You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Support Survivors With Know Your IX.

This episode happened because sexual assault at colleges and universities is at an epidemic level. That the Rolling Stone reporter was bad at her job and may have coerced sensationalized details doesn’t change the pertinent fact: one in five female students will be assaulted during their time on campus. These students will regularly not be believed, have little legal recourse, be forced to transfer, be expelled for reporting, end up saddled with tens of thousands of debt from schools where they won’t receive degrees and deal with the trauma the rest of their lives.

Federal law designed to create gender parity — Title IX — exists to provide a framework for students dealing with sexual assault. Known better for its affect on athletics — schools can’t have twice as many male sports teams as women’s sports teams any more, for example — Title IX has much broader applications that are woefully under publicized and under utilized.

And so, the organization Know Your IX was created in 2013 to educate students, advocates and supporters on everything from how to file a complaint under Title IX and where to find a lawyer to how to speak to the media and handle school retaliation. Know Your IX is a national group run by survivors and driven by students seeking to end campus sexual violence. Their importance cannot be overstated: campus culture is nearly impossible for one person or even a group to change during the very short time they’re enrolled. Change simply takes longer than a couple of years. A grassroots network that holds schools accountable while helping informing the public at large and supporting survivors is critical to making all colleges safe for all students.

KnowYourIX.org has a number of easy, practical ways to assist their work and make a difference in your community. Obviously, you can always donate if you have the means; they do a lot of trainings and free help, so the money goes to good use.

Their “Provide” tab has resources for victims of campus sexual assault including how to file a complaint and information on trans discrimination and the affects of immigration status. The “Related Resources” tab prepares victims for dealing with school retaliation and new legislation. And the “Activism” tab guides students who want to change their campus culture and join the movement.

Perhaps the most broadly helpful and important part of the website is the “I Want To” tab. When you click “support a survivor” you jump to a detailed list of dos and don’ts for family, friends, professors, activists and advocates. The way you — yes, you and absolutely every one — respond to stories about sexual assault in the media and in plot lines and in pop culture affects the survivors in your life. Even if you don’t know that you know someone, the numbers say you do.

So take the fifteen minutes to prep yourself in case a friend or family member comes to you. Being supportive in that situation isn’t intuitive and doing a little reading ahead of time can mean a world of difference to someone who needs you in that moment. What they need first and foremost is for you to simply believe them.

The hashtag #BelieveSurvivors was created long before the Rolling Stone article that prompted the current wave of discussion and victim blaming. It sounds so simple, but it is so rare in our culture for a victim to be believed implicitly by the person they reach out to. If you take nothing else out of this episode and the work that groups like Know Your IX do, let it be that two word directive: believe survivors.

TAKE ACTION:

Follow, support, and utilize the resources at Know Your IX

Additional Activism/Resources:

Read and signal boost the #BelieveSurvivors hashtag

Sources/further reading:

"On Rolling Stone, lessons from fact-checking, and the limits of journalism” by Maya Dusenbery at Feministing

”Jackie Update” — and why media only covers “interesting” rape stories by Melissa McEwan at Shakesville

"How Rolling Stone Gave A Gift To Rape Apologists” by Katie Klabusich at Buzzfeed

"Why I Don't Want To Hear Both Sides Of Rape Cases” by Wagatwe Wanjuki at Buzzfeed

"Victims’ Memories Are Imperfect, But Still Perfectly Believable” by Ali Safran at Buzzfeed

"The Wrestler and the Rape Victim” by Jessica Luther at Vice Sports

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #885 "A guide to doing it all wrong (The UVA Story - Rape Culture)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Prosecute Torture.

I know. It seems like this topic wouldn’t require any activism. Why would we ever need to demand that the Department of Justice seek…well…justice? Apparently, for all the reasons covered in today’s show and all the reasons you already knew and all the reasons that don’t even surprise us now that more than a decade has gone by since our government lied to our faces to obtain support for an illegal war.

We already knew about the torture; but now the government has spent three years and $40 million, finally proving the thing we knew — that the CIA understood torture isn’t an effective information gathering tool, but encouraged its use anyway. And it doesn’t appear it took much for our elected officials at the time to be convinced. The report also makes clear once and for all that the illegal and torturous actions carried out in the name of patriotism did not help locate Osama bin Laden or thwart any terrorist plots. They were, in fact, counterproductive. Just don’t tell that to Dick Cheney — his robot heart might not be able to take it.

Murtaza Hussain at The Intercept and Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.com do solid break downs of the report, how it came about, the worst things in it and other details to stoke your rage should you be into digging deeper.

The ACLU told the following to The Intercept:

“Even though we previously knew many details about the torture program, the brutality this landmark report documents is breathtaking...The release of this report is a call to action for the Justice Department, Congress, and the White House. We cannot make a clean break from this nation’s history of state-sanctioned torture without accountability for the terrible human rights violations committed in our name.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Visit ACLU.org and click on the impossible to miss "No Free Pass For Torture” action to sign the petition asking Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor — as is not only his right, but his duty as the highest law enforcement official in the country. As the petition states: "Accountability for torture today is critical for stopping it tomorrow” — and, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have any of this happen again.

Also — as it is the holidays — we’re bringing you a positive torture related action via the ACLU. Not everyone who was commanded to use the “enhanced interrogation techniques” followed orders. There were dissenters among our public officials and our military rank and file. Some prosecutors resigned rather than bring cases founded on coerced evidence. Others, like the Navy’s general counsel Alberto J. Mora, stayed and led an effort to end the practices which he argued to his superiors were ineffective and unlawful.

Still others endured ridicule and bullying by their bosses for daring to question what they were told was their job and patriotic duty. Lt. Col. Darrel Vandevelde was placed under house arrest for refusing to participate in torture. Please sign the ACLU petition titled "Honor Those Who Said No To Torture” asking the president to “formally honor the members of the military, the CIA and other public servants who — when our nation went off course — stayed true to our most fundamental ideals.”

TAKE ACTION:

Write, email, and call (202-353-1555) the Department of Justice to demand the prosecution of those who ordered and orchestrated torture

SIGN the ACLU petition: No Free Pass For Torture

Additional Activism:

SIGN the ACLU petition demanding the president Honor Those Who Said No To Torture

Sources/further reading:

"Why a Criminal Investigation is Necessary” — The ACLU statement on the Senate Torture Report

"Civil Rights Groups Call for Prosecution of Torture Architects” by Murtaza Hussain at The Intercept

"SSCI Torture Report Key: They Knew It was Torture, Knew It Was Illegal” via empty wheel

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #884 "One of our Blackest Marks (The Torture Report)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Get Local On Climate Change.

In a move that will shock no one listening to this podcast, the federal government is in the process of proving that gridlock and living on a razor’s edge remain the preferred state of affairs in Washington. The Senate gave itself two extra days to pass the emergency spending bill the House has sent them and that is fully expected to happen before the extended end of the legislative session. (Likely it will have passed by the time this episode finds its way to your ears.)

The bill is a nightmare.

As the website for the anti-money-in-politics organization “The Bulletin” puts it:

"If you’re a Congressperson looking to sneak through something shady, the omnibus budget bill is the perfect opportunity since 1.) It’s 1600 pages long and very easy to hide things in, and 2.) Congress kind of has to pass it or the government shuts down. Again.”

Not that we didn’t already know the next two years would — at best — be a wash, but the new Congress isn’t even on duty yet. This is still the group from BEFORE the Republican midterm sweep. Shunning the chance to limit the damage, the bipartisan emergency spending bill — not to be confused with an actual budget, of course — does several awful things. Basically, the only ridiculous thing it DOESN’T do is shut down the government. That possibility is set up for September when the bill runs its course.

While there WAS room in the spending bill to allocate $479 million for a warplane that the pentagon didn’t ask for, there wasn't room for $93 million of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program or to fund environmental protections. That pairing makes sense, though, because what goes better with poor nutrition than poor air quality — Am I right?

If you’re frustrated, there’s good news. You have a governor and state elected officials who actually have to do things like pass budgets and enforce federal regulations from agencies like the EPA. The National Resources Defense Council have an easy fill-in-the-boxes way to let your governor know that despite the federal government’s insistence on gridlock, you’d like them to get on board with the new limits to carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Local officials have power — typically more power to actually do real things that affect real people than federal officials. Nothing should reinforce that like days worth of Speaker Boehner’s face on cable news above the headline “Possible Government Shutdown Ahead.”

So, visit NRDC.org and go to their “Act Now” tab to click through and support the campaign. This will take you less than 60 seconds. Governors are typically more busy balancing budgets than contributing sound bites to Sunday morning shows, so we can forget that they are executive office holders who draft and approve budgets for everything from road repair to education to energy. Give your governor their due and tell them clean air matters to the people of your state.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN to Tell Your Governor to Help Curb Climate Change h/t The National Resources Defense Council

Sources/further reading:

"5 Awful Things Congress Snuck Into the Omnibus Budget Deal” via The Bulletin

"Congress narrowly averts government shutdown” via CNN.com

"What’s in That Huge, Lobbyist-Driven Spending Bill?” by Joshua Holland at BillMoyers.com

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #883 Put your money where our future is

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: #ThisStopsToday.

In the more than 100 days residents of Ferguson waited to find out if justice would be sought for Mike Brown through the prosecution of his killer, across the country, 14 more teenagers were killed by cops:

• Tamir Rice — Ohio
• Cameron Tillman — Louisiana
• VonDerrit Myers Jr. — St. Louis
• Laquan McDonald — Chicago
• Carey Smith-Viramontes — California
• Jeffrey Holden — Missouri
• Qusean Whitten — Ohio
• Miguel Benton — Georgia
• Dillon McGee — Tennessee
• Levi Weaver — Georgia
• Karen Cifuentes — Oklahoma
• Sergio Ramos — Texas
• Roshad McIntosh — Chicago
• Diana Showman — California

Nina Strochlic details each of their deaths at The Daily Beast under the “Hands Up” tag. They were boys and girls from California to Missouri to Chicago to Georgia. The epidemic of a black person being killed extrajudicially every 28 hours clearly affects communities beyond St. Louis and requires all of us everywhere to care more and do better.

On the heels of the decision from Ferguson came word from NYC: Eric Garner’s killer would not be indicted — despite a “homicide” designation from the medical examiner and a video capturing Garner's entire interaction with police.

Any activism call short of “End Racism & Its Structural Power to Kill” will feel unsatisfactory and somewhat hollow. We must do more in our personal lives to call out racism where we see it and temper our fear of reprisal in our networks with an understanding that people of color fear more than reprisal — they fear injury and even death. The hashtag #AliveWhileBlack created by writer Jamilah Lemieux is a must read for white folks to see what ordinary interactions with the police are like for people of color.

So…what do we do? The “Ferguson Response” Tumblr has a listing of ongoing #ThisStopsNow events to protest police injustice. Find or add your city to their list. Amplify the protests on your feeds — all the more important if you fear a backlash from friends and family who don’t see through their privilege to what’s happening.

Next, we can take the artillery out of the hands of our police forces. The ACLU declares that our communities are not war zones — at least, they shouldn’t be. Their petition at ACLU.org/action calls on the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice to redirect the $400 million per year funneled to police departments for military-grade weaponry.

Both Mike Brown’s parents and President Obama are calling for that funding to go instead to outfit all police with body cameras. In their statement following Officer Darren Wilson’s non-indictment, Mike Brown’s family said the following:

"We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions. While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen. Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera.”

You can sign the Brown family’s Change.org petition specifically for the St. Louis force if you support cameras and let the White House know you expect them to follow through on the promises from the president’s recent speeches. As you’ve heard in today’s clips, many law enforcement personnel have had positive experiences with cameras, so this is a campaign that shouldn’t receive much push-back from police unions.

Last and perhaps most importantly, as has happened uncountable times since the Civil Rights era, the only place the families can now turn is to federal authorities. Attorney General Eric Holder has publicly stated intentions to investigate and possibly bring federal Civil Rights charges in both Ferguson and New York. We must demand that the Department of Justice follow through. Sign the petitions in the segment notes, visit Justice.gov to contact the DOJ directly through phone, email, and snail mail.

You can also vote in the Time.com’s annual poll to make the Ferguson protesters “Person of the Year.” It’s a good way to call out media coverage after Time inevitably doesn’t listen to the poll and picks someone else while showing your support for the movement as it grows.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN ACLU petition: "Our communities are not war zones”

SIGN Change.org petition: Require Ferguson and St. Louis County and City police officers to wear body cameras

Demand the Department of Justice Secure Justice For Mike Brown through federal Civil Rights action

Demand the Department of Justice investigate and indict Officer Pantaleo on federal criminal charges for violating Eric Garner’s Civil Rights

Additional Activism/Resources:

#ThisStopsToday events are ongoing. Find/organize one in your city.

Contact the Dept of Justice

Follow Jamilah Lemieux’s #AliveWhileBlack thread.

VOTE for Ferguson protestors to be Time’s Person of the Year: Tweet the Poll as “Yes”

Bookmark the Justice 4 Mike Brown Tumblr which is aggregating video/pics/posts from around the world in solidarity

Sources/further reading:

"The 14 Teens Killed by Cops Since Michael Brown” by Nina Strochlic at The Daily Beast

"1 Black Man Is Killed Every 28 Hours by Police or Vigilantes: America Is Perpetually at War with Its Own People” by Adam Hudson at Alternet

"Justice Department to open civil rights investigation in Eric Garner case” via RT American

"Body cameras for cops could be the biggest change to come out of the Ferguson protests” via The Washington Post

"Please Stop Telling Me That All Lives Matter” by Julia Craven at HuffPo

"Federal Ferguson Investigation Will Remain Independent, Holder Insists” via NPR: It's All Politics

"Michael Brown’s family denounces prosecutor, condemns violence” by Elahe Izadi at The Washington Post

"Michael Brown’s family releases statement on grand jury decision” via Fox8 Cleveland

"Mike Brown's Law is a start, but police body-cams are no panacea for violence” via The Guardian

"Should police officers wear body cameras?” via The Melissa Harris-Perry Show

"Police Say Body Cameras Give "Real Perspective" of What Cops Encounter” by Nannette Miranda at NBC, Bay Area

"Where Do We Go After Ferguson?” by Michael Eric Dyson via The New York Times

"A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza” by Alicia Garza at The Feminist Wire

"No Indictment for Darren Wilson, No Justice for Black Lives” by Mychal Denzel Smith at The Nation

"On Being a Black Male, Six Feet Four Inches Tall, in America in 2014” by W. Kamau Bell at Vanity Fair

”Only Words” by Roxane Gay at The Toast

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #882 "Breakdowns in the systems (Injustice System)"

Hear previous segments on this topic:

"Campaigns for #MikeBrown and #Ferguson via @LeBreed7910”; episode 855

"#JusticeForEricGarner via @ColorOfChange; episode 85

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Protest Black Friday.

Happy Height of Capitalism Season! …or, happy holiday season, depending on your degree of festiveness. This is the time of year where we regularly hear of people getting trampled at Wal-Mart in the desperate rush to procure the item television advertising executives declare is the must-have, no-way-you-can-live-without-it gift.

Low-wage workers must report for duty while the CEOs and high level managers who demand their stores open on Thanksgiving and Black Friday are home with their loved ones. This annual injustice has expanded so much over the past decade that the only thing left is for stores to be open 24-hours from Thanksgiving morning through the end of Black Friday.

Luckily, there’s a super easy thing everyone listening can do to support the workers and stop further capitalist encroachment into our holidays: nothing. Really — you can just do nothing.

Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism. Adbusters is promoting Buy Nothing Day with the hashtag #BND and asking people to “participate by not participating.” Just stay home. Don’t go shopping; don’t cross picket lines of striking workers. Simply opt-out of the post-turkey dash for deals. Let family and friends you hear discussing their plans to shop on Friday, November 28th know that you’re parking it on your couch with a movie or a book. Possibly even invite them to join you.

Stores and malls are only opening Friday at dawn — some on Thanksgiving Day even — because people show up to shove each other out of the way in the hopes of saving 10% on a widget no one will remember was a thing by the time the snow melts. By not participating, you make it expensive for stories to open early, close late, and schedule extra staff.

If you are moved to fight the tryptophan coma and get up off the couch, you can attend a Walmart Black Friday Protest — organized at BlackFridayProtests.org and under the hashtag “Walmart Strikers.” There are events happening all over the country in support of more than 2000 stores where workers are demanding a $15/hr living wage.

Obviously, abstaining entirely from the annual purchasing bonanza is a tough ask that can go over like a stocking full of lead in some families. So, if you do plan to do a bit of the traditional holiday gift buying — perhaps on Cyber Monday, which is December 1st this year — don’t forget you can redirect a portion of corporate profits into supporting the production of this show through our Amazon link: http://www.bestoftheleft.com/amazon.

TAKE ACTION:

Participate by not participating: Buy Nothing Day #BND via Adbusters

Follow and support Walmart Strikers via #WalmartStrikers on Twitter and Black Friday Protests

Sources/further reading:

"Sit-Down Strike at Walmart and Win? It's Been Done” via Huffington Post

"Letter: Working and middle class should support fast food workers” via Fight For $15

"Poll: Should retailers remain open on Thanksgiving?” with Steven Greenhouse on PBS Newshour

Watch: "This Black Friday, Workers to Challenge the Waltons” via OUR Walmart

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #879 "Capitalism will not set you free (Economics)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Real Representative Democracy — FairVote.org.

Our country's election process is broken. No one listening to this podcast needed election 2014’s mixed results or record low voter turn out to persuade them that our democracy’s fundamental tenet could use a tune-up. World War II was raging last time we had turn out this low and certainly a lack of trust in the system is contributing to the apathy epidemic.

But what if we could give American democracy an upgrade? That’s the optimistic — yet entirely feasible — goal of the organization Fair Vote.

According to FairVote.org, their mission "advances systemic electoral reform to achieve a fully participatory and truly representative democracy that respects every vote and every voice in every election...We promote ranked choice voting (“instant runoff”), a constitutionally protected right to vote, a national popular vote for president, and, most fundamentally, fair representation voting forms of proportional representation.”

They’ve already succeeded in getting enough jurisdictions to pass legislation supporting a popular vote for the president to equal almost two-thirds of the electoral votes needed to win the White House — an accomplishment that makes Fair Vote’s next set of concrete goals seem within reach.

“Representation 2020” seeks gender parity in elected representation. Women only make up 18% of Congress and hold under a quarter of state legislative seats — a stat that puts the U.S. well behind Ethiopia, Iraq, Afghanistan, China and Vietnam. We rank 80th in female elected officials — which should be a source of national embarrassment.

And the “Reform 2020” campaign seeks to end gerrymandering, make voting an explicit Constitutional right, bring about a national popular vote for the presidency and uphold voter choice and majority rule through ranked choice voting.

Run off voting is already implemented in San Francisco and Oakland, California; Portland, Maine; and Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. None of these city legislatures fell apart when ballot accommodations were made to make room for third party and independent candidates with built-in back-up selections for cautious voters. Even as a push for reforms nationally moves slowly but steadily, this is particular democracy enhancement is one you can demand of your local city councils and state houses.

Get involved by supporting the Fair Vote’s goals for 2020, following FairVote on social media and spreading the word about election reform, tracking pending legislation, and signing their periodic petitions.

Don’t let your anger at the broken system keep you home on election day. Instead, use it as motivation to make our democracy stronger and fight to reduce apathy by getting us closer to having every vote count and be counted.

TAKE ACTION:

Get involved with Fair Vote

Follow FairVote on Twitter and on Facebook

Additional Activism/Resources:

Reform 2020

Representation 2020

Sources/further reading:

"Voter turnout in 2014 was the lowest since WWII” via The Washington Post

"The Gender Gap: Percentage of Women in Government Worldwide. We're Number One, Right? Not So Much…” via Daily Kos

”Jim Crow Returns: millions of minority voters threatened by electoral purge by Greg Palast at Al Jazeera America

Watch: Brad Friedman (@TheBradBlog) on Thom Hartmann’s The Big Picture discussing #Election2014 result reliability.

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #877 "Hair of the dog (Election)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

This should be simple, right? A stranger walks past you on the sidewalk or is standing in front of you in line at the coffee shop or running for the bus or even groggily walking their dog early in the morning. What do you do? How 'bout nothing? Possibly — if you make eye contact in that way that humans sometimes do — you smile and nod as the two of you go on your way.

For more than 80% of women all over the world, this is not the typical experience. According to Stop Street Harassment — a nonprofit dedicated to documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide, behavior ranging from demanding a person smile to flashing to screaming to stalking are a real, daily part of life.

There is a compounding threat of gendered harassment for people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. A 2013 study of nearly 100,000 LGBTQ people in the European Union found that half avoided public spaces because of a high level of fear in restaurants, parking lots, parks, etc.

In the U.S., one quarter of women experience street harassment before their 12th birthday and 90% report dealing with it regularly by age 19. It’s simply unacceptable that more than half our population has to take evasive measures to feel safe in their daily lives. As we’ve heard on today’s show, even if you’re a guy who has totally benign motivations, after hearing and seeing what women go through, you might understand why your “Hey there, where are you headed?” would be met with caution and even fear.

At StopStreetHarassment.org you can find a comprehensive definition of street harassment as well as tools to raise awareness and work toward culture change around the world. The board of directors explains why they devote time and resources to this issue:

"We believe that street harassment impedes gender equality and must be taken seriously. Because street harassment is often an invisible problem (especially to people in power) and it is dismissed as being a 'minor annoyance,' a ‘joke,' or the fault of the harassed person, our primarily focus right now is simply to document the problem and demonstrate why it’s a human rights violation that must be addressed.”

That power dynamic is the core component: a man yelling at a woman on the street is putting himself into her space without her permission and declaring that he can do so if and when he wants. The good news about this dynamic is that every man listening can do something super simple to help. Visit StopStreetHarassment.org to check your own behavior and take stock of the other men in your networks. It’s safer for you to call out a buddy than it is for the harassed person to try and do so.

Also, this is seriously advanced warning about Anti-Street Harassment Week happening April 12th-18th, so mark your calendars as you’ll have no excuse to miss it. Between now and then, you can share your story with Stop Street Harassment, volunteer your graphic design skills and report ads, TV shows and other media that depicts harassment as a joke, compliment or no big deal. Most of the asks at Stop Street Harassment's “Join Us” tab take less than 15 minutes; certainly the basic humanity and safety of more than half the world’s population is worth at least that.

TAKE ACTION:

Get involved with Stop Street Harassment

Mark your calendar for Meet Us On The Street, an international anti-street harassment campaign April 12-18, 2015.

Follow Stop Street Harassment on Twitter and on Facebook

Additional Activism/Resources:

Bookmark Meet Us On The Street Week resources on Twitter and on Facebook

Follow the #EndStreetHarassment thread and share your own experiences.

Sources/further reading:

"Street harassment of women: It's a bigger problem than you think” by Holly Kearl at Christian Science Monitor

"Feeling harassed? Do something about it. — Friday is Women's Equality Day in the US, yet routine street harassment blocks that goal for many women. But we can act.” by Holly Kearl at The Guardian

"6 Things You Might Not Think Are Harassment But Definitely Are (because apparently we need to clear a few things up)” by Kat George at Bustle

"Street Harassment Is a Problem—No Doubt—but Here’s Why That Video Didn’t Help the Debate” by Dio Rabouin at The Root

"Hollaback and Why Everyone Needs Better Research Methods And Why All Data Needs Theory” by Zeynep Tufekci at Medium

WATCH: "NYC Women Talk Cat Calling” by W. Kamau Bell

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #876 "Hey girl, you want me to respect your personal space? (Street Harassment)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached today’s activism segment. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s an update to remind you why you should still be angry about a topic that just won’t go away. Today’s update: Keystone XL Under Congressional Climate Deniers.

The more we learn about last week's newly elected legislators, the worse things look for liberals. If you’re in the camp that sees the president as a moderate at best, a Republican-run Congress has serious implications. And the most immediate potential problem is a possible approval Keystone XL.

While the state department has issued a report outlining a conservative, but definitive estimate of the damage Keystone would do to our air, water, and food supplies, the president hasn’t made his position clear. At times making statements that made approval seem imminent, Obama has repeatedly postponed his decision, leaving room for environmentalists to remain hopeful.

But now the Republicans own Congress. All of it. They’re in charge of introducing legislation as well as passing it and they do this kind of work quickly when they don’t have to reach across the isle for cooperation. This fossil-fuel-backed GOP walks in lock-step over issues like Keystone.

At Climate Desk, environmental reporter Tim McDonnell briefly profiles the 12 new Congress members who range from ambivalent to outright oppositional on the notion of man-made climate change. Iowa’s Senator-elect Joni Ernst has a particularly playful way of describing her non-commitall attitude on the science. When asked by Iowa Public Radio if she agreed with NASA and the 97% of scientists standing together in a public statement affirming climate change she replied:

"I haven’t personally seen those reports, so I don’t know that climate change is mainly due to humans.”

And Ernst’s position — which includes promoting personal responsibility for protecting the environment through activities like recycling — is moderate amidst her party’s Congressional class.

Seasoned climate reporter Kate Sheppard counts a solid 61 Senate votes in favor of a measure to force Keystone’s approval. For those who were hoping this GOP-run Congress would at rival last term’s inability to get anything done, that’s a filibuster-proof majority. RNC chairman Reince Priebus declared on the morning of election 2014 that passing a Keystone approval bill would be second on the Republican agenda — right behind passing a budget.

The bill pushing POTUS to approve the project is likely already being written. So. Right now. Stop what you’re doing. Go to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s SaveBioGems.org website to sign their letter to President Obama with the subject line: "The Keystone XL is not in our national interest.”

Then use ContactingTheCongress.org to find and write, call, and tweet your new — and old — representatives encouraging them to oppose legislation which would approve Keystone.

Also, check out “Above All Else” — a documentary that premiered at SXSW this year. Recommended by food and environmental writer Tom Philpott, this film is a close-up of the landowners and activists in East Texas who risked their personal safety to stop Keystone from tearing up their land. Personal stories are often the most compelling way to break through an empathy deficit, so sharing visual depictions like “Above All Else” can help people who think Keystone is just a political, “both sides arguing” issue to connect with the real impact of the pipeline.

Follow-up/new Action!

Stop the Tar Sands Pipeline! via NRDC BioGems

Tell President Obama to reject Keystone XL

Use ContactingTheCongress.org to find your possibly new representatives and let them know you oppose Keystone.

Additional activism:

Watch/host a screening for ”Above All Else”: a documentary about the battle over the KXL pipeline in East Texas. h/t Tom Philpott at Mother Jones

Follow "Above All Else” on Twitter and on Facebook

Follow Idle No More’s work protecting the land and water in Canada as well as the rights of the Indigenous population there.

Sources:

"Senate Now Has Enough Votes To Pass Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill” by Katie Sheppard at HuffPo Politics

"Meet the Senate’s New Climate Denial Caucus: Their views range from tepid acceptance of the science to flat-out rejection” by Tim McDonnell at Climate Desk

"OMG. They Tell Her That Her Words Are BS Right To Her Face. So Satisfying.” — an amazing short film by AJ+ on the Unist'ot'en Camp founded by members of the Wet'suwet'en Nation to resist the Tar Sands Gigaproject in Western Canada. via Upworthy

”Candidate Profile: Joni Ernst via Iowa Public Radio

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #875 "Rising tide of climate change deniers and sea levels (Climate)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

As this episode posts, election 2014 results are rolling in. Across the country people are voting for candidates to determine the make-up of state houses, school boards and our Congress as well as potentially approving ballot measures that could expand, ensure or decimate Constitutional rights to privacy, healthcare and voting itself.

Who could have thought a decade ago that voting rights would need to appear on a ballot? I mean, isn’t democracy based on the romanticized notion of “one man, one vote?” Setting aside the intentional gender disparity and land ownership requirements that disenfranchised the poor and people of color in that original phrase, the foundation of our country has always been that of representative government.

Over the decades, access to the ballot box has EXPANDED, not contracted. People have risked imprisonment and even death to bring the right to vote to more and more of our citizenry. So why would anyone who claims to love this country do anything to roll back progress through voter suppression??

It turns out, the GOP — despite their LOOOOVE for democracy and America — has known for some time that they don’t do well when everyone votes. In a speech made somewhat famous through the Thom Hartmann Program, the founder of ALEC and co-founder of the far-right “think tank” The Heritage Foundation Paul Weyrich put it this way more than 30 years ago:

http://youtu.be/pN7IB-d7Hfw

And so, state houses controlled by the GOP wasted no time following the Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act two summers ago. Every imaginable type of voter suppression law has passed somewhere. Voter ID requirements, the systematic elimination of early and expanded hour voting days, threatening voter registration drive organizers with imprisonment and more. (If you really want to grasp the full horrific landscape of voter suppression laws, just read everything from Ari Berman at The Nation.

As in so many areas, it’s time we stopped only saying no to bad legislation and started pushing proactive measures. Enter “VRA for Today” — a project of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, backed by the Brennan Center. They’re demanding that this Congress — and certainly the next — pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act to "enact modern, nationwide protections against discrimination at the ballot box.”

Visit their website — VRAForToday.org and follow them on Twitter via #VRA4Today and @CivilRightsOrg. You can still sign their petition beyond today’s election and access resources like videos, news updates and reports of VRA violations.

You may be disillusioned with national politics. Here at Best of the Left, that’s certainly a sentiment that’s understood. But your ability to vote for ballot initiatives, school board members and state reps is affected by voter suppression efforts just as much as your ability to vote for the presidency and Congress. All our work, all our progress is invalidated if we lose the fundamental ability to have a say the first Tuesday of the moth of November. Visit VRAForToday.org and get involved before the next election cycle — or you may find yourself standing on the sidelines.

TAKE ACTION:

Join with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights: VRA 4 Today

Sources/further reading:

"Fasting for Democracy: Why I've Given Up Food to Fight Corruption” by Kai NewKirk at Truthout

”The GOP Is Winning The War On Voting: Voters in fourteen states—many with tight races—will face new restrictions at the polling booth for the first time in November” by Ari Berman at The Nation

"New Voting Restrictions Could Swing the 2014 Election” by Ari Berman at The Nation

"KPFK 'BradCast': SCOTUS Voter Suppression and the Touch-Screen Vote-Flipping Time Warp” via The Brad Blog

"Déjà Vu All Over Again. Again. - Touch-Screen Votes Flipping and My Appearance on Thom Hartmann TV This Week [VIDEO]” via The Brad Blog

”SCOTUS Overturns Appeals Court, Allows NC To End Same-Day Registration, Couting ‘Out-Of-Precint’ Ballots This November: 'Nation's worst voter suppression law' disenfranchised hundreds in state primary; Will have full trial on merits next summer…” via The Brad Blog

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #873 "The other new Jim Crow (Voting rights)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

Most of what’s wrong with our country’s education system can be summed up by a Time Magazine cover published yesterday. “The War on Teacher Tenure!!” declares Time emphatically atop a graphic with a gavel coming down on “rotten apples” — presumably the teachers in question. The article’s subtitle explains: "It’s really difficult to fire a bad teacher. A group of Silicon Valley investors wants to change that.”

As if union busting right-to-work laws and the charter school privatization movement weren’t enough, now Silicon Valley has decided to weigh in on our public education system. It’s probably fine, though, right? It’s not like the perpetual standardized testing process could have anything to do with the sudden interest from the technology sector…

Resistance to the monetizing of primary education and to standardized testing specifically is growing across the country. Boycotts, demonstrations, community forums, and opt-out campaigns like the successful one last year in Seattle have spread to Austin, Portland, Chicago, Denver, and Providence with more student, parent and teacher groups joining all the time.

Testing Overload in American Schools released a report released last week on just how much time our students take filling in bubbles on tests instead of learning. On average, across the 14 school districts surveyed, students took one to two standardized tests a month. A companion report by the Center for American Progress adds that this “test preparation culture” has “put a premium on testing over learning.”

The reports were scathing enough that even President Obama — who’s education secretary Arne Duncan has been decidedly right of center on tenure and testing — was forced to weigh in and support a "cutback on unnecessary testing and test preparation" and "the smarter use of tests that measure real student learning.”

With the release of the reports and the White House comments, now is the perfect time to join the movement for assessment reform. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing has a comprehensive compilation of resources for anyone looking to support opting out and resisting No Child Left Behind “reforms.” Visit FairTest.org for fact sheets on tests, explanations of federal policies, the consequences of high-stakes testing, and better ways to evaluate students and teachers.

You can also sign the American Federation of Teachers' petition calling out the Time Magazine cover — which doesn’t even accurately depict their own journalists’ reporting, let alone the state of public education. Since we all know more people will see the cover than read the article, most Americans will get the wrong impression and not hear any of the concern surrounding testing industry ties to Silicon Valley.

Effective public education is an issue that concerns all of us — whether or not we are students or have children of our own. It’s not an overstatement to say that the future of our country very much depends on our investing in the next generation. So, visit FairTest.org and join the movement to let our teachers get back to, well, teaching.

TAKE ACTION:

Get involved with FairTest: Assessment Reform Network Project to resist unnecessary standardized testing

Additional Activism/Resources:

Sign AFT’s petition: "TIME: Apologize to teachers”

Sign the "Don't Delete History” petition from Texas Freedom Network

Sources/further reading:

The awful Time article for those who want to read it: "War on Teacher Tenure: How Silicon Valley Wants to Fire Bad Teachers”

"Florida schools rail against explosion of new tests” via Orlando Sentinel

"Scrap the MAP! | Solidarity with Seattle teachers boycotting the MAP test”

"Test Opposition Surges Across the Nation” via FairTest

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #871 "Your child is a widget (Education)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich