Last year, Donald Trump said he would "love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he's fired.'" And recently, he doubled down and is calling for them to be deported!? Trump continues to attack professional athletes who choose to express their beliefs when they are different than his own. The rights of every American are threatened by our president's unconstitutional acts.

I'm so tired of Trump & the GOP members of Congress giving lip-service to their "concerns" about the "high cost of Obamacare," which they are trying to "improve" by cutting the funds that have allowed millions of poor and elderly to (finally) have had access to affordable care! How about the high costs of Trump's frequent golf vacations at OUR EXPENSE?!!

This is a fiscally reckless bill voted in favor by 89% of the Senate. We need this money for other programs and to help reduce the federal deficit. It is not in line with our priorities to build a more peaceful and prosperous future for our nation. U.S. Defense spending is already humongous and accounts for more than a third of all military spending in the entire world and is more than three times what China spends. Additionally, we already possess a huge nuclear arsenal as a deterrent. To put the amount in perspective, $80 billion annually could eliminate undergraduate tuition costs at all 4-year public colleges and universities. Our politicians must break free of the dominating influence and power of the weapons industry and choose to use our taxpayer money for the benefit of our people. This can only happen if the voices of the people push back now on this misguided direction. Our future depends upon it.

Politicians in Hartford are trying to hand our democracy over to big money interests. Together, we can stop them -- take action now. The legislature has passed a budget that would eliminate our state's landmark Citizens' Election Program (CEP). We can't let that happen -- the CEP helps regular people run for office without relying on special interest money, and sets an example for the rest of the nation. Since its establishment in 2005, the Citizens' Election Program has helped ensure more competitive elections, and a more diverse and representative legislature in Hartford. Rolling back this vital program now would hand over our democracy to wealthy special interests -- and we'll all pay the price. This is an all hands on deck moment -- and I know we can stop this attack on our democracy if we all speak out.

Last month, a federal court ordered the North Carolina General Assembly to redraw racially-gerrymandered legislative districts by 2017. But the General Assembly has yet to reveal the plans to the public.

Trump has nominated 27 federal judges in his first six months. And these nominees have a history of championing the causes of right-wing extremists -- from opposing affirmative action to claiming President Obama was not born in the U.S. If these nominees are confirmed, they could shred our civil rights and environmental protections for decades to come. We need your help to stop them! Sign the petition to the Senate Judiciary Committee: Stop Trump from stacking the courts with extremist judges!

Lately, many people seem to run for public office to enhance their own brand and promote narrow business interests rather than from a passion for using their skills and abilities for the public good. One way to give the public more information about individuals with selfish interests is to publish their financial information in an easily viewed and understood format. They want to use our tax dollars, so we should know what how they pay theirs!

I want to get Democrats working on persuading him to run for president!

Neither Democrats nor Republicans will ever secure electronic voting computers against foreign or domestic hackers. Both parties benefit from hacked elections. If paper ballots cost more, the expense is more than worth it.

I don't want my voting record tracked, exposed to hackers, speculation and data manipulation. I don't want others turning away from their civic duty of voting because of lost privacy in the voting booth or being subjected to extreme vetting. Voting should be encouraged, as it is the most important aspect of retaining our democracy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is back in business. The Commission has had the authority to approve natural gas pipelines for the past 30 years and has only rejected one pipeline in all of that time. Earlier this year, the five-member panel was down to one commissioner. Without a quorum, they couldn't approve any pipelines. Trump's first two rabidly pro-fossil fuel nominees were confirmed by the Senate, just minutes before the August recess, re-establishing the quorum. For more than a year, hundreds of organizations have been calling on Congress to investigate FERC's track record of approving pipelines and several well-documented abuses of its power and bad policies. We'd hoped that Congress would take advantage of the lack of a quorum and use that time for the investigation, but they failed to act. Recent federal court decisions back up some of the issues we've raised. For instance, NY's environmental regulators rejected a pipeline FERC approved. They didn't have sufficient information to issue the required permits, yet FERC had already approved the pipeline and had allowed the company to fell trees for the right-of-way using eminent domain. The court found in favor of the NY regulators and the project was killed. Now, things have gone from bad to worse. Both the House and Senate have been proposing legislation to support Trump's dirty energy agenda that would actually expand FERC's authority. The House has already passed a couple of bills. The Senate energy bill, S. 1460, has not yet been passed and we'd like to keep it that way. The bills order other regulators to give deference to FERC's decisions, speeds up approvals of Liquefiled Natural Gas export facilities, and more. Please sign our petition calling on Congress to declare a moratorium on pipeline approvals, reject Trump's dirty energy bills, and support new legislation in the House and Senate that would put us on a path to renewable, sustainable energy solutions.

Credit-reporting giant Equifax recently disclosed that, in the summer of 2017, hackers gained access to the personal information of 143 million of its consumers. The hackers obtained names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and, in some cases, even credit card information. Equifax's response to this cyberattack is appalling. The company was at first only offering a free, one-year credit-monitoring service and then it gets to profit from its despicable behavior by offering the service for a fee. Equifax needs to be held accountable for their actions; that's why the company needs to provide an unlimited, free credit-monitoring service to all those who are impacted by the recent security breach.