These priority issues are the primary focus of RVUSA activities:
On Tuesday, November 7, New Yorkers will head to the polls for Election Day 2017. We have an opportunity to make a real difference in our communities, but we also have a responsibility to be informed voters and cast our ballots in favor of candidates and propositions we understand and believe in.
From THE NEW YORK TIMES
By DAVID LEONHARDT, IAN PRASAD PHILBRICK and STUART A. THOMPSONOCT. 4, 2017
Most Americans support stronger gun laws — laws that would reduce deaths. But Republicans in Congress stand in the way. They fear alienating their primary voters and the National Rifle Association.
Below are the top 10 career recipients of N.R.A. funding – through donations or spending to benefit the candidate – among both current House and Senate members, along with their statements about the Las Vegas massacre. These representatives have a lot to say about it. All the while, they refuse to do anything to avoid the next massacre.
From THE NEW YORK TIMES
By NADJA POPOVICH and LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA OCT. 5, 2017
Since taking office in January, President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration — with help from Republicans in Congress — has often targeted environmental rules it sees as overly burdensome to the fossil fuel industry, including major Obama-era policies aimed at fighting climate change.
To date, the the Trump administration has sought to reverse nearly 50 environmental rules, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
1,516 mass shootings in 1,735 days: America’s gun crisis – in one chart
The attack at a country music festival in Las Vegas that left at least 58 people dead is the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history – but there were six other mass shootings in America this past week alone.
No other developed nation comes close to the rate of gun violence in America. Americans own an estimated 265m guns, more than one gun for every adult.
Data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive reveals a shocking human toll: there is a mass shooting – defined as four or more people shot in one incident, not including the shooter – every nine out of 10 days on average.
Click here to read more.
(CNN)It’s beyond debate that the shootings outside the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas late Sunday night will go into the history books as the largest mass shooting in modern US history, with at least 59 dead and more than 500 wounded.
What’s also indisputable is that this shooting — like the Pulse nightclub shooting before it and Newtown before that and Columbine before that — will land in a political culture that is deeply divided on the proper role for guns in society and the need for — or lack of a need for — stricter gun control measures in the country.
When a gun is used to commit an act of mass violence, two schools of thought immediately assert themselves — both of which seek to explain the genesis of these incidents: 1) We need more gun control laws to stop this cycle of violence 2) Bad people will do bad things no matter what the gun laws are.
That’s reflective of a massive culture disconnect between those who grew up with guns and view them as an extension of their fundamental freedoms and those who did not and view guns far more skeptically.
Here are eight charts that tell the story of our divided culture on guns — and the violent acts carried out with them. These numbers were primarily drawn from extensive historical data collected by Gallup and Pew Research Center on cultural attitudes toward guns and gun violence.
In the aftermath of yet another horrible shooting, this time in Las Vegas with at least 59 killed and hundreds wounded, we are faced yet again with the reminder that something needs to be done.
Raise your voice for gun control. Make at least one phone call a day to advocate for gun control.
Contact your representatives
Click here to raise your voice about gun laws.
Click here to learn how to write to Congress.
Click here to find your federal legislators.
Click here to find your local legislators.
The US Senate is furiously whipping votes to pass the Graham-Cassidy bill, the Senate’s latest effort to reform and repeal the Affordable Care Act. Passage of Graham-Cassidy will leave millions of Americans without healthcare coverage and worsen coverage for millions more. The bill will also allow states to opt out of essential health benefits protected by the ACA such as maternity care coverage, mental health benefits, and coverage for people with preexisting conditions.
Click here and here to learn more about this bill and other developments in the healthcare arena.
Raise your voice – make phone calls. – send postcards. Click here and here to find your representatives. Click here to download postcard templates.
“Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled his single-payer health-care proposal, “Medicare for All,” on Wednesday, to a packed room of supporters on Capitol Hill.
The bill already has 16 Democratic co-sponsors, a number that would have been unimaginable just a year ago. The independent senator from Vermont also released a white paper on how the government might finance such a health-care system, which included an income-based tax increase, an expansion of the estate tax, and a new tax on incomes of the 0.1 percent of Americans.”
Click here to read more…
With Primary Day behind us, we turn our focus to November’s Election Day, which includes a referendum on the NYS Constitutional Convention. While many members of this group are aware of this upcoming vote, please help spread the word to others as well.
A link to general information appears below–please share this site widely, as it includes a history of Cons. Conv., pros and cons, an explanation of the process, upcoming related events, and more important information.
The unique democratic purpose of New York’s periodic constitutional convention referendum is to implement New Yorkers’ inalienable right to alter their constitution in cases where the interests of the legislature and people conflict. New York’s Constitution allows the people to exercise this right once every twenty years. To realize this democratic purpose, a convention must be substantially independent of the legislature’s control. For example, New York’s Constitution prohibits the legislature from directly limiting a convention’s agenda. The agenda is placed in the hands of the people independently of the legislature. Democratic accountability is primarily sought by granting the people three votes over the process:
1. To call a convention, 2. to elect delegates to a convention, and 3. to ratify any amendments a convention might propose for their consideration.
The people cannot ratify any constitutional change in conflict with Federal law, including the U.S. Constitution.
Click here to read more…
“Senior Democrats stunned Washington on Wednesday by claiming that they had agreed with Donald Trump on a plan to protect so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought illegally to the US as children.
Senator minority leader Chuck Schumer and House counterpart Nancy Pelosi, who dined with the president at the White House, said they had reached an agreement to quickly enshrine into law protections for the nearly 800,000 immigrants who benefited from Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme.
A person briefed on the meeting said Trump agreed with the Democrats to pair the bipartisan Dream Act, which provides a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants brought to the US illegally as children, with some form of border security – excluding Trump’s promised border wall.”
Click here to read more…
