This ticket is the most powerful path right now to move forward with shared Progressive values, Medicare4All, Increase Minimum Wage, Tuition Free Education, Womans Right to Choose, Equal Pay, Immigration Justice, Prison Reform, Green New Deal, Government of for and by the 99%

The POST Act addresses the long-unmet need for civilian oversight of NYPD surveillance practices, particularly the acquisition and deployment of novel, highly-invasive technologies. For years, the NYPD has built up an arsenal of spy tools on the public tab while trying to block public notice and debate. These tools not only include the so-called “gang database,”[1] but also items like facial recognition, IMSI catchers (so-called “stingrays”), and automated license plate readers that can monitor a vehicle’s location throughout the city.[2] These tools threaten all New Yorkers' privacy, but they pose a particularly potent threat to our immigrant communities and New Yorkers of color. Unchecked, the growing use of surveillance technology threatens to obscure and automate racial inequalities under the guise of unbiased computer systems. And too often, these systems create a risk of information sharing with federal agencies, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). For example, the NYPD has contracted for years with the private firm Vigilant Solutions, which operates a national database of over 5 billion license plate data points. Shockingly, in recent years, we learned that Vigilant Solutions was not just contracting with local police departments, it was also contracting with ICE. This is the vendor that the NYPD uses to record countless New Yorkers’ license plates per day, and we do not have an accurate understanding of how the NYPD may be sharing license plate data with ICE. Even worse, the NYPD relies on Vigilant Solutions’ artificial intelligence to map out social networks, label New Yorkers as “criminal associates,” and create databases based on the company’s unproven algorithms. This is just one example of countless surveillance tools that requires a systematic solution. The POST Act is not just a comprehensive response, but also a modest one. The NYPD can continue using these tools by complying with limited protections against waste, discrimination, and misuse. In fact, the POST Act would be one of the most limited surveillance reform bills in the country, especially when viewed in comparison to San Francisco’s and Oakland’s oversight legislation, which also contain outright bans on facial recognition technology or to Massachusetts’s proposed state-wide moratorium on facial recognition. Additionally, many of the jurisdictions require legislators to approve each and every surveillance system their municipality buys, unlike the POST Act, which only requires public notice. The measure is not just widely supported by your City Council colleagues, it’s even endorsed by the New York Times.[3] The message is clear: civilian oversight of surveillance enhances the public’s trust in police departments and public safety. After a hearing before the Public Safety Committee in December, thirty-two City Council members and the Public Advocate have now signed on as POST Act cosponsors. The time is now for a vote of the full City Council. [1] https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2019/7/23/the-nypds-gang-database-a-new-age-of-stop-and-frisk [2] https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2019/9/26/domain-awareness-system [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/opinion/nypd-post-act-surveillance.html

The very integrity of the United States and the Presidency are at stake. Our core values are being challenged and wrong is wrong. Period.

We will not vote for EVIL, even the lesser of two evils. We will not compromise and settle for pretenders who pale in comparison. This is not a game. This is not a bluff. To nominate anyone else the DNC would repeat the same folly as 2016. In order to defeat Trump, Bernie Sanders is the best option, one that will attract record voting highs full of independents, traditionally non-voters, former centrists and right wingers that have 'seen the light' and #FeelTheBern. In order to successfully make change in healthcare, climate change, tax reform, stopping legal tax evasion, gun reform, prison reform, and stopping the wars the President will need to have unprecedented fortitude and courage to remain noble and stedfast in the face of pressure and attacks by very powerful industries. Bernie Sanders is that candidate. No other candidates satisfy our criteria of not being corrupt in their policy decision making, no other has integrity, no other has determination to follow through with the lip service of their platform, such as true Single-Payer Healthcare in the form of Medicare for All. We will also vote out any opposition in local elections, and support candidates that pledge to support his agenda. Brought to you by The Forte Foundation and the Purple People's Party. #NotMeUs #WeThePeople #BrandNewCongress

The Muslim Ban is a racist and xenophobic policy dividing families and targeting refugees from Muslim nations. This latest expansion is nothing then more of the same.

“This is a bad time to be an Iranian.” That’s what a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officer said when they were asked why dozens of Iranians and American citizens of Iranian descent were being held returning to the U.S. at the Canadian border with Washington State on Saturday. Sepehr Ebrahimzadeh was held and questioned for hours by CBP when returning from Canada to Seattle with his girlfriend after they spent a week out of town for the holidays. Ebrahimzadeh said the experience made him fear that the United States would prepare for war on Iran by rounding up everyone of Iranian descent, just like the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

Our democracy faces an existential threat if Donald Trump is re-elected. The damage he has done during his first term, enabled by feckless Congressional Republicans who put party over country, will take years, if not decades, to undo. Trump has already packed federal courts with right-wing ideologues; fully one in four U.S. circuit court judges have been appointed to lifetime seats by Trump. His Supreme Court picks have moved the high court to the right of ultra-conservative Justice Scalia. It's terrifying to imagine what the federal judiciary would look like after another four years of Trump nominees. It’s expected that during the Democratic primaries candidates will attack their opponents’ platforms; at times the critiques have been mean-spirited and personal and no doubt will continue that way as the competition intensifies. Worse, though, is what’s playing out among the candidates’ core supporters. Examples abound on social media of insults being hurled at one candidate or another by the others’ supporters. That doesn’t bode well for the general election. To defeat Trump in conservative-leaning swing states (the only ones that matter, thanks to winner-take-all and the Electoral College), to hold the Democratic House majority and to flip the Senate, Democrats will need a get-out-the-vote effort the likes of which we’ve never seen. To achieve that will require efforts well beyond what the eventual nominee will be able to muster on their own. But to listen to some activists, if their candidate doesn’t prevail, yes, they’ll vote for whomever is the Democratic nominee, but beyond that the effort they make will be much less than what it would have been. Given what’s at stake, that’s not acceptable. If the losing candidates’ supporters just show up to vote, but do no more, we could lose it all. The only ones who can change this narrative are the candidates themselves. And they can’t wait until after the convention. Democrats can’t afford to let the acrimony between the camps build to the point that the ill will causes any Democratic activist to sit on the sidelines (the way it did in 2016 between Hillary and Bernie supporters.) The way to build party unity is for candidates to keep sending the message to their supporters, “I expect you to work as hard to elect the Democratic nominee, whoever it is, as you will if I win the nomination. Nothing less is acceptable. Do I have your promise that you’re all in, whoever is nominated?” Imagine the power of a huge display of unity at the end of every Democratic nominee's campaign rally. We need nothing less.

Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike. Huerta has received numerous awards for her community service and advocacy for workers', immigrants', and women's rights, including the Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, in 1993. Huerta is the originator of the phrase, "Sí, se puede" (Yes, we can). As a role model to many in the Latino community, Huerta is the subject of many corridos (Mexican or Mexican-American ballads) and murals. In California, April 10 is Dolores Huerta day. It is also her birthday. For more information, see doloreshuertaboulevard.org

Because I want to make America a great place for international immigrants again. Because President Donald Trump is a terrible President. I want to be a good president for same-sex marriage, women and immigrants.

These Amerasians have US father's and are Americans. They need a pathway to US citizenship.

Please grant my father’s application for a pardon to protect him from the reach of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and help him stay in the U.S. with us, his family. My father was brought to the U.S. lawfully as a child by my grandmother, who wanted a better life for her family. In 1997, when I was three, my father went to prison. He was just 19 when he shot and tragically took the life of another young man. In 2011, while my father was in prison, my brother (my father’s youngest son) was killed in an act of violence, deepening my father’s understanding of the traumatic impact he had on his victim’s family and gun violence has on our community, more generally. My father spent 25 years in prison atoning for the harm he caused (http://www.voicesfromwithin.org/tyrone-abraham.html). After much soul searching, he turned his life around and committed to bettering himself (he earned Bachelor and Master’s degrees) and helping others. He helped at-risk youth understand the impact of gun violence and develop strategies for non-violent conflict resolution. He educated his peers about HIV/AIDS and making healthy lifestyle decisions. He led his prison’s United Asian American Organization as President when no one else stepped up to ensure its representation. For all his work, my father earned the respect of peers, advocates, clergy members, academics, correctional officials, legislators, and, earlier this year, the state parole board, which granted him parole. However, my father was not freed on his release date, he was transferred to ICE custody and set for deportation to a country he has not seen since he was just 11 years old and where he has no family left. Time is running out; my father’s deportation is imminent as he sits in an ICE detention center. My father served his time, every day of his sentence; and so did our entire family. I need my father, my aging grandmother needs her son, my mother needs her husband, my uncle needs his brother, my cousins need their uncle, and my father needs us. Keeping my father away from our family and sending him to a land he does not know and where he has no support system is cruel and defies logic. Moreover, deporting my father would be a terrible loss for our community. New York taxpayers invested tremendous resources in my father’s transformation, and with the help of dedicated professionals, he succeeded remarkably. My father will continue his community work as a credible messenger after his incarceration. But without your pardon, we will all lose what we stand to benefit from my father’s return. The precious life of my father’s victim can never be replaced. As someone who lost her own brother in much the same way, I understand. But I am so proud of the man my father has become. He has taught me the importance of humility, hard work, and community service. Please help my father continue to live and work here in the U.S. If you give him this opportunity, I know he can help heal our broken world. Sincerely, Shayquana (daughter of Tyrone Abraham)

Bakhodir Madjitov, a Connecticut father of 3 young boys, had been living in the US for 11 years when ICE raided his home in the early morning hours of December 22, 2017. He’s been in custody ever since. His children are suffering – and we’re concerned that he may be deported soon. Bakhodir’s wife Madina was 39 weeks pregnant with a complicated pregnancy when ICE entered their home without a warrant 2 years ago. Bakhodir and Madina’s third child was born a week after ICE detained his father. Prior to being detained, Bakhodir supported his family as a home health aide working with a government issued ID. In the last 2 years, ICE has moved Bakhodir around the country in detention centers in Massachusetts, Alabama, New Jersey, and Louisiana. Madina and her lawyers are concerned that ICE might be planning to deport Bakhodir- even though he has an active case pending. Connecticut values families. We want Madina and Bakhodir and the boys together. Join us in telling ICE that Bakhodir should be home with his wife and sons!