level. Even if you can only spare a few dollars, your money will go a long way to helping these incredibly important charities keep running.
Get In Touch: I’m generally not a huge fan of phones, but I’ve started to become very comfortable with making regular phone calls to political representatives. There are plenty of resources out there that list local and national representatives, and what issues they’re currently concerned with. And if you’re particularly uncomfortable with talking on the phone, helpful people have written out scripts that tell you just what to say to get your message across.
Get Educated: That means not immediately sharing every link that crosses your Facebook or Twitter feed, no matter how tempting it may be. Do a little research: only share news and information from accredited sources, and be quick to slam down any false reports you see spreading among your friends. Social media has made it incredibly easy to share information; now it’s up to us to see that it’s accurate.
Get Political: If you’ve ever had an inclination to get involved in local politics now. You don’t need to run for office; just get informed about the local elections and what your politicians stand for. You may not be able to make any big changes on the national level — at least not yet — but you can certainly be a proponent of change in your town or city. Remember, the politicians are beholden to the people. Your voice and opinions matter.
Be Available: If you have family or friends who are especially vulnerable to the new administration, be sure to let them know you are there. You might think this goes without saying, but right now a kind word or vote of support could mean all the difference to someone in crisis. Check in on people, and remind them that they are cared for and loved. If someone tells you they’re not all right or that they need help, listen to them. Don’t dismiss their fears or brush them off; they know what they need, and it’s important you understand and respect that.
Talk: Don’t let the things that upset you about this administration get swept under the rug. Hold the politicians in power accountable for their actions, and demand answers to the difficult questions. On a personal and perhaps far more difficult level, take a stand in your daily life. If a loved one or family member is spouting bigotry, racism, or just plain inaccurate rhetoric, call them to task. You don’t have to yell or pitch a fit to get your point across. Create a dialogue if you can. But don’t back down, and don’t bow before fear; staying silent in the face of hateful speech makes you complicit in what’s being said.
Support Independent Media: Mainstream media’s election coverage was shaky at best, downright depressing at worst. Luckily there are news outlets committed to providing people with the information they need in this rapidly changing world. Take the time to find them and support them. Independent media that can’t be bought or intimidated is going to be increasingly important over the next four years, and many of these outlets are small and rely on your support and donations to continue fighting. We’ll need them now more than ever.
Don’t Give Up: If there’s one thing you can do in 2017, even after the inauguration comes to its bitter conclusion, it’s keep going. Live your life. Love the people that matter to you, stand tall, and be proud of who you are. Fight for the things that matter and protect those who are most vulnerable. Things will be hard, and times will be dark. The important thing is to keep going, stay together, and remember just what you’re fighting for. And remember that no matter how rocky the road ahead might become, “Illegitimi non carborundum:” Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Read more

Call your congressman and tell her/him  you don't want any of Trump's nominees or dont' want to scrap Obamacare or whatever, just call, Calling is effective if we have the numbers,



CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS 202-224-3121

Action alert for Resistance to Trump

Paul Ryan's office is conducting a phone poll, hoping to hear overwhelming opposition to the Affordable Care Act. You may have very different input-- but however you want to respond, here's how you can participate:

please  respond, here's how you can participate:
Call (202) 225-0600

Press 2 to weigh in on the issue.
You'll hear a brief spiel about repealing the bill, but afterwards Press 1 to support continuing the Affordable Healthcare Act.
It takes about 1.5 minutes. It was very quick- please do it.
You can also leave a message at the end if you want (& if the system will take more VMs).
If you get "all circuits are busy" try again!
COPY & PASTE TO YOUR NEWSFEED!
Remember, our elected officials work for us.

Trump's EPA: Break Government to Prove it doesn't work

Trump  Clearly plans a smaller and much less effective EPA with fewer rules to getting the way of profit. His strategy in appointing someone who has fought EPA and other environmental rules all his life is to wreck the apparatus of government hence manufacturing proof that government regulation doesn't work.

New York Times

Scott Pruitt, Trump’s E.P.A. Pick, Backed Industry Donors Over Regulators

By ERIC LIPTON and CORAL DAVENPORTJAN. 14, 2017

Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

• Share
• Tweet
• Email
• More
• Save

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/us/scott-pruitt-trump-epa-pick.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — A legal fight to clean up tons of chicken manure fouling the waters of Oklahoma’s bucolic northeastern corner — much of it from neighboring Arkansas — was in full swing six years ago when the conservative lawyer Scott Pruitt took office as Oklahoma’s attorney general.

His response: Put on the brakes.

Rather than push for a federal judge to punish the companies by extracting perhaps tens of millions of dollars in damages, Oklahoma’s new chief law enforcement officer quietly negotiated a deal to simply study the problem further.

Read More

NYT

Scott Pruitt, Testifying to Lead E.P.A., Criticizes Environmental Rules

By CORAL DAVENPORTJAN. 18, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/politics/scott-pruitt-testifying-to-lead-epa-criticizes-environmental-rules.html

WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, offered a vision of a far smaller and more restrained agency at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. He criticized federal rules protecting air and water and tackling climate change, and forcefully advocated a states’ rights approach to environmental regulation.

Faulting the agency for what he called overreach under President Obama, Mr. Pruitt said that as Oklahoma’s attorney general, he had seen “examples where the agency became dissatisfied with the tools Congress had given it to address certain issues, and bootstrapped its own powers and tools through rule-making.”

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee pressed Mr. Pruitt aggressively on his record, noting that he had sued the E.P.A. 14 times in an effort to block federal air and water pollution regulations. In particular, the senators criticized Mr. Pruitt repeatedly about letters drafted by energy lobbyists that were sent on state stationery to federal agencies and even to Mr. Obama, outlining the economic hardship threatened by the environmental rules.

read More

Pruitt is now being confirmed now is the time to act, now is the time to call your congressman and demand that he not be confirmed,

CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS 202-224-3121

The Brave New World of Trump begins Friday

Electronic Frontier foundation Defending your rights,
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/01/our-100-day-plan

On Friday, President Elect Donald J. Trump will swear the oath of office, pledging to uphold the Constitution. But as EFF has learned in the course of defending our fundamental rights over four American presidencies, our civil liberties need an independent defense force. Free speech and the rights to privacy, transparency, and innovation won’t survive on their own—we’re here to ensure that government is held accountable and in check.
Technological progress does not wait for politicians to catch up, and new tools can quickly be misused by aggressive governments. The next four years will be characterized by rapid developments in the fields of artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, virtual and augmented reality, connected homes, and smart cities. We welcome innovation, but we also expect to see an explosion of surveillance technologies designed to take advantage of our connected world to spy on all of us and our devices, all the time. That data will be used not only to target individuals but to project and manipulate social behavior. What will our digital rights look like during these uncertain and evolving times? Will our current rights remain intact when the baton is passed on once again?
Make no mistake: privacy, liberty, and accountability are not partisan issues.
We’ve seen digital rights come under threat no matter which party controls the Oval Office. In 1995, we sued President Bill Clinton’s Department of Justice to overturn unconstitutional export restrictions on encryption. We sued President George W. Bush over illegal domestic surveillance. We sued the Obama administration for mass surveillance of digital communications. And we expect to file new lawsuits in the next four years. Now, more than ever, we will fiercely resist any legislation, policy, regulation, ruling, or prosecution that would impinge on our civil liberties.
The first 100 days will set the tone for the rest of Mr. Trump’s time in office. The transition team has laid out what they hope to accomplish over this period. Some of the things he and his team said have us preparing for the worst. Based on statements about surveillance, net neutrality, and press freedom, we anticipate attempts to undercut many of the hard-won protections for technology users and thwart efforts to reform broken laws.

In a matter of days, the United States will enter a new era.

read more

Weekly check list for Democracts

What to Do This Week of Jan 15, 2017
Actions for Democrats, Independents, & Republicans of Conscience

The intention of this weekly document is to make clear suggestions for action backed with well-considered research. Although these actions are intended to be helpful, they are still subject to human error. Please do your own research!

If you'd like to subscribe to this weekly action list, please go here:
http://jenniferhofmann.com/…/weekly-action-checklist-democ…/

Hi there!

Every Sunday for the last eight weeks, I’ve sent out a weekly message that includes activism ideas for people of conscience to oppose the president-elect and the incoming leadership.

The 7,100 subscribers to this list (you!) have worked your tail off signing things, boycotting, donating, making calls, and probably have been doing a fair amount of fretting on top of it all. This week’s list is deliberately lighter than usual. We all need a reprieve eventually (more on that in a moment).

This week!

1. Use your feet

In case you haven’t heard, there are rallies, protests, and marches happening all over the country on and around Inauguration Day. Joining others who care about the integrity and goodness of our country could be an incredible experience.
Go here for a list of women’s marches.
Or Google your closest city and “protest” or “rally” or “march” to find out what‘s happening near you.

2. Change tack

When the wind changes direction, a sailboat must take a different tack to keep moving forward. Same thing for us this week. The man who has been our POETUS will soon be our POTUS. It’s time to change strategy for the journey ahead.

During the inauguration, I propose doing the following:

Leave your TV on a station NOT airing the inauguration as a ratings protest.
Spend that time reading the Indivisible Guide. Everyone says, “Oh yeah, I downloaded that!” But it’s time to actually read it. With your thinking cap on. It’ll take you 20-30 minutes.
Choose one action based on what you read in this document. Seriously.

The Indivisible Guide is the single best resource I’ve seen for making a difference using proven, time-tested strategies.

3. Consider this important issue

We need you here for the next four (or--God forbid--eight) years. We need you sane and resourceful. We need you focused, not swallowed by anxiety and despair. If you don’t take care of yourself, you will burn out.

As important as it is to take action right now, it is also vitally important to do things not even remotely related to politics. That’s why this week’s list is short.

You need sleep, fresh air, heart connections, and good chocolate. Maybe your thing is walking in the woods or playing with your pets. Whatever it is, make time for it in spite of everything. One, this will nourish you from the inside. Two, it will help you remember that not everything is craptastic. Babies are still laughing. The moon is still glowing. Ben and Jerry’s still tastes amazing.

On a brief personal note, I just returned from a week at a mountain retreat center with no wifi or cell phone reception (the other reason this week’s message is short). I meditated, journaled, and even colored just for fun. When it snowed, I marvelled at how snowflakes sparkle and how the ice-covered trees glinted at dawn. In short, I felt like a human again for the first time in almost three months.

I needed that. And you do too (or you may eventually). Self care is a profoundly radical act. Be courageous this week, and do something that nourishes you. We need you in this for the long haul.

If you’re not sure what nourishes you, read this wonderful list of ideas by a faith leader I really admire.

Next week

Next week, my regular What To Do This Week checklist will be back, full of well-researched actions, good news, and the best reading I’ve found this week. In the meantime, take good care of yourself.

Housekeeping

If you’d like to subscribe for this weekly message, please visit this link.
To see archives of past What To Do checklists, click here (and scroll to the bottom)
If you’d like to contribute, click here.

We're stronger together!

Weekly action checklist for Democrats, Independents, and Republicans of conscience - Jennifer Hofmann

On November 8, 2016… Like many, I fast tracked…

JENNIFERHOFMANN.COM

LikeShow more reactions

CommentShare

weekly check list fror Resistance

What’s in my What To Do This Week action checklist

• Clear actions you can take from home to support freedom and equality for all Americans

• A weekly reading list of selected, thorough views on important issues

• A Not Normal section that shows how this presidency, vice-presidency, and the far-right movement acts out of integrity with American values

• A “good news” section about good Americans doing kind things for each other

How I create the action checklist

• I read papers and magazines from around the US and around the world that have a high level of credibility. I reject sources that are too slanted or opinion-heavy.

• I look for issues that put our constitutional freedoms at risk.

• I look for petitions and campaigns that oppose anything that puts our freedoms in jeopardy. I fact check the sources to be sure they’re trustworthy.

• I organize these and email them to you once a week.

More:


http://jenniferhofmann.com/home/weekly-action-checklist-democrats-independents-republicans-conscience/


CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS
202-224-3121

GOP Gut Social Security

Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/contributor/2016/12/republicans-want-to-cut-social-security

The House GOP Just Revealed Its Plan To Cut Social Security

BEN DREYFUSSDEC. 9, 2016 2:20 PM

 
 

Late Thursday, Congressman Sam Johnson (R-TX), the Chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee, introduced a bill to "reform" (i.e. cut) Social Security.

Josh Marshall warns, "Republicans apparently aren't going to be satisfied with phasing out Medicare. They're going to try to pass huge cuts to Social Security this year too. Not Bush-style partial phaseout but just big, big cuts. And you're out of luck even if you're a current beneficiary. "

The Washington Examiner describes it thusly:

The bill…would reduce costs by changing the benefits formula to reduce payments progressively for high earners. It would also gradually raise the full retirement age from 67 to 69 for people who are today 49 or younger. Lastly, it would change the inflation metric used to calculate benefits to one that shows lower inflation, essentially slowing the growth in benefits, and eliminate cost of living adjustments for high earners.

A huge number of elderly people and others depend for their very lives upon social security,  While fact checker says Trump did not say he has a moral obligation to cut Social security. (According to Snopes.com, but they go on to discuss plans to scuttle it by Sam Johnson ranking Republican on ways and means committee).There are several ways it is endangered by the Republican agenda,



Fact Sheet by Social Security Administration

https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/basicfact-alt.pdf

In 2016, nearly 61 million Americans will receive approximately $918 billion in Social Security benefits. 

Snapshot of a Month: June 2016 Beneficiary Data ο Retired workers 40.7 million $55 billion $1,348 average monthly benefit dependents 3 million $2 billion ο Disabled workers 8.9 million $10.3 billion $1,166 average monthly benefit dependents 1.9 million $0.7 billion ο Survivors 6.1 million $6.8 billion  

Social Security is the major source of income for most of the elderly. 

Nearly nine out of ten individuals age 65 and older receive Social Security benefits. ο Social Security benefits represent about 34% of the income of the elderly. ο Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 48% of married couples and 71% of unmarried persons receive 50% or more of their income from Social Security. ο Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 21% of married couples and about 43% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.  

Social Security provides more than just retirement benefits. 

 ο Retired workers and their dependents account for 71% of total benefits paid. ο Disabled workers and their dependents account for 16% of total benefits paid.  About 90 percent of workers age 21-64 in covered employment in 2016 and their families have protection in the event of a long-term disability.  Just over 1 in 4 of today’s 20 year-olds will become disabled before reaching age 67.  67% of the private sector workforce has no long-term disability insurance. ο Survivors of deceased workers account for about 13% of total benefits paid.  About one in eight of today’s 20-year-olds will die before reaching age 67.  About 96% of persons aged 20-49 who worked in covered employment in 2016 have survivors insurance protection for their young children and the surviving spouse caring for the children.
Read More

SS also gives life insurance and disability

http://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/policy-basics-top-ten-facts-about-social-security

About 60 million people, or more than one in every six U.S. residents, collected Social Security benefits in June 2016.  While older Americans make up about four in five beneficiaries, another one-fifth of beneficiaries received Disability Insurance (DI) or were young survivors of deceased workers.In addition to Social Security’s retirement benefits, workers earn life insurance and DI protection by making Social Security payroll tax contributions:

• About 96 percent of people aged 20-49 who worked in jobs covered by Social Security in 2015 have earned life insurance protection through Social Security.

• For a young worker with average earnings, a spouse, and two children, that’s equivalent to a life insurance policy with a face value of over $600,000, according to Social Security’s actuaries.

• About 90 percent of people aged 21-64 who worked in covered employment in 2015 are insured through Social Security in case of severe disability.

The risk of disability or premature death is greater than many realize.  Some 6 percent of recent entrants to the labor force will die before reaching the full retirement age, and many more will become disabled.

read more

TIPS ON CALLING YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS

When you dial 202-224-3121 you are directed to an operator at the Capitol switchboard. This switchboard can direct you to both senators as well as representatives.

Once the operator answers, ask to be connected to whomever you are trying to reach. They will send you to your senator's or representative's office line, and a legislative assistant will answer the phone.

It is important to let them know why you are calling and what issue you are calling about. You will sometimes be able to speak directly to your senator or representative, but more often you will speak to a staff person in the member's office. This person keeps track of how many people called and their positions on issues, and provides a summary to the member. Be assured that your call does count, even if you are not able to speak directly to your senator or representative.

It is usually most effective to call your own senators and representatives, as each is primarily concerned with residents from his or her district. However, you may occasionally find it useful to call other members, if they are on a certain committee or in a particular position to help get a bill passed.

* Although you may find it easiest to always call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to reach your senators or representative, you can also find the direct number to any member's office by consulting the Senate phone list or House phone list.