Since the Black Lives Matter protests erupted last summer, we’ve been in the midst of a national moment of reckoning around our painful history of racial exclusion. This has been driven in paet by brave young people asking tough questions and speaking out for justice. But in Republican-led states across the country, Legislatures have been responding by trying to ban teachers and students from even having the conversation. New laws, and bills under consideration in states like Idaho, Texas and Oklahoma would ban teachers from teaching about current events like Black Lives Matter, or even talking about systemic racism. Kids should be learning to think critically in school - and to understand the full history of our country, even the painful parts. And our politicians should be focused on helping students and teachers who are still struggling with fallout from COVID--rather than punishing teachers for speaking the truth.

Prior to the 2020 presidential election Governor Abbott and lieutenant governor Patrick furthered the lies of Donald Trump by touting the healing usage of hydroxychloricine and the treatment of covid-19 they even went as far as to buy the drug and distribute it to nursing homes in Texas. This drug was untested for use in covid-19 cases and was not FDA approved there were at least three deaths caused by use of this drug and many hospitalizations. Governor Abbott and lieutenant governor Patrick put the lives and health of many Texans at risk and the process of furthering the lives of Donald Trump they violated the public trust. In November 2020 attorney general Paxton a licensed attorney who has been under investigation with the FBI use taxpayer funds to file a lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania regarding the way that their election ballots are accounted. Knowing this was outside of his jurisdiction and scope he proceeded to do waste taxpayer dollars in this lawsuit only to appease Donald Trump this is a violation of the public trust and a waste of taxpayer dollars for no reason at all. In February 2021 Texas had a record snow storm and freezing temperatures for 7 days this storm affected many Texans by that they sustained a loss of electricity heat and water for 7 days. This resulted in the deaths of several Texans. To date Governor Paxton lieutenant governor Patrick nor anyone from ERCOT has been held accountable for this debacle and no steps have been taken to ensure that this tragedy will never happen again. Governor Abbott violated the public trust and put the health and domestic tranquility of Texans at risk yet again. On March 10th of 2021 Governor Abbott ordered the state to reopen with no requirements for social distancing or face coverings. At the height of a global pandemic this place all Texans at risk of the transmission and furthering of the covid-19 virus especially to the elderly and those with lung diseases this was a very dangerous move and show the callous disregard of Governor Abbott. On March 30th 2021, Governor Abbott allowed the Texas courts to begin eviction proceedings again this is in direct violation of the CDC moratorium. Governor Abbott has not only shown a blatant disregard for federal law but he's shown a lack of concern for Texas residents and has placed them at risk this is a violation of the public trust. In May of 2021 Governor Abbott signed an executive order forbidding any state County municipal agency or any school district from inquiring if a person has had the covid vaccine inoculations. This is a violation of the public trust and puts the public at risk while also putting a high risk of transmission and the furthering of the virus to the public this is also a breach of public trust. In May of 2021 Governor Abbott backed one of the largest voter suppression laws in the country and and the date that he could he lost the quorum he threatened to withhold the payment of salaries to legislative support staff. This is a petty and vindictive violation of the public trust and it's also illegal. On June 17th 2021 Governor Abbott announced that he will build the border wall with Texas he plans to ask property owners to volunteer their property to the state and to ask President Biden to surrender federal land to the state while using public funds without the Publix input or a referendum and also to use crowdfunding which is illegal. It is illegal to use public donations to finance government projects. As well many Texans are against This racist project that comes forth from a manufactured crisis and lies of Donald Trump. This also is a violation of the public trust. These illogical actions that do not take account the citizens of Texas are dangerous public health violations and breaches of the public trust by Governor Abbott lieutenant governor Patrick and attorney general Paxton and the three of these gentlemen need to be removed , convicted, and impeached quickly before more damages done to the state of Texas.

Billionaires like Bezos have made even more billions during the pandemic while most people were suffering to make ends meet. Until he starts paying his fair share in taxes he can afford to be extremely charitable and make much needed public investments to address the crises caused or highlighted by the pandemic.

Baltimore is a city in crisis brought on by bad leadership exacerbated by the ineffectual policy during a time of crisis.

A handful of companies want to own our community water systems in Pennsylvania. It's a power play in three acts that started with the passage of legislation in 2012 that would allow companies to pass along the costs of acquiring systems to their rate payers. Act 2 in 2016 was the passage of legislation that would allow municipalities to sell their water systems to these companies for "fair market value." The curtain rose on Act 3 this year with the introduction of SB 597, the so-called Water Quality Accountability Act that heaps costs and reporting requirements on municipalities to entice them to sell their systems. Walter Lynch, CEO of American Water Works, has made no bones about the bill’s real intent. Here’s an excerpt from a Q4 2020 earnings call. Asked if any type of emerging state legislation would help facilitate Mergers & Acquisitions, Lynch responded, “Well, let me start with [the] Water Quality Accountability Act that started in New Jersey that two other states have adopted. I think that is being considered in other states within our footprint. So I would look out for that primarily in the Midwest and that again, establishes standards that are uniform across the sector, whether a municipally-owned or investor-owned, around cybersecurity, some of the challenges there, around pipe replacement rates, about long-term asset management plans. And that's been instrumental in many of the discussions we've had in the states where we operate that have that legislation. So I think it's a wake up call for many municipalities to say, maybe we should talk to American Water about selling assistance.” And here’s Lynch during an investor call a year earlier, “We work with state legislators and regulators to come up with rule making and legislation that enables these acquisitions to happen. And we’ve been doing this for a decade, and we’ve been very successful at it.” American Water Works is a member of the National Association of Water Companies, the industry front group that wrote the bill before pushing it in several states. Robert Powelson is President and CEO of NAWC. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he was the chair of the PA Public Utility Commission before spending a year at FERC approving natural gas interstate transmission pipelines and then heading to NAWC. When the PA Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure took up the bill, committee chair Senator Tommy Tomlinson did a gut and replace maneuver that removed all of the language of the bill and put it in an amendment with one important alteration. The bill was written as an amendment to Title 25. Tomlinson's amendment changed that to Title 66. In plain English, it means he took the bill out of the authority of the Department of Environmental Protection and handed it to the Public Utility Commission. The amended bill was approved by the committee with bipartisan support. Tomlinson's former chief of staff is the lobbyist for Aqua America. The company's Government Relations chief spent six years as a staffer in PA legisative offices, including a stint in the Speaker's office. And speaking of the Speaker, Mike Turzai went to work for Essential Utilities the day after resigning from the House. Essential Utilities is Aqua's new name now that it has expanded into the gas business with the purchase of Peoples Gas. PA American Water has its own tie to our legislature. They hired their lobbyist right after his mother, Kim Ward, became Senate Majority Leader in January. Outside of the customary, and all-too-often successful, grip of the industry are many who have expressed concerns about the Water Quality Accountability Act. The PA Rural Water Association, the PA Municipality Authorities Association, and the Water Works Operators' Association of PA have written letters opposing the legislation. According to PA Environmental Digest, the PA State Association of Township Supervisors, PA State Association of Boroughs and the PA Municipal League also oppose the legislation. This petition is a companion to a sign on letter I'll be delivering in the coming weeks. To see a version of the letter with all of the hyperlinks you can follow to get even more information about dangerous bill, visit bit.ly/WQAAlinks. If your organization would like to sign the letter, please use our sign-on form you can find at bit.ly/WQAAletter. Tell your legislators to protect community water systems and your affordable access to water by voting NO to SB 597.

The American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan will transform the lives of millions of people across the country. They contain provisions to deliver millions of good jobs, massive investments in our crumbling infrastructure, free community college education, universal preschool, permanent child tax credits for low- and middle-income families—not to mention that this legislation will increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations, so that they’re finally paying more of their fair share. But the GOP, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is bent on obstructing President Biden's agenda and stopping Democrats from delivering for the people. Other Republicans in the Senate have wasted precious weeks by putting forward laughably inadequate counter-proposals to President Biden's plans. With the Senate planning a month-long recess in August, we need to demand that Congress pass the AJP and AFP without delay. We need to keep up the pressure on our members of Congress in order to make this a reality. Sign the petition, and demand that our government provide much-needed and long-overdue relief to the American people.

The last thing new parents want to worry about is whether their baby gear can actually HURT their baby. If it’s on the shelves at baby stores, families should be able to trust that it’s safe. But right now, they can’t -- a report just released by Congress shows kids’ company Fisher Price ignored years of safety warnings and kept selling a popular baby sleeper even after 50 infants died in them! Millions of sleepers were sold to unsuspecting parents before it was finally recalled in 2019, while Fisher Price made $200 million in profits. It is unacceptable that a major company like Fisher Price cut corners by ignoring consumer and regulator warnings. According to NPR, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is supposed to oversee such products, allows companies to sell goods with little to no safety standards. The government regulators that were supposed to protect us didn’t. And that has to change. Sign this petition asking Congress to give government watchdogs the power to protect kids!

Donald Trump has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault and misconduct. In 2019, E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of assaulting her. Trump’s response caused Carroll to sue him for defamation. Trump’s handpicked Attorney General Bill Barr claimed that Donald Trump was a federal employee so that the DOJ could take up his legal defense. President Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, should have dropped this defense and let Donald Trump fend for himself. Instead, the Garland and the DOJ just confirmed that they’re following Bill Barr’s flimsy reasoning and continuing to provide Donald Trump with legal defense. Donald Trump already has an army of lawyers. He doesn’t need Biden’s DOJ protecting him.

GOP lawmakers nationwide -- who are upset that their party lost major elections in 2020 -- are using ex-President Trump’s conspiracy theories to pass new laws that make it harder to vote. In April, UPS released a statement that condemned this widespread attack on our rights and pledged to work with lawmakers to “strengthen our democracy by facilitating equitable poll access.” [1] Why, then, does UPS still fund one of the major right-wing groups pushing these horrific anti-voter laws? That’s right: UPS is one of the many companies that funds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). And both before and after the election, ALEC has worked around the clock to restrict the freedom to vote, spread vicious lies about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine American democracy entirely. ALEC’s top figures have been widely pushing Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 election in an effort to manipulate the American public. At the same time, ALEC representatives have met with prominent GOP lawmakers -- like Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul -- to discuss strategies to restrict voters’ rights. And according to one report -- in 2021 alone, more than 100 ALEC-connected state legislators have been lead sponsors or co-sponsors of anti-voter bills in Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas. [2] The fact is: by continuing to back ALEC financially, companies like UPS, FedEx, and Anheuser-Busch are endorsing this modern Jim Crow effort. And they’re hoping everyday Americans won’t notice. Over the last few years, we’ve pushed over 100 major companies to cut ties with ALEC due to its extreme agenda -- and now, we need to keep the public outcry going. Add your name to condemn these corporations’ hypocrisy and urge them to stop funding ALEC immediately. 1) https://about.ups.com/us/en/newsroom/statements/ups-supports-equitable-poll-access-and-voting.html 2) https://www.commoncause.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ALEC-anti-voter-letter.pdf

"Whether you are a fan of Star Trek or not the following has universal appeal to all. "A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars." – James T. Kirk, 2269 (TOS - "Whom Gods Destroy") "The United Federation of Planets was a supranational interstellar union of multiple planetary nation-states that operated semi-autonomously under a single central government, founded on the principles of liberty, equality, peace, justice, and progress, with the purpose of furthering the universal rights of all sentient life. Federation members exchange knowledge and resources to facilitate peaceful cooperation, scientific development, space exploration, and MUTUAL DEFENSE."** I've emphasized "Mutual Defense" because its important! While an obvious interpretation is "military defense", it also means Mutual Defense of Morals, Mutual Defense as in Care of Each Other. The US Senate are the rare few who are given the honor and duty of representing us all. But Minority Leader McConnell has vowed to put all of his efforts into blocking Democratic legislations to help all of us. We need to pass the President's Infrastructure Bill, the country needs roads, bridges, transportation, Broadband Internet, and We Need Clean Water. We need to Pass the For the People to help protect us from malicious voter suppression bills that are being passed by State Legislatures in multiple states. We need to have a commission to investigate the seditious attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6th, who are the Republican's trying to protect? We also need to Pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, The John Lewis Act, The Equality Act, The Pro Act, The Breathe Act, American Jobs Plan, American Families Plan, and Washington DC (our nation's great Capitol, is home to 712,000 people that are taxed hire per capita than any other state) should 100 percent be a state! We need common sense gun control like Mandatory Background Checks. We need the multiple Immigration Acts to Pass, We must raise taxes for the wealthiest one percent, they must pay their fair share, TAX THE RICH, We need NON-TRUMP JUDGES and damn it WE DIRELY NEED CLIMATE CARE!! WE NEED ALL THE THINGS NOW! WE CAN'T HAVE ANY OF THE THINGS WITHOUT ENDING THE FILIBUSTER! The Conservative Dems like Joe Manchin (WV) and Kristen Sinema (AZ) have said they want bi-partisanship. We have tried this to no avail. The Republican Senators do not represent the majority of the country, they do not speak for all of us, and they do not even speak for their constituents they claim to be speaking for. These policies are overwhelmingly popular with over 80 percent of the country's population. Enough is Enough. The Filibuster was established to protect Systematic Racism, and it continues to be in the way of changing that racist system.We need all of our Democratic Senators to ABOLISH THE FILIBUSTER NOW because WE NEED ALL THE THINGS NOW!! **(c/o https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets)

It is very important to put an immediate stop to the death threats and harassment for two important reasons: 1) The 2020 Presidential Election was a free and fair election that did not have any fraudulent activity whatsoever. The numerous audits requested by Trump proved that it was fraudulent free and that Biden won. 2) These US Election Workers and Election Officials are being unfairly driven from their jobs by these Trump Extremists causing election workers to fear for their lives as well as their families lives. Besides receiving death threats, they have been harassed by these thugs by attempts to run them off the road, plus while driving they are being followed for 25 minutes. Plus getting threats of being killed by firing squad, and also in 21 counties there were threats of bombing polling sites, telling election workers unless Trump is guaranteed POTUS, no one would be spared at these bomb sites. As a result from the constant harassment, many election workers suffer from panic attacks. All of this harassment is still going on today! Fulton county’s election director, for 22 years, said, “ it seems like we are descending into a third world mentality. I never expected that from this country.” So many election workers and officials are leaving their jobs because they don’t want to be constantly harassed while they do their jobs. We need to stop this awful persecution ASAP!!!

In a meteoric fall from grace, Michael Flynn plunged from one of the most respected intelligence officers of his generation, to a far-right conspiracy theorist and prominent QAnon figure. After a 33 year military career, Flynn was forced into early retirement for his caustic leadership of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and from there he has time and again exploited his military clout to uplift dangerous, white supremacist rhetoric. He has taken illegal, secret payments from the Russian Government, pushed racist conspiracy theories on national news, was convicted for lying to federal investigators, and multiple times advocated for Trump to impose martial law to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Instead of facing any consequences for his laundry list of transgressions, Flynn was pardoned by Trump and has been allowed to remain a sounding board for the far-right. Treasonous, corrupt individuals like Michael Flynn exploit their military experience to push a dangerous agenda that threatens our multi-racial democracy, enable the toxic culture of sexual assault and violence that currently runs unchecked in our military, and make a mockery out of our service — all without any semblance of accountability. This is no surprise. Throughout history, we've consistently seen white supremacy, right-wing groups, and corrupt, treasonous insurrectionists like Michael Flynn go unchecked for the violence and terror they cause. General Flynn is a disgrace to our country. But his pathetic, power-hungry, conspiratorial behavior is particularly embarrassing to veterans like myself. His words MUST have consequences, because all that he has said and done keeps veterans out of spaces where we can organize and advocate for the needs of our communities. Michael Flynn used his power to incite the violent insurrection instead of acknowledging the actual concerns of working class troops, like abuse and exploitation by an endless war economy. It’s unjust to send us to endless wars that only profit the war machine. It’s unjust to not provide a place of healing for those left to mourn the loss of our military members. Veterans are coming together to challenge the status quo. We are here to interrupt the cycle of violence and those complicit through silence and inaction. Will you join alongside us and add your name to this petition demanding that the Pentagon investigate Michael Flynn?